Astronomers Just Found a 3-Million-Light-Year Connection Between Galaxies
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Astronomers Just Found a 3-Million-Light-Year Connection Between Galaxies
The image shows the diffuse
gas (yellow to purple) contained
within the cosmic filament
connecting two galaxies (yellow
stars), extending across a vast
distance of 3 million light-years.
Credit: Davide Tornotti/University
of Milano-Bicocca
A new breakthrough in cosmic mapping has unveiled the structure of a colossal filament, part of the vast cosmic web that connects galaxies.
Dark matter and gas shape these filaments, but their faint glow makes them hard to detect. By using advanced telescope technology and hundreds of hours of observation, astronomers have captured the most detailed image yet, bringing us closer to decoding the evolution of galaxies and the hidden forces shaping the universe.
The Hidden Order of the Universe
At first glance, the universe may appear to be a chaotic swarm of scattered galaxies. But in reality, they are part of a vast, interconnected structure known as the cosmic web — the largest framework in the cosmos. This web is made up of enormous filaments of dark matter and gas, stretching between galaxies and surrounding vast empty voids. Now, after hundreds of hours of telescope observations, astronomers have captured the highest-resolution image ever taken of a single cosmic filament linking forming galaxies. This filament is so distant that we see it as it was when the universe was just 2 billion years old.
Dark Matter: The Invisible Architect
Dark matter, which makes up about 85% of the universe’s total matter, is largely invisible — it doesn’t emit, absorb, or reflect light. Instead, its presence is only detectable through its gravitational influence on galaxies and other cosmic structures. Dark matter plays a key role in shaping the large-scale structure of the universe, forming the backbone of the cosmic web. Scientists have been studying this web using simulations and gravitational lensing techniques to better understand dark matter and its crucial role in the evolution of the universe.
A massive galaxy cluster
named MACS-J0417.5-1154 is warping
and distorting the appearance of
galaxies behind it, an effect
known as gravitational lensing.
This natural phenomenon magnifies
distant galaxies and can also make
them appear in an image multiple
times, as NASA’s James Webb Space
Telescope saw here. Two distant,
interacting galaxies — a face-on
spiral and a dusty red galaxy seen
from the side — appear multiple
times, tracing a familiar shape
across the sky. Credit: NASA, ESA,
CSA, STScI, Vicente
Estrada-Carpenter (Saint Mary’s
University)
The Challenge of Mapping the Cosmic Web
One of the biggest challenges that astronomers face studying the cosmic web is that the gas has mainly been detected through its absorption of light from a more distant object. The results of such studies however do not help us to understand the distribution of gas in the web. Studies that focus on hydrogen which is the most common element in the universe, can only be detected from a very faint glow so that previous attempts to map its distribution have failed.
Revealing the Web: Advanced Telescope Technology
This new paper was published by a team of researchers led by scientists from the University of Milano-Bicocca and included members from the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics. The team employed the use of the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on the Very Large Telescope at the European Southern Observatory in Chile. The instrument was designed to capture 3D data of astronomical objects by combining images and spectroscopic observations across thousands of wavelengths simultaneously. Even with the capabilities of MUSE, the team had to capture data over hundreds of hours to reveal sufficient detail in the filaments of the cosmic web.
ESO’s Very Large Telescope
is composed of four Unit
Telescopes (UTs) and four
Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs). Seen
here is one of the UTs firing four
lasers which are crucial to the
telescope’s adaptive optics
systems. To the right of the UT
are two ATs, these smaller
telescopes are moveable and work
in tandem with the other
telescopes to create a unique and
powerful tool for observing the
Universe. Credit: ESO/A. Ghizzi
Panizza
A Cosmic Filament Spanning 3 Million Light-Years
The team was led by PhD student at the University of Milano-Bicocca Davide Tornotti and they used MUSE to study a filament that measures 3 million light-years in length. The filament connects two galaxies, each with a supermassive black hole deep in their core. They were able to demonstrate a new way of mapping the intergalactic filaments, helping to understand more about galactic formation and the evolution of the universe.
Simulations Confirm the Observations
Before they were able to start collecting the data, the team were able to run simulations of the emissions from filaments based upon the current model of the universe. They were then able to compare the results and both were remarkably similar. The discovery can help us to learn how galaxies in the cosmic web are fuelled but the team assert that they still need more data. More structures are now being uncovered as the techniques are repeated with the goal to finally reveal how gas is distributed among the cosmic web.
Adapted from an article originally published on Universe Today.
Explore Further: First Direct Image of the Cosmic Web Reveals the Universe’s Hidden Highways
Reference: “High-definition
imaging of a filamentary
connection between a close quasar
pair at z = 3” by Davide
Tornotti, Michele Fumagalli,
Matteo Fossati, Alejandro
Benitez-Llambay, David
Izquierdo-Villalba, Andrea
Travascio, Fabrizio Arrigoni
Battaia, Sebastiano Cantalupo,
Alexander Beckett, Silvia
Bonoli, Pratika Dayal, Valentina
D’Odorico, Rajeshwari Dutta,
Elisabeta Lusso, Celine Peroux,
Marc Rafelski, Mitchell
Revalski, Daniele Spinoso and
Mark Swinbank, 29 January 2025,
Nature Astronomy.
DOI:
10.1038/s41550-024-02463-w