Are the “missing baryons” simply too hot to see?

Dark matter remains a great unsolved cosmic mystery.

The cosmic web that we see, the largest-scale structure in the entire Universe, is dominated by dark matter. Simulations of the large-scale structure of the Universe must include both dark matter and normal matter, including the effects of star-formation, feedback, and gas infall, as all of them are needed in order to predict the emergence of visible structures. Identifying which regions are dense and massive enough to correspond to star clusters, galaxies, galaxy clusters, and filaments, as well as determining when and under which conditions they form, is one of the great achievements of modern cosmology.

Unlike what we see, our Universe is mostly non-luminous.

This comparison image, showing the same region as imaged by Hubble’s eXtreme Deep Field (top) and JWST’s JADES survey (bottom) showcases a selection of many ultra-distant galaxies found in the young Universe. When we observe the Universe at great distances, we’re seeing it as it was in the distant past: smaller, denser, hotter, and less evolved. Back to the limits of JWST’s capabilities, we see evidence for stars and galaxies everywhere.

To form galaxies,

A galaxy that was governed by normal matter alone (left) would display much lower rotational speeds in the outskirts than toward the center, similar to how planets in the Solar System move. However, observations indicate that rotational speeds are largely independent of radius (right) from the galactic center, leading to the inference that a large amount of invisible, or dark, matter must be present. These types of observations were revolutionary in helping astronomers understand the necessity for dark matter in the Universe, and also explain the shapes and behavior of matter located within a galaxy’s spiral arms.

galaxy clusters,

This four-panel animation shows the individual galaxies present within Abell 2744, Pandora’s Cluster, alongside the X-ray data from Chandra (red) and the lensing map constructed from gravitational lensing data (blue). The mismatch between the X-rays and the lensing map, as shown across a wide variety of X-ray emitting galaxy clusters, is one of the strongest indicators favoring the presence of dark matter. The Bullet Cluster, as well as other galaxy clusters, exhibit similar features.

and the large-scale cosmic web,

This snippet from a structure-formation simulation, with the expansion of the Universe scaled out, represents billions of years of gravitational growth in a dark matter-rich Universe. Over time, overdense clumps of matter grow richer and more massive, growing into galaxies, groups, and clusters of galaxies, while the less dense regions than average preferentially give up their matter to the denser surrounding areas. The “void” regions between the bound structures continue to expand, but the structures themselves do not.

both normal and dark matter are required.

While the web of dark matter (purple, left) might seem to determine cosmic structure formation on its own, the feedback from normal matter (red, at right) can severely impact the formation of structure on galactic and smaller scales. Both dark matter and normal matter, in the right ratios, are required to explain the Universe as we observe it, with dark energy needed to explain how the expansion rate has evolved over time. Structure formation is hierarchical within the Universe, with small star clusters forming first, early protogalaxies and galaxies forming next, followed by galaxy groups and clusters, and lastly by the large-scale cosmic web.

Today, our Universe’s composition is:

• 5% normal matter,
• 27% dark matter,
• and 68% dark energy.

The matter and energy content in the Universe at the present time (left) and at earlier times (right). Note how dark matter and dark energy dominate today, but that normal matter is still around. At early times, normal matter and dark matter were still important, but dark energy was negligible, while photons and neutrinos were also quite important. The expansion rate is determined by the actual, instantaneous value for density, not by the distribution of the pie chart.

But much of the normal matter remains elusive.

The spiral galaxy UGC 12158, with its arms, bar, and spurs, as well as its low, quiet rate of star formation and hint of a central bulge, may be the single most analogous galaxy for our Milky Way yet discovered. It is neither gravitationally interacting nor merging with any nearby neighbor galaxies, and so the star-formation occurring inside is driven primarily by the density waves occurring within the spiral arms in the galactic disk.

Galaxies contain stars, planets, gas, dust, and black holes, but not enough.

By observing a region of sky toward the galactic center over time, Hubble captured a large number of Milky Way stars and was able to tell how their brightness varied over time. One of those stars, highlighted in the inset panels from August of 2011 to August of 2017, brightened significantly but briefly: consistent with being caused by a microlensing event from a passing, intervening black hole. The observed microlensing rate is consistent with astronomers’ estimates that there are approximately 100 million roving black holes within our galaxy: not enough to account for the “missing baryons” required by the Universe.

The intergalactic medium, rich in ionized plasma, helps, but insufficiently so.

This visualization of the Laniakea supercluster, which represents a collection of more than 100,000 estimated galaxies spanning a volume of over 100 million light-years, shows the distribution of dark matter (shadowy purple) and individual galaxies (bright orange/yellow) together. Despite the relatively recent identification of Laniakea as the supercluster which contains the Milky Way and much more, it’s not a gravitationally bound structure and will not hold together as the Universe continues to expand. A large amount of the normal matter in the Universe isn’t found between the galaxies: in the intergalactic medium.

