Scientist image 3-million-light-year-long 'cosmic web' ensnaring 2 galaxies for 1st time

image via Space.com

February 12, 2025, 11:00 AM

• •Astronomers have imaged a spectacular thread in the cosmic web, connecting two actively forming galaxies that existed when the universe was just 2 billion years old.
• •The cosmic web stretches for an incredible 3 million light-years, making it about 30 times longer than the Milky Way.
• •The team behind the new observation overcame these difficulties using MUSE (Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer), a second-generation instrument Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the European Southern Observatory in Chile.

Astronomers have imaged a spectacular thread in the cosmic web, connecting two actively forming galaxies that existed when the universe was just 2 billion years old. Both galaxies at hand are home feeding supermassive black holes. The cosmic web stretches for an incredible 3 million light-years, making it about 30 times longer than the Milky Way. It is the vast scaffold upon which the structure of the visible universe is formed. Gas had flowed along its filaments, providing galaxies with the raw material needed for star formation and, thus, for their growth. That makes the study of the cosmic web crucial for our understanding of cosmic evolution.

Read original article