Cosmic web reveals stellar skeleton

Three filaments of hot gas have been revealed by the XMM-Newton space observatory, revealing part of the cosmic web.

The cosmic web is believed to be the framework of the universe along which galaxies, stars and clusters – an amalgamation of galaxies – have formed since the big bang.

Scientists from the European Space Agency (ESA) observed Abell 2744, also known as Pandora’s Cluster. The filaments were viewed flowing towards the core of the Cluster and connecting it to the cosmic web.

This is the first ‘robust’ discovery of hot gas filaments from the cosmic web and also the first observation of multiple hot gas filaments connected to a single cluster. Lead author Dr Dominique Eckert, said: “This was an unexpected and most welcome discovery. We know [Abell 2744] is an incredible massive cluster hosting active processes at its core and seeing its direct connection to the cosmic web confirms our picture of how structures form in the universe.”

The filaments were detected with X-ray observations and the galaxies observed with telescopes. Gravitational lensing – the effect of mass on light – was used to measure the amount of dark matter present.

At first the inner core of Pandora’s Cluster was observed with the Hubble Space Telescope. After the discovery of X-ray gas in the filaments the gravitational lensing effect was used to study dark matter distribution near the cluster as well as in nearby filaments.

Abell 2744 is composed of at least four separate, smaller galaxy clusters that came together over 350 million years.

For further investigations the scientists must wait until the ESA Athena X-ray telescope is launched – currently scheduled for 2028.

The findings were published in Nature.