Cosmic Filament

Cosmic Filament Latest News

Recently, the University of Oxford researchers reported a roughly 50-million-lightyear-long cosmic Filament traced by at least 14 galaxies. 

About Cosmic Filament

• Cosmic or galaxy filaments are the largest ‘threads’ in the universe’s cosmic web.
• Size: A single cosmic filament is a structure spanning hundreds of millions of lightyears.
• These filaments are the largest known structures in the Universe which are vast, thread-like formations of galaxies and dark matter that form a cosmic scaffolding. 
• These cosmic web filaments serve as the nurseries where galaxies grow by accreting pristine gas that fuels their star formation.
• Formation
  • It is formed as a result of gravity pulling in gas, dark matter, and galaxies into long, thin strands that link giant clusters of galaxies.
  • These filaments also surround large, empty regions of space called voids.
  • A filament forms where sheets of matter intersect and collapse; they’re also highways along which gas and smaller galaxies ‘flow’ towards big clusters.
• Significance: These filaments help decide where galaxies form, how fast they grow, and how much fresh gas they receive over billions of years.

Source: TH

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