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...
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