MPIA/UCSB: Ripples in the Cosmic Web

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MPIA/UCSB: Ripples in the Cosmic Web

Post by bystander » Fri Apr 28, 2017 2:42 pm

Ripples in Cosmic Web Measured Using Rare Double Quasars
Max Plank Institute for Astronomy | 2017 Apr 27
[img3="Volume rendering of the output from a supercomputer simulation showing part of the cosmic web, 11.5 billion years ago. This and other models of the universe were generated and directly compared with quasar pair data in order to measure the small-scale ripples in the cosmic web. The cube is 24 million light-years on a side. Image: J. Onorbe / MPIA"]http://www.mpia.de/4297419/zoom-1492708795.jpg[/img3][hr][/hr]
Astronomers believe that matter in intergalactic space is distributed in a vast network of interconnected filamentary structures known as the cosmic web. Nearly all the atoms in the Universe reside in this web, vestigial material left over from the Big Bang. A team led by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy have made the first measurements of small-scale fluctuations in the cosmic web just 2 billion years after the Big Bang. These measurements were enabled by a novel technique using pairs of quasars to probe the cosmic web along adjacent, closely separated lines of sight. They promise to help astronomers reconstruct an early chapter of cosmic history known as the epoch of reionization. ...

The most barren regions of the Universe are the far-flung corners of intergalactic space. In these vast expanses between the galaxies there are only a few atoms per cubic meter – a diffuse haze of hydrogen gas left over from the Big Bang. Viewed on the largest scales, this diffuse material nevertheless accounts for the majority of atoms in the Universe, and fills the cosmic web, its tangled strands spanning billions of light years.

Now, a team led by astronomers from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) have made the first measurements of small-scale ripples in this primeval hydrogen gas. Although the regions of cosmic web they studied lie nearly 11 billion light years away, they were able to measure variations in its structure on scales a hundred thousand times smaller, comparable to the size of a single galaxy. ...

Ripples in the Cosmic Web
University of California, Santa Barbara | 2017 Apr 27
A team of astronomers has made the first measurements of small-scale ripples in primeval hydrogen gas using rare double quasars

Measurement of the Small-Scale Structure of the Intergalactic Medium Using Close Quasar Pairs - Alberto Rorai et al
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