--- title: Diffuse puffs of “missing” matter surround most galaxies description: MIT researchers, as part of the CHIME/FRB Collaboration, have used fast radio bursts (FRBs) to locate the universe's "missing" ordinary (baryonic) matter. By... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/diffuse-puffs-of-missing-matter-surround-most-galaxies-ipkodv9ks twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Diffuse puffs of “missing” matter surround most galaxies | daily.dev og:description: MIT researchers, as part of the CHIME/FRB Collaboration, have used fast radio bursts (FRBs) to locate the universe's "missing" ordinary (baryonic) matter. By... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/diffuse-puffs-of-missing-matter-surround-most-galaxies-ipkodv9ks og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/IpkoDv9Ks.png og:image:alt: Diffuse puffs of “missing” matter surround most galaxies og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Diffuse puffs of “missing” matter surround most galaxies **[MIT News](https://daily.dev/sources/mit)** · 7 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary MIT researchers, as part of the CHIME/FRB Collaboration, have used fast radio bursts (FRBs) to locate the universe's "missing" ordinary (baryonic) matter. By cross-correlating 2,870 FRB signals from the CHIME telescope with positions of over 6 million galaxies from the DESI survey, they found that missing matter exists in diffuse clouds extending up to 4 million light years around galaxies — far beyond what simulations predicted. The smearing of FRB signals as they travel through space allowed precise measurement of matter density. The findings suggest that black hole jets and stellar explosions push gas outward more violently than previously thought, and that galaxies behave more like fountains than contained systems. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How do scientists use fast radio bursts to detect missing matter between galaxies? Scientists measure how much a fast radio burst's signal smears in time as it travels through space, since higher-energy wavelengths arrive before lower-energy ones and the delay grows with the amount of matter passed through. The MIT-led CHIME/FRB team analyzed 2,870 FRB signals from CHIME and cross-correlated the smearing with locations of over 6 million galaxies from the DESI survey to map where missing matter sits relative to galaxies. _daily.dev surfaces research like this for developers building on astrophysics data pipelines and radio telescope tooling._ ### How far out from galaxies did the CHIME/FRB study find missing baryonic matter? Missing matter was found extending to about 4 million light years from galaxies, even though a typical galaxy itself is only a few hundred thousand light years across. This is significantly farther than existing simulations predicted, suggesting galaxies push gas outward more like fountains than previously modeled, likely driven by black hole jets and exploding stars. _keep up with findings like this on daily.dev if you track how astronomy data reshapes computational models._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [On the hunt for dark matter](https://daily.dev/posts/on-the-hunt-for-dark-matter-7of9e29n7) · MIT News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Discovery Of An Active Wind From The Milky Way’s Central Black Hole](https://daily.dev/posts/discovery-of-an-active-wind-from-the-milky-way-s-central-black-hole-glszq6eis) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Is Dark Matter an Illusion of Spacetime? A Kinematic Shear Hypothesis](https://daily.dev/posts/is-dark-matter-an-illusion-of-spacetime-a-kinematic-shear-hypothesis-vmekucodb) · Medium · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [MIT astronomers discover the earliest known flickering quasar](https://daily.dev/posts/mit-astronomers-discover-the-earliest-known-flickering-quasar-5mbsafstd) · MIT News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Next-generation black hole imaging may help us understand gravity better](https://daily.dev/posts/next-generation-black-hole-imaging-may-help-us-understand-gravity-better-pst7qhzcw) · Ars Technica · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#aws](https://daily.dev/tags/aws), [#astrophysics](https://daily.dev/tags/astrophysics) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/diffuse-puffs-of-missing-matter-surround-most-galaxies-ipkodv9ks) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Diffuse puffs of “missing” matter surround most galaxies","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/diffuse-puffs-of-missing-matter-surround-most-galaxies-ipkodv9ks","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/diffuse-puffs-of-missing-matter-surround-most-galaxies-ipkodv9ks"},"datePublished":"2026-07-21T14:13:34.341Z","dateModified":"2026-09-13T19:53:31.528Z","description":"MIT researchers, as part of the CHIME/FRB Collaboration, have used fast radio bursts (FRBs) to locate the universe's \"missing\" ordinary (baryonic) matter. 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The MIT-led CHIME/FRB team analyzed 2,870 FRB signals from CHIME and cross-correlated the smearing with locations of over 6 million galaxies from the DESI survey to map where missing matter sits relative to galaxies. daily.dev surfaces research like this for developers building on astrophysics data pipelines and radio telescope tooling."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How far out from galaxies did the CHIME/FRB study find missing baryonic matter?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Missing matter was found extending to about 4 million light years from galaxies, even though a typical galaxy itself is only a few hundred thousand light years across. This is significantly farther than existing simulations predicted, suggesting galaxies push gas outward more like fountains than previously modeled, likely driven by black hole jets and exploding stars. keep up with findings like this on daily.dev if you track how astronomy data reshapes computational models."}}]} ```