The term "dark matter," as applied to astronomy, is used to describe -- and I am going to use extremely technical terms here, so please try to follow along -- a kind of stuff in outer space that doesn't emit enough of its own light or radiation to be seen like stars, but that must be there nonetheless because it causes other stuff in space to move and disperse and gravitate in ways they wouldn't without some outside influence. Dark matter is a hypothetical substance and cannot be seen directly... well, that is to say, until right now when astronomers published a report in which they found a massive ring of dark matter with the Hubble Telescope and took a picture of it and now everyone is going to have to restructure the definition of "dark matter" and rethink the whole thus-far inherent "hypothetical" part.

How big is this ring of dark matter, exactly? 2.6 million light years from end to end. In other words, really incredibly huge. More football fields across than you could count in a lifetime.

NASA held a press conference pretty much immediately, where a more in depth analysis was given and Dr. Jee had a very poetic explanation for how to interpret the space bulls-eye we see in the photograph.

Apparently the ring is very similar to the Bullet Cluster that was reported and given some attention last year, but whereas the Cluster is seen from a less clear side view and still relied mostly on speculation. In contrast, this one is on display in undeniable glory.

Researchers are now clamoring to investigate further, but the Advanced Camera For Surveys, which is this camera on the Hubble Telescope which I'm told is very advanced and used for surveys, is broken. Curses! Hopefully, they say, a future space mission will repair it ASAP. If not, there may be future satellite observatories which will serve just as well. I hope they get on it soon, because there's a lot of research photography out there to do. It's a big universe. Let's go exploring!