ESA's XMM-Newton finds huge filament of missing matter Astronomers have found a filament of hot gas, ten times as massive as our galaxy, that they reckon could explain where at least some of the universe's "missing" matter might be lurking. Space Shuttle Columbia launches at night on STS-93 mission (pic: NASA) 'I guess NASA doesn't need or care about my work anymore' READ MORE A …
lots
RockBurner,
Incorret use of units there, I'm afraid. You should have said:
Oodles.
Also, that means the scientists have used the wrong metaphor. These aren't the web that holds the universe together, but the discarded pasta from our creator and overlord the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Hence there are oodles of noodles. At 10m°K they're a touch hot though, I should blow on them first.
Far be it from me to question scientific observation, but how is it that a disparate cloud of gas in the middle of the nothingness of space can retain such a temperature ?
That's a bloody high level of activity for electrons that haven't been doing anything for eons.
Given a few more eons, I'm guessing they'll cool down enough to coalesce into stars and solar systems, maybe even whole galaxies, but still I have to wonder : what was their initial temperature ?
Afaik gas cloud 'temperature' reflects the kinetic energy of the atoms/molecules.
The 'gas' is effectively a vacuum, there's nothing to slow the particles down, just the odd biff when a photon/whatever interacts with one, temperature is high, but energy density is minuscule, no use for making toast.
Aside from the effects of photons, energetic particles, electromagnetic fields, from stars etc., billions of years accelerating whichever way gravity is pointing probably helps build up a bit of speed too.
where [...] some of the universe's "missing" matter might be lurking.
This is, at least, the second incarnation of the universe (the first one was analysed too well). Therefore, in this new one, they should take a closer look in my back yard.
There is plenty of mass hiding in plain sight and stubbornly refusing to be identified. The kids love the place and are so much attracted to it that nobody can get them away from it. But any sane person seems to be overwhelmed by the mass' SEP field.
Astronomers have found a filament of hot gas, ten times as massive as our galaxy, that they reckon could explain where at least some of the universe's "missing" matter might be lurking.
However, in checking their data, they seem to have found that inadvertently their telescope was pointing at the US Congress while in session.
astronomers have found an enormous filament of hot gas that bridges four galaxy clusters. ...
As well as containing approximately ten times the mass of the Milky Way and stretching for 23 million light-years (equivalent to traversing the Milky Way end to end around 230 times), the filament clocks at over ten million degrees.
Hmmm. Superhighway perhaps?
I mean, have ANY of you been on the 401 eastbound around Avenue Rd at 4:00pm on a weekday?
Long, searing hot, any time of year, and radiating *some* sort of violent energy in every direction.
> I mean, have ANY of you been on the 401 eastbound around Avenue Rd at 4:00pm on a weekday?
Hey, try the 405 over Sepulveda Pass1 basically any time, any day.
____________
1 Sepulveda Pass 330,000 cars a day.
I think it's a bit early for that.
The Higgs boson was also predicted, but Peter Higgs who worked out the theory was glad to still be alive when it was finally discovered (or proved), even though he had already received a Nobel Prize for the theory.
Sometimes it takes a while, even when it is very fundamental.
I've sort of been getting that feeling myself, though in a bit of a weak defense of phlogiston (one of my own favorite now debunked theories, by the way), it was a decent placeholder until Lavoisier, et al came along with a more accurate theory of combustion.
As I understand it "dark energy" and "dark matter" are also placeholders to make the math work out with the expectation that those blanks will be filled in with an actual mechanism eventually, sort of like Einstein's original cosmological constant fudge factor.
What we do know about the Universe is dwarfed by what we don't know and `twill probably be ever thus.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2025
