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First-Ever Image of the 'Cosmic Web' Reveals the Gassy Highway That Connects the Universe
www.livescience.com ^
| 03 October 2019
| By Brandon Specktor
Posted on 10/03/2019 2:13:11 PM PDT by Red Badger
In the cold wilderness of space, galaxies huddle together around the campfires of stars and the assuring pull of supermassive black holes. Between these cozy clusters of galaxies, where empty space stretches on for millions of light-years all around, a faint highway of gas bridges the darkness.
This gassy, intergalactic network is known in cosmological models as the cosmic web. Made of long filaments of hydrogen left over from the Big Bang, the web is thought to contain most (more than 60%) of the gas in the universe and to directly feed all of the star-producing regions in space. At the intersections where filaments overlap, galaxies appear. At least, that's the theory.
The filaments of the galactic web have never been directly observed before, because they are among the faintest structures in the universe and are easily overshadowed by the glow of the galaxies around them. But now, in a study published today (Oct. 3) in the journal Science, researchers have cobbled together the first-ever photograph of cosmic filaments converging on a faraway galaxy cluster, thanks to some of the most sensitive telescopes on Earth.
The image (below) shows blue filaments of hydrogen crisscrossing through a cluster of ancient white galaxies, located about 12 billion light-years away from Earth (meaning the galaxies were born in roughly the first billion and a half years after the Big Bang). Gently lit by the ultraviolet glow of the galaxies themselves, the filaments stretch on for more than 3 million light-years, confirming their status as some of the most gargantuan structures in space.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
TOPICS: Arts/Photography; Astronomy; History; Science
KEYWORDS: astronomy; cosmicweb; science; stringtheory; universe
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A massive galaxy cluster from the C-EAGLE simulation, providing a view of a region comparable to the one where the filaments have been detected. The color map represents the same emission from the gas filaments as the one detected in observations. At the convergence of these filaments, a massive cluster of galaxies are assembling (Image: © Joshua Borrow using C-EAGLE)
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To: Red Badger
Behold the cosmic web. This map shows gas filaments (blue) running from the top to the bottom of the image, linking galaxies in an ancient cluster 12 billion light-years away. The white dots embedded within these filaments are active star forming galaxies, which are being fed by the filaments. (Image credit: Hideki Umehata)
2
posted on
10/03/2019 2:13:56 PM PDT
by
Red Badger
(Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain...................)
To: SunkenCiv
3
posted on
10/03/2019 2:14:52 PM PDT
by
Army Air Corps
(Four Fried Chickens and a Coke)
To: Red Badger
I thought the Gassy Highway was that stretch filled with burrito joints running between Austin and San Antonio.
4
posted on
10/03/2019 2:17:44 PM PDT
by
Buckeye McFrog
(Patrick Henry would have been an anti-vaxxer)
To: Buckeye McFrog
I think Bachman-Turner Overdrive sang about it....................
5
posted on
10/03/2019 2:20:07 PM PDT
by
Red Badger
(Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain...................)
To: Buckeye McFrog
You gotta have something to do on I-35.
6
posted on
10/03/2019 2:21:09 PM PDT
by
Army Air Corps
(Four Fried Chickens and a Coke)
To: Buckeye McFrog
LOL
We couldn’t keep it as a serious thread past post 4!
And 3 people beat me to the comments :)
Now I have to think up something new.
7
posted on
10/03/2019 2:22:48 PM PDT
by
dp0622
(Bad, bad company Till the day I die.)
To: Red Badger; Buckeye McFrog
“Beans, beans
the musical fruit,
the more you eat,
the more you toot.
So eat your beans,
at every meal.”
8
posted on
10/03/2019 2:23:07 PM PDT
by
Carriage Hill
(A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
To: Swordmaker
Electric Universe (Swordmaker) ping!,
9
posted on
10/03/2019 2:31:43 PM PDT
by
misanthrope
(Deranged, sinister, deplorable troll)
To: Red Badger
They're not "gas" filaments, they are plasma filaments. Touch a plasma globe with your finger and you will see a miniature version of the same kind of filament form:
To: Boogieman
1st Hydrogen Atom: I’ve lost my electron!
2nd Hydrogen Atom: Are you sure????
1st Hydrogen Atom: I’m POSITIVE!.............................
11
posted on
10/03/2019 2:39:36 PM PDT
by
Red Badger
(Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain...................)
To: Buckeye McFrog
Someone HAD to go there. Congrads on getting there first! ;)
12
posted on
10/03/2019 2:50:25 PM PDT
by
freedumb2003
(As always IMHO)
To: Boogieman
13
posted on
10/03/2019 2:52:46 PM PDT
by
Disambiguator
("Progressives" want government in action. Conservatives want government inaction.)
To: Disambiguator
To: Buckeye McFrog
I thought the Gassy Highway was that stretch filled with burrito joints running between Austin and San Antonio.
+++++
Silly you. I thought everyone knew that the Gassy Highway was built by advanced alien civilizations for use with their FTLs (Faster Than Light) spaceships.
15
posted on
10/03/2019 3:22:19 PM PDT
by
InterceptPoint
(Ted, you finally endorsed.)
To: Red Badger
That pic looks like living cells under a microscope.
16
posted on
10/03/2019 3:40:49 PM PDT
by
TigersEye
(This is the age of the death of reason.)
To: Red Badger
Stay off the gassy knoll (by the triple underpass).
To: Red Badger
The appears almost organic. Almost like a collection of nerves.
Amazing.
As they try to unite the theories of the macro and quantum perhaps they are actually the same.
To: misanthrope; 1FreeAmerican; A. Patriot; AndrewC; antonia; aristotleman; Bellflower; Boogieman; ...
So close, yet so much wrong. First of all, they arent gas, they are plasma filaments of high amperage and voltage Birkeland currents. Secondly, there are no Black Holes because the Universe is not driven by the weak force of gravity; its driven by the much more powerful force, electromagnetism, which is 39 orders of magnitude stronger than gravity. Thats 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times more powerful than gravity! Astronomers and gravity cosmologists have finally found what Electric/plasma Universe cosmologists have said was there all along, and have seen in other images. . . but they still wont recognize what they are seeing, despite having no rational explanation for what keeps these gases together over millions of light years. The Electric/Plasma Universe Cosmologist can easily explain it to them if theyd listen. Electric/Plasma Universe PING!
Clear Example of a Birkeland Current
"Z" Pinch with Symmetrical Plasmids
seen in Hubble Telescope View of
The Twin Jet Nebula
ELECTRIC/PLASMA UNIVERSE PING!
If you want on or off the Electric Universe/Plasma Ping List, Freepmail me.
19
posted on
10/03/2019 5:05:20 PM PDT
by
Swordmaker
(My pistol self-identifies as an iPad, so you must accept it in gun-free zones, you hoplaphobe bigot!)
To: Buckeye McFrog
Oh, you mean the semi-trot to the latrine after the Triple-Threat Platter at Benny’s Burrito Barn? Their salsa alone could qualify as a WMD..........
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