Astronomers Capture The First Image Of The Mysterious Web That Connects All Galaxies In The Universe
An intense quasar can, like a flashlight, illuminate part of the surrounding
cosmic web
Their calculations suggest that as the Universe grows and forms, matter
becomes clustered in filaments and nodes under the force of gravity, like a
giant cosmic web.
The new results from the 10-metre Keck telescope in Hawaii, are reported by scientists from the University of California, Santa Cruz and the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg.
They are the first direct observations of cold gas decorating such cosmic web filaments.
The new results from the 10-metre Keck telescope in Hawaii, are reported by scientists from the University of California, Santa Cruz and the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg.
They are the first direct observations of cold gas decorating such cosmic web filaments.
"The light from the quasar is like a flashlight beam, and in this case we were
lucky that the flashlight is pointing toward the nebula and making the gas glow.
We think this is part of a filament that may be even more extended than this,
but we only see the part of the filament that is illuminated by the beamed
emission from the quasar."
