After a decade-long search, experts from the European Space Agency (ESA) may have found the missing matter necessary for cosmological models. This matter, consisting of 10-million-degree gases, is housed within an enormous filament stretching 23 million light-years across the universe, containing ten times the mass of the Milky Way. This filament connects multiple galaxy clusters and is part of the Shapley Supercluster. However, due to its diffuse nature, the filament emits faint light, making it challenging to observe amidst the bright signals from nearby galaxies and supermassive black holes.
"It seems that the 'missing' matter may truly be lurking in hard-to-see threads woven across the universe," said co-author Dr Norbert Schartel, a project scientist on the European Space Agency's (ESA) XMM-Newton telescope.
"Throughout this thin, diffuse, low-emitting gas, there are many supermassive black holes that emit a lot of X-ray radiation, overcrowding the signal from the filaments and their gas." - Dr Konstantinos Migkas, Leiden Observatory.
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