The Dark Energy Survey (DES) created a map of 26 million galaxies, the biggest map of the Universe to date, by charting the distribution of matter across the cosmos, per Nature's Davide Castelvecchi. The data from the map has since revealed that the Universe may have less clumps of matter than cosmologists previously thought.
Why it matters: "If confirmed, this gap could mean that mass has been clumping at a lower pace than predicted, potentially revealing new physics," writes Castelvecchi. "For example, it could point to unexpected interactions between dark matter and dark energy, or to new types of neutrinos."
