Dr. Chris Martin of Caltech explains the ongoing mission to directly observe the vast filaments of gas that connect clusters of galaxies, feed galaxies and create a vast web of matter that connects all matter in the universe. This lecture was delivered on April 10, 2012, at the Fairmont Orchid on the Island of Hawaii to an enthusiastic audience of Keck Observatory supporters. See more
Astronomers at The Australian National University have found evidence for the textile that forms the fabric of the Universe. In findings published in the October Astrophysical Journal, the researchers discovered proof of a vast filament of material that connects our Milky Way galaxy to nearby clusters of galaxies, which are similarly interconnected to the rest of the Universe. The team included Dr. Stefan Keller, Dr. Dougal Mackey and Professor Gary Da Costa from the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at ANU. Read more
Title: The Bridge Effect of Void Filaments Authors: Daeseong Park, Jounghun Lee (Seoul Nat'l Univ.)
Cosmic filaments play a role of bridges along which matter and gas accrete onto galaxies to trigger star formation and feed central black holes. Here we explore the correlations between the intrinsic properties of void galaxies and the linearity R_L of void filaments (degree of filament's straightness). We focus on void regions since the bridge effect of filaments should be most conspicuous in the pristine underdense regions like voids. Analysing the Millennium-Run semi-analytic galaxy catalogue, we identify void filaments consisting of more than four galaxies (three edges) and calculate the means of central black hole mass, star formation rate, and stellar mass as a function of R_L. It is shown that the void galaxies constituting more straight filaments tend to have higher luminosity, more massive central black holes and higher star formation rate. Among the three properties, the central black hole mass is most strongly correlated with R_L. It is also shown that the dark halos constituting straight filaments tend to have similar masses. Our results suggest that the fuel-supply for central black holes and star formation of void galaxies occurs most efficiently along straight void filaments whose potential wells are generated by similar-mass dark halos.