Scientists in France have for the first time observed filaments of the cosmic web, revealing a multitude of “unsuspected” dwarf galaxies hidden in the depths of the universe.
- Scientists used a 3D spectrograph known as the MUSE instrument, installed on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile to observed the cosmic web.
- The cosmic web is the building block of the cosmos — consisting primarily of dark matter and laced with gas — on which galaxies are built. Cosmological models have long predicted cosmic web existence, but until now the cosmic web had never been directly observed and captured in images.
- Using the MUSE instrument, scientists studied a region in the sky called the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field for some 140 hours, over eight months. The area is the site where the deepest images of the cosmos had ever been obtained.
- The team’s analysis of the images captured with the telescope revealed light from the hydrogen filaments.
(Source: CNN)
