Astronomers have just announced the discovery of a giant intergalactic gas filament at least 50 million light years away – the longest ever found.
Intergalactic strands are long strands of hot gas that thread their way through galaxies and connect clusters of galaxies together.
5% of the universe is made up of ordinary or visible matter. So far, astronomers have visually confirmed the existence of about half of this matter. In the past, cosmologists have speculated that much of the universe’s missing matter is hidden inside elusive strands of intergalactic gas.
Researchers were able to detect an almost invisible fiber of intergalactic gas that connects the three clusters forming a superstructure known as Abell 3391/95.
When the Big Bang detonated a small cloud of gas and dust about 13.8 billion years ago, matter in the universe spread almost uniformly, but not completely. Since some parts of the cloud are slightly denser than others, the tiny pockets of the universe contain stronger gravitational forces. Over time, these pockets become more and more concentrated with matter and separated by larger holes, becoming hosts of galaxies and clusters.
At least, that’s how scientists hypothesize the birth and evolution of our universe. If so, these galactic active pockets don’t have to be completely isolated, they must be connected by thin strands of gas, the researchers deduced.
“According to calculations, more than half of the familiar matter in our universe is contained in these fibers. It is the form of matter that makes up the stars and planets, as well as ourselves, ”explains Thomas Reiprich. said a professor at the Argelander Astronomical Institute at the University of Bonn in Germany.
Because many of these fibers have been drawn so thin, they are particularly diffuse, almost imperceptible by traditional viewing methods. Fortunately, researchers have a new tool to find intergalactic gas strands, eROSITA.
“EROSITA has detectors that are very sensitive to the type of X-rays emitted by the gases in the fibers. It also has a wide field of view, like a wide-angle lens, capturing a relatively large part of the sky at one time. the measurements are unique and very high resolution, ”says Reiprich.
The newly identified strand connects three clusters of galaxies to form the Abell 3391/95 superstructure, located about 700 million light years from Earth. The connected fiber revealed in eROSITA’s Abell 3391/95 image is 50 million light years away, but researchers suspect they’ve only seen a small part of it.
“We compared our observations to the results of a simulation that recreates the evolution of the universe. The eROSITA image is very similar to computer-generated graphics,” Reiprich said. found that the widely accepted standard model for the evolution of the universe is correct.
Additionally, scientists say, research shows that most of the universe’s lost matter is hiding inside these nearly invisible threads of silk.