Where’s the rest of the Universe’s normal matter?

Although an optical view of most galaxies will show only their stellar extent, an X-ray map, particularly for energetic galaxies, can reveal a much larger, more diffuse halo of normal matter surrounding galaxies. As shown here for galaxy M84 within the Virgo cluster, X-ray emissions go on for tens of thousands of light-years beyond the stellar extent of the galaxy.

X-ray astronomy suggests a solution to this “missing baryons” problem: the circumgalactic medium.

These simulations of the circumgalactic medium, from the mid-2010s, shows how the expected density, temperature, and heavy element abundances will change as a function of cosmic time for a typical massive galaxy. The “missing baryons” problem may be solved by the presence of a very hot, very sparse circumgalactic medium.

This sparse, diffuse material surrounds every massive galaxy: ranging far beyond their stellar extents.

In the main image, our galaxy’s antimatter jets are illustrated, blowing ‘Fermi bubbles’ in the halo of gas surrounding our galaxy. In the small, inset image, actual Fermi data shows the gamma-ray emissions resulting from this process. These “bubbles” arise from the energy produced by electron-positron annihilation: an example of matter and antimatter interacting and being converted into pure energy via E = mc^2. We are certain that no antimatter signature in our galaxy arises from either antimatter stars or large clumps of antimatter.

With such low densities, very high temperatures are achieved.

This map shows the expected emission from ionized magnesium around a star-forming galaxy. Note that the emissions go out far beyond the stellar and disk extents of the galaxy itself: out well into the circumgalactic medium. Energy injection can cause low-density regions to achieve tremendous temperatures.

Its constituent atoms, as a result, lose most of their electrons.

This graph shows the first ionization energy of each atom in the periodic table by atomic number. This is how much energy it takes to strip the most loosely-held electron off of the atom entirely and ionize it. Elements in the first group of the periodic table, particularly lithium, sodium, potassium, rubidium, and so on, lose their first electron much more easily than any other elements. At even higher temperatures and energies, multiple electrons can be stripped off of an atom, creating a state of greater ionization.

Several recent X-ray studies have detected this hot, ionized, galaxy-surrounding material.

NASA’s Chandra X-ray telescope detected the diffuse X-rays surrounding the Perseus galaxy cluster: evidence of a diffuse, hot, highly ionized collection of normal matter surrounding it, whereas active black holes are instead highlighted by point sources in Chandra’s views.

Light from distant sources must travel through the circumgalactic medium to reach us.

Galaxies can be found along, nearby, and within cosmic filaments. There is often both neutral and ionized matter within the haloes of these galaxies as well as along their line-of-sights, so when that light arrives, those absorption features seen in their spectra can tell us what the density and temperature of matter was in their own circumgalactic mediums, as well as for intervening galaxies and our own Milky Way. The galaxies and gas, which emit and absorb light, are biased, imperfect tracers of the underlying mass distribution, which includes dark matter.

Ionized atoms can absorb light at very specific frequencies.

Distant sources of light — from galaxies, quasars, and even the cosmic microwave background — must pass through clouds of normal matter. The absorption features we see enable us to measure many features about the intervening gas clouds, including the abundances of the light elements inside and the degree of ionization.

We see this for our Milky Way,

Ions of silicon and sulfur, with all but one of their electrons stripped away, have been detected in the halo of the Milky Way galaxy due to their absorption features. The stacked absorption signal from many galaxies, combined, is shown here.

including omnidirectionally,

This map shows the extragalactic sources whose X-ray light spectra were stacked together to extract the absorption features of highly ionized silicon and sulfur. Similar studies with oxygen indicate that a diffuse, massive, very hot circumgalactic medium of normal matter is found around nearly all Milky Way analogue galaxies.

for many different extragalactic sources,

Absorption lines indicating the presence of six-times-ionized oxygen around several different galaxies is shown, pointing to evidence that a normal matter-rich circumgalactic medium is present around most Milky Way-like galaxies.

and even around faraway galaxies.

Light from a distant galaxy shows key absorption lines from six-times ionized oxygen from its own circumstellar medium, providing strong evidence that the “missing baryons” around galaxies may actually be found in their circumgalactic mediums.

The hot, diffuse circumgalactic medium may finally solve our Universe’s “missing baryons” problem.

This illustration of the circumgalactic medium, in context with the rest of the galaxy, shows how the diffuse gas in most directions is a mix of gas from all sources together, including gas that has been recycled many times.

Mostly Mute Monday tells an astronomical story in images, visuals, and no more than 200 words.