Cosmic Filaments Reveal More About the Universe

BEACON TRANSCRIPT – It seems that what connects the matter and holds together the cosmos is some sort of filaments and these cosmic filaments reveal more about the Universe.

Although they can be considered individually, the stars and planets and any sort of matter are somehow interconnected. For example, planets revolve around stars and form solar systems, a collection of solar systems can form a galaxy and more galaxies form large groups called clusters. Clusters are the biggest cosmic structures that come together with the help of gravity. They contain invisible dark matter as well as hot gas.

What links galaxy clusters is a sort of huge web of filaments. The largest clusters are located in the densest spots of the filaments web. Astronomers have been researching these formations and have discovered that diffuse gas is also arranged similarly. The filaments act as a sort of framework for cosmic corps and collection of corps to form and evolve.

In their latest study, a team of scientists at the University of Geneva in Switzerland used the observatory ESA XMM-Newton X-ray and discovered they could detect and track gas in the cosmic web. They observed a collection of filaments containing gas, galaxies and dark matter. These cosmic parts are flowing towards a massive cluster in the Universe.

The cluster received the name of Abell 2744 and the nickname of Pandora Cluster. This formation is made, according to astronomers’ calculations of at least four different components that are fusing. Observing the fusion of these components inside the cluster gives scientists more insight on how different structures are usually formed in the Universe.

Comparing their optical observations with the data they got from the Newton X-ray, researchers have identified five large structures of hot gas, three of them being galaxies that are connected to the cluster, while the other two are just projections of some distant structure, their light being visible along the same line.

At first the core of the Pandora Cluster was observed with the Hubble Telescope to detect background galaxies that would be hard to observe without the magnifying lens. However, using the X-ray they looked at the outskirts of the cluster as well, where they were able to observe the distribution of the dark matter and the gravitational effects.

Although, the findings match the astronomers’ theoretical expectations, the matter is going to be further studied, as scientists need to have a closer look at a less dense cluster of filaments in order to get a better understanding of how cosmic structures form, evolve and interact.

Image source: www.bing.com