The discovery was made in a remote sector of the Universe

Jan 20, 2014 07:59 GMT  ·  By
Computer simulations suggest that matter in the universe is distributed in a cosmic web of filaments
   Computer simulations suggest that matter in the universe is distributed in a cosmic web of filaments

For many years, astronomers have been arguing that all galaxies are interconnected, and exist inside a cosmic web. In theory, they should all be connected via filament-like structures, but evidence of such formations has been lacking, until now. A new study demonstrates that the predictions are right.

The investigation was conducted by a collaboration of researchers headed by astronomers with the University of California in Santa Cruz (UCSC). The first author of the paper was UCSC postdoctoral fellow Sebastiana Cantalupo.

He explains that the group was able to identify a very distant quasi-stellar radio source (quasar), which illuminated a vast network of filaments that connected young galaxies in the early Universe. This is one of the first concrete evidences that these filaments are actually real, just very hard to detect.

The group used the 10-meter (33-foot) Keck I telescope at the W. M. Keck Observatory, in Hawaii, to investigate the distant quasar. Details of the investigation were published in the January 19 issue of the top scientific journal Nature.

The quasar the study focused on an illuminated gas nebula that extends nearly 2 million light-years through space, making it one of the largest such structures ever identified. By comparison, the Milky Way is just 100,000 light-years across, and it is considered to be a medium-sized galaxy.

"This is a very exceptional object: it's huge, at least twice as large as any nebula detected before, and it extends well beyond the galactic environment of the quasar,” Cantalupo explains.

“This quasar is illuminating diffuse gas on scales well beyond any we've seen before, giving us the first picture of extended gas between galaxies. It provides a terrific insight into the overall structure of our Universe,” adds UCSC astronomy and astrophysics professor J. Xavier Prochaska, a study coauthor.

Studies of other quasars did not reveal such a fortunate arrangement. The reason why the new findings were possible is that the light emitted by the radio source passed right through the nebula before reaching Earth. The research team says that the structure is actually larger than currently believed.

“We think this is part of a filament that may be even more extended than this, but we only see the part of the filament that is illuminated by the beamed emission from the quasar,” Cantalupo explains.