Long, long strands of hot gas called intergalactic filaments bind and orbit galaxies and galaxy assemblages throughout the cosmos – and scientists have just discovered the longest one yet.
intergalactic filaments form a cosmic web that extends beyond the visible universe. Within this structure, galaxies are arranged in a net-like pattern, connected by and surrounded by these filaments.
According to a previous study, after the Big Bang leap began on our universe 13.8 billion years ago, much of the hydrogen gas that makes up the known substance in the universe fell into sheets, which disintegrated further into the long, capturing filaments.
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Now, researchers led by researchers at the University of Bonn in Germany have seen the longest filament ever discovered. The gas fiber extends an incredible 50 million light-years, and its structure aligns with predictions made by computer simulations discovered by the researchers, reportedly released by the University of Bonn.
“According to calculations, more than half of all baryonic case in our universe in these filaments – this is the subject shape in which stars and planets are made, as we are, “said lead study author Thomas Reiprich, a professor at the Institute of Astronomy Argelander at the University of Bonn, in the same statement.
As the filaments stretch so far, the particles that make them are very scattered, making them very difficult to see. However, Reiprich and his colleagues were able to make the gas completely visible for the first time, using the eROSITA space telescope, an X-ray telescope built by the Max Planck Institute for Side Physics. outside Germany, according to the report.
“EROSITA has very sensitive detectors for the type of X-ray radiation that comes from the gas in filaments,” Reiprich said of the observations. “It also has a panoramic view – like a wide-angle lens, it captures a relatively large part of the sky in one dimension, and at a very high resolution.” These sides of the space telescope allow -resear take detailed images of large objects such as the filaments, and do so relatively quickly.
The team studied Abell 3391/95 – a system of three 700-million-light-galaxy galaxies from Earth. The images taken using eROSITA show the individual collections and galleries that line the system, but, perhaps even more surprisingly, they show the tendrils that are ‘the connection of the galleries and the gatherings, with the whole filament stretching 50 million light-years.
However, although this is the longest filament ever seen, the researchers believe it could be even longer than the region seen in the images, according to the report.
“We compared our ideas with simulation results that recreate global evolution,” Reiprich said. “The eROSITA images are very similar to computer-generated graphics. This suggests that the generally accepted conventional model for global evolution is correct. ”
This work was referenced in a study accepted for publication in the journal Astronomy & Astronomy.
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