Cosmic web tagged posts

The cosmic velocity web is represented by surfaces of knots in red and surfaces of filaments in gray. The black lines with arrows illustrate local velocity flows within filaments and toward knots. The Laniakea Supercluster basin of attraction that includes our Milky Way galaxy is represented by a blue surface. The region being displayed extends across one billion light years. Credit: Daniel Pomarede, Yehuda Hoffman, R. Brent Tully and Helene Courtois. Credit: Daniel Pomarede, Yehuda Hoffman, R. Brent Tully, Helene Courtois

The cosmic web – the distribution of matter on the largest scales in the universe – has usually been defined through the distribution of galaxies. Now, a new study by a team of astronomers from France, Israel and Hawaii demonstrates a novel approach...

This schematic representation illustrates the technique used to probe the small-scale structure of the cosmic web using light from a rare quasar pair.
Credit: J. Onorbe / MPIA

A team of astronomers have made the first measurements of small-scale ripples in this primeval hydrogen gas using rare double quasars. Although the regions of cosmic web they studied lie nearly 11 billion light years away, they were able to measure variations in its structure on scales 100,000 times smaller, comparable to the size of a single galaxy.

Intergalactic gas is so tenuous that it emits no light of its own. Instead astronomers study it indirectly by observing how it selectively absorbs the light coming from faraway sources known as quasars...

Dark matter filaments bridge the space between galaxies in this false colour map. The locations of bright galaxies are shown by the white regions and the presence of a dark matter filament bridging the galaxies is shown in red. Credit: S. Epps & M. Hudson / University of Waterloo

Researchers at the University of Waterloo have been able to capture the first composite image of a dark matter bridge that connects galaxies together. The composite image, which combines a number of individual images, confirms predictions that galaxies across the universe are tied together through a cosmic web connected by dark matter that has until now remained unobservable...