Astronomers discover giant string of galaxies that’s ‘probably the largest spinning object’ ever seen
Astronomers have spotted what is likely the “largest rotating object” ever discovered, and its rotation could hold important clues about the development of galaxies.
The swirling structure, located 140 million light-years from Earth, is a long string of threadlike gas about 5.5 million light-years long and 117,000 light-years wide, wider than our planet. Milky Way galaxy. The cosmic filament is made up of 14 hydrogen-rich galaxies linked in a chain, like charms on a bracelet. It was these galaxies that revealed the existence of the filament, the researchers explained in a paper published today (December 3) in the journal the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
After taking measurements, the researchers discovered that the filament itself appears to be spinning at about 68 miles per second (110 kilometers per second). Additionally, the galaxies surrounding it also rotate, most in the same direction as the gas wire. This suggests that structures like this could play a key role in galaxy formation by influencing the speed and direction of a star cluster’s rotation.
The team suspects that similar rotating filaments will be discovered in the near future, as researchers continue to explore ever deeper areas of the cosmos with next-generation telescopes. Many of these filaments are linked to each other in a manner vast cosmic web which channels matter throughout the universe, forming large interconnected clusters of galaxies.
This observation was collected as part of POWERFUL (MeerKAT International GHz Tiered Extragalactic Exploration), led by the Oxford physicist Matt Jarvis and is currently in progress. Future MIGHTEE data could shed more light on the filament’s behavior or facilitate the discovery of other rotating cosmic threads. This discovery could also help to inform future surveys using new instruments, such as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile.
“I think it really helps us understand the universe,” Tudorache said.
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