Cosmic 'web' seen for first time

[hue]

Source: BBC Science

The hidden tendrils of dark matter that underlie the visible Universe may have been traced out for the first time.

Cosmology theory predicts that galaxies are embedded in a cosmic web of "stuff", most of which is dark matter.

Astronomers obtained the first direct images of a part of this network, by exploiting the fact that a luminous object called a quasar can act as a natural "cosmic flashlight".

Details of the work appear in the journal Nature.

The quasar illuminates a nearby gas cloud measuring two million light-years across.

And the glowing gas appears to trace out filaments of underlying dark matter.

The quasar, which lies 10 billion light-years away, shines light in just the right direction to reveal the cold gas cloud.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25809967

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Shining a light on cold dark matter!

[tazkcmo]

1. Cool!

With this technology my ex may yet prove she has a soul!

[2naSalit]

2. Amazing

As I started reading this OP and then looked at the images at the link a sudden flash of comparative thought blazed in my mind. It resembles the "dark forces" we have here on our little planet, dark money networks that few see but are affected by all the same, and it's all interconnected and seems to be revealed by a sudden flash, like the sudden flame-out of one such as the most recent rising political star...

Just a thought the likes of which come to me with my morning coffee while reads the blues news.

[hue]

4. Great analogy! Yet I think of Dark Matter as invisible forces of good holding our universe together

[2naSalit]

21. that's another

way to see it and I wouldn't argue against it one bit. The above it just a description of what my brain went to on "not enough coffee input auto-pilot" after reading all those post on New Jersey's finest.

[thecrow]

3. Looks like a picture of brain neuron cells

...could we just be atoms in the mind of god?
Fascinating how they can do this.

[groundloop]

5. You've been watching too much Animal House

[Spitfire of ATJ]

12. Or resides in Colorado.

[Bandit]

7. protons or nutrons, not atoms

[thecrow]

13. That breaks it down to positives and negatives

I wasn't sure if I wanted to get that basic.... so I will say neurons, if you like.

[tridim]

11. I said the same on Facebook. The cosmic web is a fractal of brain neurons.

Makes sense, but it's still amazing to ponder.

[Baitball Blogger]

6. If I didn't know better I would think I was looking at a neural cellular pattern in the

human body.

[alfredo]

10. Like this?

[loudsue]

8. Holy shit that was over my head!

But it sounds like it's cool, so I'm all in!

[packman]

9. It's a web

spun by a cosmic spider and all the stars and galaxies are just food caught up in it.

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[thecrow]

14. The Flying Spaghetti Monster would also work

ButI don't have a picture

[Javaman]

15. We live in a gigantic brain!!!!

Looks like synapse to me.

[Blue State Bandit]

16. Dark Matter Not Found... Again.

[hue]

17. Halton Arp never gave evidence that DM does not exist.

There is overwhelming indirect evidence that cold dark matter (CDM) does exist. For example, it is predicted that CDM exists in natural Supersymmetry (SUSY). New ways of detecting signals from light higgsinos, which are a hallmark of natural SUSY, are in the works. One way of proving the existence of higginos (a dark matter particle) would be an electron-positron collider. Axions are also suspected as another particle making up CDM.
Arp's one objection to the implications of redshift anomalies negating the expansion of the universe is simply an unproven doubt.
Carl Sagan passed away in Dec. of 1996. With the utmost of respect for Him He was not aware of recent significant discoveries that I'm sure He would love to way in on! His mind was not static & He loved new information.

[Blue State Bandit]

18. Expansion requires Red Shift distance calcs to be immutable, and Arp clearly demonstrates...

that Redshift, while clearly denoting the speed of an object's egression or regression, it says nothing on the object's mean distance from the observer. That observation removes the entire impetus (and I use that word literally) for the mathematical construct built to prop up the theory of the Big Bang/Expanding Universe, i.e Dark Matter.

The fact that Chandrasekhar didn't see it -and promptly had Arp kicked out of his Astronomy Club back in the late '60's early '70's- and Carl Sagan went to bat for Halton Arp 10 years later should speaks volumes.

Hubble say's it clear as day. If Redshift is not exclusively a Doppler Effect, the Big Bang fizzles.

[SkyDaddy7]

20. ...

[hue]

22. No doubts that red shift is a doppler effect.

Hubble is credited with discovering the Big Bang. Hubble measured the distance of low pulsating Cepheid variable stars in documenting measurements that prove the Universe is indeed expanding.

Redshift is one important piece of evidence that supports the Big Bang but it is not the only one. Cosmic microwave background is another. There is much more evidence for the fact that our Universe is expanding.

[Blue State Bandit]

23. Circular argument. Expanding universe proves expanding universe.

For Redshift to be a measure of distance, one would have to know the point of origin. I don't doubt that incremental expansion does occur, but nowhere near enough to justify creating 90% of the universe on a calculator.

This shot of NGC 7603 and her companion quasars puts into question the accepted assumptions on distance of possibly billions of deep-sky, high magnitude objects that demand the creation of Dark Matter to exist. It is more plausible that quasars are not super-massive giants that require more energy that we calculate as currently available in the universe anyway, and more likely localized ejecta from their companion galaxies'.


To the layman: Z=Redshift Lower the closer. Notice how the "farthest" object is actually the youngest.



Further reading of NGC 7603:

Anomalous redshift companion galaxies: NGC 7603 - NA Sharp.

Strong spectral variability in NGC 7603 over 20 years - W. Kollatschny, K. Bischoff & M. Dietrich.

[SkyDaddy7]

19. "Shining a light on cold dark matter!"

I thought at first you were talking about shining a flashlight on the Koch Bros.