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Lookup NU author(s): Dr James Nightingale
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited 2026. Ordinary matter—including particles such as protons and neutrons—accounts for only about one-sixth of all matter in the Universe. The rest is dark matter, which does not emit or absorb light but plays a fundamental role in galaxy and structure evolution. Because it interacts only through gravity, one of the most direct probes is weak gravitational lensing: the deflection of light from distant galaxies by intervening mass. Here we present an extremely detailed, wide-area weak-lensing mass map covering 0.77° × 0.70°, using high-resolution imaging from the James Webb Space Telescope as part of the COSMOS-Web survey. By measuring the shapes of 129 galaxies per square arcminute—many independently in the F115W and F150W bands—we achieve an angular resolution of 1.00±0.01′. Our map has more than twice the resolution of earlier Hubble Space Telescope maps, revealing how dark and luminous matter co-evolve across filaments, clusters and underdensities. It traces mass features out to z ≈ 2, including the most distant structure at z ≈ 1.1. The sensitivity to high-redshift lensing constrains galaxy environments at the peak of cosmic star formation and sets a high-resolution benchmark for testing theories about the nature of dark matter and the formation of large-scale cosmic structure.
Author(s): Scognamiglio D, Leroy G, Harvey D, Massey R, Rhodes J, Akins HB, Brinch M, Berman E, Casey CM, Drakos NE, Faisst AL, Franco M, Fung LWH, Gozaliasl G, He Q, Hatamnia H, Huff E, Hogg NB, Ilbert O, Kartaltepe JS, Koekemoer AM, Jin S, Lambrides E, Leauthaud A, Lentz ZD, Liu D, Mahler G, Maraston C, Martin CL, McCleary J, Nightingale J, Mobasher B, Paquereau L, Pires S, Robertson BE, Sanders DB, Scarlata C, Shuntov M, Toni G, von Wietersheim-Kramsta M, Weaver JR
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Nature Astronomy
Year: 2026
Pages: Epub ahead of print
Online publication date: 26/01/2026
Acceptance date: 09/12/2025
ISSN (electronic): 2397-3366
Publisher: Springer Nature
URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-025-02763-9
DOI: 10.1038/s41550-025-02763-9
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