Cosmic filaments are huge bridges of galaxies and dark matter that connect clusters of galaxies to each other. They funnel galaxies towards and into large clusters that sit at their ends. "By mapping the motion of galaxies in these huge cosmic superhighways using the Sloan Digital Sky survey – a survey of hundreds of thousands of galaxies – we found a remarkable property of these filaments: they spin." says Peng Wang, first author of the now published study and astronomer at the AIP.
"Despite being thin cylinders – similar in dimension to pencils – hundreds of millions of light years long, but just a few million light years in diameter, these fantastic tendrils of matter rotate," adds Noam Libeskind, initiator of the project at the AIP. "On these scales the galaxies within them are themselves just specs of dust. They move on helixes or corkscrew like orbits, circling around the middle of the filament while travelling along it. Such a spin has never been seen before on such enormous scales, and the implication is that there must be an as yet unknown physical mechanism responsible for torquing these objects."
[...] "Motivated by the suggestion from the theorist Dr. Mark Neyrinck that filaments may spin, we examined the observed galaxy distribution, looking for filament rotation," says Noam Libeskind. "It's fantastic to see this confirmation that intergalactic filaments rotate in the real Universe, as well as in computer simulation." By using a sophisticated mapping method, the observed galaxy distribution was segmented into filaments. Each filament was approximated by a cylinder.
Galaxies within it were divided into two regions on either side of the filament spine (in projection) and the mean redshift difference between the two regions was carefully measured. The mean redshift difference is a proxy for the velocity difference (the Doppler shift) between galaxies on the receding and approaching side of the filament tube. It can thus measure the filament's rotation.
By comparison, the Milky Way galaxy in which we reside is only about 200,000 light years across.
Journal Reference:
Peng Wang, Noam I. Libeskind, Elmo Tempel, et al. Possible observational evidence for cosmic filament spin [open], Nature Astronomy (DOI: 10.1038/s41550-021-01380-6)
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 17 2021, @12:41AM (2 children)
Yo mama?
(Score: 2) by Revek on Thursday June 17 2021, @01:00AM (1 child)
This is exactly what I thought of. Damn you AC.
This page was generated by a Swarm of Roaming Elephants
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 17 2021, @03:48AM
Remember, no matter how awesome you are, there is always an AC that makes you look like a chopped liver left rotting in the death valley desert.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 17 2021, @01:18AM (1 child)
Now let search for the plug commence!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 17 2021, @01:24AM
Worry more about the Great Attractor!!
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 17 2021, @01:41AM (5 children)
One or more of these things doesn't really exist.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday June 17 2021, @04:09AM (4 children)
Thinking along the same lines here. Every "new" explanation for anything in the sky involves this dark matter that no one has ever produced. The only place anyone has ever found dark matter, is in dark thought experiments.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 17 2021, @06:54AM (3 children)
Translation: Runaway does not understand what is being discussed. It's OK, Runaway. Like, above your pay-grade, and above your level of education.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 17 2021, @07:41AM
Thank you for your input. [pinimg.com]
(Score: 1) by shrewdsheep on Thursday June 17 2021, @08:00AM (1 child)
While I disagree with the tone and style, runaway brings up a point that has to be mentioned in such a discussion. Please stick to the topic and express your awe for runaway in private communication.
@runaway: Seeing dark matter as particles is just one way, in the end it is just energy. In formulas sometimes this is just a fudge factor (I know it is for dark energy which is the cosmic constant in Einstein's fomulas). There are a lot more constants in the formulas you may dislike. If you criticize some physical notion, it is best to point out where it fails to explain phenomena. If you say, in my particular interpretation, I am confused, well, your interpretation is not mine.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 17 2021, @03:55PM
There was a time when zero did not exist, then negative numbers, then imaginary, then real, etc. And now they do. Opposite for things like aether. But of course it's all a giant conspiracy to raise taxes on the middle class mwhaaaha ha ha.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 17 2021, @02:31AM (2 children)
penis
(Score: 3, Funny) by hendrikboom on Thursday June 17 2021, @02:38AM (1 child)
mightierthanthesword.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 17 2021, @04:12AM
the penis bird enjoys his perch
(Score: 5, Interesting) by hendrikboom on Thursday June 17 2021, @02:37AM (2 children)
This immediately raises questions.
Are these filamental cylinders rotating too fast to hold together, just like galaxies seem to be?
Are these filament one-dimensional relativistic singularities, the so-called "Cosmic Strings" I heard of long before string theory used the word "string" for something quite different? (black holes are zero-dimensional singularities, by comparison).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 17 2021, @01:13PM (1 child)
(emphasis mine)
These are clearly not one-dimensional structures. We are also not given any information about the rotation rate, only that the researchers were surprised that there was any rotation at all.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Thursday June 17 2021, @02:15PM
That's right. They are cylinders rather than lines.
I was wondering whether the axis of one of these cylinders might be one of these so-called cosmic strings, the same way the centre of a galaxy seems to be a black hole, providing something to hold these things together.
And analogously, I raised the question whether the usual well-known gravitation is indeed sufficient to keep the cylinders together. I suspect not, just like with galaxies.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Thursday June 17 2021, @07:17AM (2 children)
Similar in dimension to pencils? I don't know about your pencils, but mine are much smaller.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 17 2021, @01:45PM
agree, this is more like a packet of 10 pencils laid end to end.
more like cables on a foot suspension bridge. or even better, a tow rope for cars.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 17 2021, @01:46PM
SHRINKAGE!