Scientists may have discovered the hidden matter of the universe

The galaxies are distributed throughout the universe and are connected by filaments of complex nodes, thus separating them by holes. This is called the cosmic web.
It is believed that all the ordinary (so-called baryonic) things in the universe in the filaments are diffuse, hot gases. Nevertheless, the signal emitted by this diffuse gas is very weak, in fact 40 to 50% of baryons are undetected.

These missing baryons are hidden in the fiber structure of the cosmic web.

Nabila Akanim, a researcher at the Institute de Astrophysical Spatial (CNRS / University Paris-Zakle), and Postdock Hideki Tanimura are trying to find out with their colleagues. In fact, in a new study, they presented for the first time a statistical analysis showing the X-ray emission of hot barium in fibers.

To determine the presence of hot gas in the cosmic web and to measure its temperature for the first time, this group used a spatial correlation between the position of the fibers and the associated X-ray emission. Based on the X-ray signal stacked in the Rosat 2 survey data from about 15,000 large cosmic filaments identified in the STS3 galaxy survey.

These results confirm previous analyzes by the same researchers based on the implicit detection of hot gas in the cosmic web by its effect on the cosmic microwave background. This paves the way for more detailed studies, where the best quality data used to test gas evolution in the fiber structure of the cosmic web.

Press Release:

1. HD Tanimura et al. The first evidence of stacked X-ray emissions from the cosmic web fiber, astronomy and astronomy (2020). DOI: 10.1051 / 0004-6361 / 202038521