CU astronomers detect immense 'webs' in universe

By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Originally published 11:37 a.m., May 21, 2008
Updated 11:43 p.m., May 21, 2008

Another mind-wower about the hugeness and emptiness of the universe came this week courtesy of the astronomers at the University of Colorado.

Using the Hubble telescope as a spectrometer, they found evidence that most of the so-called ordinary matter in the universe appears in spider web-like filaments in the empty spaces between galaxies.

People, planets, moons, stars and asteroids all comprise the universe's "ordinary matter," said Michael Shull of CU-Boulder's astrophysical and planetary sciences department.

Yet, all of those categories make up only about 10 percent of the ordinary matter that should be out there, given what physicists know about the energy and mass of the universe, he said.

Where is the rest of that ordinary matter, sometimes called baryons?

Likely somewhere in the vastness of intergalactic space - the near-void between the billions of galaxies that holds maybe two hydrogen atoms per cubic meter, and nothing more, they surmised.

"We went looking for it," said Shull, whose breakthrough, co- written by CU doctoral student Charles Danforth, appears in this week's Astrophysical Journal.

"We think we are seeing the strands of a web-like structure that forms the backbone of the universe," Shull said.

Within the voids of the filaments in intergalactic space lie yet more free-floating ordinary matter that in billions of years could turn into stars and galaxies, Danforth said.

scanlon@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2897

• May 21, 2008

  11:50 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  theairdog writes:

  It's always the last place you look for it.

• May 21, 2008

  12:32 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  BroncoRick69 writes:

  With all of the technology we have, and they cant figure out what the hell is going on?

• May 21, 2008

  1:19 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  BKindel writes:

  Compared to the vastness of the Universe, we earthlings are pretty paltry beings. Except for this part of our own Solar System, we have to observe everything from distances that are measured in light years of 5.8 trillion miles each. 4 billion light years would be over 20 sextillion miles (20 followed by 21 zeroes), and that's considerably less than half the size of the Universe.

  What little we DO understand is the result of generations of observations, hypotheses that have been proven or disproven, and the best efforts of the human intellect. We continue to enhance the tools available, which increases our reach and improves the quality of our observations.

  I'd like to believe that we will someday be able to visit the stars, but for now that remains the stuff of science fiction. We have a great distance to go in those technologies, also.

• May 21, 2008

  3:45 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  dcolon47 writes:

  the hell with the big bang theory, i want to know what was there and how it was created before the big bang. things just dont appear out of nowhere.

• May 21, 2008

  6:52 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Houstongolfnut writes:

  Thanks "theairdog". There won't be many reader comments of any kind on this story. Yours hit the nail on the head.

• May 21, 2008

  8:59 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Gene writes:

  Why was it again, the the DNC wants us to pay $7.50 per human being at a conference to offset carbon created during a week in August of 2008 A.D. ?

• May 21, 2008

  10:43 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  gethoht writes:

  Gene... what he11 are you talking about? Your comment has nothing to do with the story whatsoever.

  Do you just like talking to yourself or what?

• May 22, 2008

  7:08 a.m.

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  Gene writes:

  Dear getholdofit,
  I was commenting on the vastness of the universe and mans paltry part of it (read post by BKindel above). I was talking about how man is effecting our little planet. How powerless man is against the universe, or God if you will accept that thought. I was commenting on the vanity of man to think he can effect the planet by planting a row of trees to make up for flying a jet plane for so many miles. Sorry if the carbon offset thing was a little oblique, but it really is.

• May 22, 2008

  10:05 a.m.

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  docbill writes:

  Anyone who believes in a multi-crunch is expressing a religious view, not a scientific view. The idea that a universe can collapse and re-expand again into an interesting universe counterdicts fundamental laws of physics. Granted we don't understand enough of the very first or last moments of the universe to say it can't happen, but to suppose it does violates Occam's razor. You might as well assume the universe collapses and forms a tasty jello pudding pop which is then eaten by Bill Cosby.

  Do me a favor, and before posting again, review the Second Law of Thermodynamics. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_l...

  Quite simply put, overall the universe gets less structured as time passes. If I drop a glass on the floor, it shatters in a million pieces. Never do those pieces all come back together and hop in my hand as a fully formed glass. If it did so, I would take that as proof of the existence of God.

  The universe itself can be thought of as a glass that is shattering into pieces. So long as the second law of thermodynamics apply, the universe can't come back together again and then break in such interesting ways again. Maybe if there was a big crunch, we could have a second big bang. But there would no galaxy, no planets, no people. Probably not even anything as complex as a hydrogen atom.

  Of course the other flaw with this belief is current evidence is that the universe's expansion is accelerating. That means there will never be a big crunch... But I am willing to overlook that, because perhaps there is an unknown process that will reverse that at some point in the future.