astronomers Detect Colossal Rotating Filament of Galaxies, Potentially the Largest Spinning Structure Known
CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA – Astronomers have identified a gigantic filament of galaxies stretching across billions of light-years that appears too be rotating, potentially making it the largest spinning structure ever observed in the universe. The discovery,made using the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa,offers new insights into the cosmic web – the large-scale structure of the universe – and how matter is distributed throughout it.
The filament,detected as part of the ongoing MIGHTEE (MeerKAT International GHz Tiered Extragalactic Exploration) survey,spans an estimated 3.3 million light-years in length and consists of numerous galaxies bound together by gravity. Researchers beleive this structure is not static,but is slowly rotating,a phenomenon previously theorized but never before directly observed on such a massive scale. “It’s a really surprising finding,” said led researcher Aritra Basu of the West Virginia University, in a statement. “We didn’t expect to see somthing so large rotating.”
This observation provides crucial evidence supporting the prevailing cosmological model, which posits that the universe is structured like a web, with dense filaments of matter connecting vast voids.These filaments act as cosmic highways, funneling matter towards the formation of galaxy clusters. Understanding the dynamics within these filaments is key to understanding the evolution of the universe.
The MIGHTEE survey, spearheaded by Oxford physicist Matt jarvis, aims to map the distribution of hydrogen gas across a large swathe of the sky. The discovery was made while analyzing data from this survey, revealing the subtle rotational signature within the filament. Researchers suspect that similar rotating filaments are common throughout the cosmos and will be discovered with the aid of next-generation telescopes.
“I think it’s really helping us understand the universe,” stated researcher Andreea Tudorache.
Future data from the MIGHTEE survey, along with observations from the upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, are expected to provide further details about the filament’s behavior and potentially reveal other rotating cosmic structures. The findings represent a important step forward in unraveling the mysteries of the universe’s large-scale structure and it’s evolution over billions of years.
