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Over one-third of the \u2018normal\u2019 matter in the local Universe \u2013 the visible stuff making up stars, planets, galaxies, life \u2013 is missing. It hasn\u2019t yet been seen, but it\u2019s needed to make our models of the cosmos work properly.<\/p>\n
Said models suggest that this elusive matter might exist in long strings of gas, or filaments, bridging the densest pockets of space. While we\u2019ve spotted filaments before, it\u2019s tricky to make out their properties; they\u2019re typically faint, making it difficult to isolate their light from that of any galaxies, black holes, and other objects lying nearby.<\/p>\n
New research is now one ofthe first to do just this, finding and accurately characterising a single filament of hot gas stretching between four clusters of galaxies in the nearby Universe. The astronomers used ESA\u2019s XMM-Newton and JAXA\u2019s Suzaku X-ray space telescope to make the discovery.<\/p>\n
This image shows the new filament, which connects four galaxy clusters: two on one end, two on the other. These clusters are visible as bright spots at the bottom and top of the filament (four white dots encircled by colour). A mottled band of purple stretches between these bright dots, standing out brightly against the black surrounding sky; this is the filament of X-ray-emitting hot gas that had not been seen before, and contains a chunk of \u2018missing\u2019 matter.<\/p>\n
The purple band comprises data from Suzaku. The astronomers were able to identify and remove any possible \u2018contaminating\u2019 sources of X-rays from the filament using XMM-Newton, leaving behind a pure thread of \u2018missing\u2019 matter. These sources can be seen here as bright dots studded through \u2013 and removed from \u2013 the filament\u2019s emission.<\/p>\n
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Download the annotated version<\/p>\n
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[Image description: <\/i>The image shows a cluster of bright, colo<\/i>u<\/i>rful spots against a black background. The spots are primarily purple with areas of intense brightness in the cent<\/i>re<\/i>, transitioning from yellow to green and blue. These spots <\/i>are<\/i>\u00a0connected by a faint purple structure, forming an irregular <\/i>extended <\/i>shape<\/i>\u00a0with hazy blobs at either end<\/i>.<\/i>]<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n