A gas filament 50 million light-years long – immeasurably large structures of hot gas hot wires surrounding and connecting galaxies and clusters of galaxies – was first observed by astronomers at the University of Bonn. it is similar to the predictions of recent computer simulations.
“A little aberration”
We owe the existence of a small aberration, reports the University of Bonn. In the 13 billion years since the Big Bang, “a kind of sponge structure has developed: big holes. without any matter, with areas between which thousands of galaxies are gathered in a small space, the so-called groups of galaxies, which should still be connected by remaining filaments of the primordial gas, like the thin gossamer threads of a spider web .
“According to calculations, more than half of all baryonic matter in our universe is contained in these filaments – this is the form of matter that makes up the stars and planets, just like ourselves,” explains Dr. Thomas Reiprich of the Argelander Institute for astronomy at the University of Bonn. However, so far we have lost sight of it: Due to the enormous expansion of the filaments, the matter in them is extremely diluted: it contains only ten particles per cubic meter, which is much smaller than the best vacuum we can create. on earth “.
The gigantic filaments have fed the universe we see today
Contrary to the previous belief that galaxies formed and then organized in groups, in an ascending way, it is now generally believed that the gargantuan filaments in the universe fed the formation of groups of galaxies and galaxies in places where the filaments s -they crossed, creating dense regions of matter.
2019 research from the RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research and the University of Tokyo – used observations from the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) at the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile and Suprime-Cam at the Subaru Telescope to make detailed observations of the gas filaments that connect galaxies in a large and distant proto-cluster from the early Universe. universe structure we see today.
“Gargantuan Filaments” – Incubators of supermassive black holes in the early cosmos
Enter eRosita
With a new instrument, the eROSITA space telescope, Reiprich and his colleagues managed to make the gas fully visible for the first time. “EROSITA has very sensitive detectors for the type of X-ray radiation emanating from the gas in the filaments,” explains Reiprich of the Abell 3391/95 galaxy cluster – a system of three clusters of galaxies that is about 700 million years old. light distance. The eROSITA images show not only the groups and numerous individual galaxies, but also the gas filaments that connect these structures. The entire filament is 50 million light-years long. But it can be even more enormous: scientists assume that the images show only one section. “It also has a large field of view – like a wide-angle lens, it captures a relatively large part of the sky in a single measurement. , and at a very high resolution. “This allows you to take detailed images of huge objects such as filaments in a relatively short time.
In this visualization of the eROSITA image (right; again to the left a simulation for comparison) are also visible the very weak areas of thin gas. Credit: left: Reiprich et al., Space Science Reviews, 177, 195; right: Reiprich et al., Astronomy & Astrophysics
Confirmation of the standard model
“We compared our observations with the results of a simulation that reconstructs the evolution of the universe,” explains Reiprich. “EROSITA images are strikingly similar to computer-generated graphics. This suggests that the widely accepted standard model for the evolution of the universe is correct. “Most importantly, the data show that the missing matter is probably hidden in the filaments.
Source: TH Reiprich et al. Abell 3391/95 galaxy cluster system. An intergalactic filament with an average emission of 15 Mpc, a hot gas bridge, agglomerations of collapsing matter and (re) accelerated plasma discovered by combining SRG / eROSITA data with ASKAP / EMU and DECam data, Astronomy & Astrophysics (2020). DOI: 10.1051 / 0004-6361 / 202039590
Daily Galaxy, Max Goldberg, through the University of Bonn
Image credit: at the top of the page is a detailed computer simulation of the complex structure of the cosmic network. Long filaments of dark matter (blue) connect galaxy nodes and groups of galaxies (pink), while gas (orange) penetrates everywhere. By modeling and observing the cosmic network, researchers obtain information about the structure and evolution of the early universe. Kindness Illustris Collaboration