NASA's James Webb Space Telescope produces highest-resolution dark-matter map covering 800,000 galaxies.

Exam-focused facts from the 27 January 2026 current affairs briefing.

Key facts

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope identified nearly 800,000 galaxies to create the most detailed dark-matter map over such a large sky area.
The map has twice the resolution of previous attempts using the Hubble Space Telescope and captures galaxies spanning the past 10 billion years.
The study, led by Diana Scognamiglio of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), was published in Nature Astronomy.
Dark matter comprises just over 25% of the universe, while ordinary matter makes up only 5% and dark energy fills the remainder.
Scientists infer dark-matter distribution by measuring how its gravity warps light from distant galaxies, a technique called gravitational lensing.