Revelando un filamento de la red cósmica
¿Existe una red invisible de materia oscura a nuestro alrededor? Su influencia se puede observar en todo el cosmos, pero la red permanece invisible... en su mayor parte. Esta Imagen de la Semana muestra la imagen más clara hasta ahora de un filamento de esta red cósmica. La imagen del filamento fue obtenida con el Very Large Telescope (VLT) de ESO, y se muestra aquí en púrpura superpuesto sobre una imagen de fondo del Telescopio Espacial Hubble de NASA/ESA. El filamento, formado por gas acumulado por la influencia de la materia oscura, se extiende 3 millones de años luz, conectando dos galaxias distantes del universo temprano.
Alrededor del 85% de toda la materia del universo es, en realidad, materia oscura. La materia oscura es invisible, pero el gas que la rodea no lo es. Sin embargo, este gas brilla de una forma extremadamente débil, lo que hace que estas estructuras sean muy difíciles de observar. Pero después de unas 150 horas de observaciones, un equipo de astrónomos y astrónomas dirigido por Davide Tornotti, estudiante de doctorado de la Universidad de Milano-Bicocca (Italia), logró obtener esta imagen nítida de un filamento cósmico. Esto fue posible gracias a la excepcional sensibilidad del instrumento MUSE, instalado en el VLT, que se ha convertido en un instrumento fundamental para obtener imágenes de la red cósmica.
La luz de este filamento tardó 11.000 millones de años en llegar a nosotros, y muestra exactamente lo que predijo la teoría. En el universo primigenio, los filamentos de materia oscura podrían haber creado una gran red que atrajo al gas a través de su atracción gravitatoria, quedando atrapado. Una vez acumulado en la intersección entre los filamentos, el gas habría proporcionado el combustible necesario para formar galaxias. A medida que observemos más de estos misteriosos filamentos, ¿qué más encontraremos atrapado dentro de esta oscura red?
Enlaces
Crédito:ESO/D. Tornotti et al./Hubble: M. Revalski, P. Francis et al.
Sobre la imagen
| Identificador: | potw2504a |
| Idioma: | es |
| Tipo: | Observación |
| Fecha de publicación: | 29 de Enero de 2025 a las 11:00 |
| Tamaño: | 1945 x 1915 px |
Sobre el objeto
| Tipo: | Early Universe : Cosmology : Morphology : Large-Scale Structure Early Universe : Cosmology : Phenomenon : Dark Matter |
| Constellation: | Grus |
Fondo de pantalla
Coordenadas
| Position (RA): | 21 42 25.54 |
| Position (Dec): | -44° 19' 48.20" |
| Field of view: | 1.95 x 1.92 arcminutes |
| Orientación: | El norte está a 35.4° a la izquierda de la vertical |
Colores y filtros
| Banda | Longitud de onda | Telescopio |
|---|---|---|
| Óptico Ly-alpha (redshifted) | 513 nm | Very Large Telescope MUSE |
| Oltravioleta F336W | 335 nm | Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 |
| Óptico F450W | 448 nm | Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 |
| Óptico F702W | 681 nm | Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 |
| Infrarrojo F125W+F140W | 1.3 μm | Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 |
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