Chandra Discovers "Rivers Of Gravity" That Define Cosmic Landscape

Chandra_131_1024

chandra_131 July 31st, 2002

Credit: Illustration: SAO/CXC/A.Hobart,

This artistic rendering illustrates how X-rays from a distant quasar dim as they pass through a cloud of the intergalactic gas. Four independent teams of scientists have detected intergalactic gas clouds with temperatures in the range 300,000 to 5 million degrees Celsius by observing quasars with Chandra. The spectrum of the quasar PKS 2155-304 in the inset shows absorption due to oxygen in the hot gas and allows astronomers to estimate the temperature, density and mass of the absorbing cloud. The hot gas appears to lie like a fog in channels carved by rivers of gravity and to form part of a gigantic system of hot gas and dark matter that defines the cosmic landscape. This system is thought to contain more material than all the stars in the universe.

Provider: Chandra X-ray Observatory

Image Source: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2002/igm/

Curator: Chandra X-ray Observatory, Cambridge, MA, USA

Image Use Policy: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/image_use.html

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Image Details

Image Type
Artwork
Object Name
Hot Intergalactic Gas
Subject - Distant Universe
Cosmology > Morphology > Deep Field

Distance

Universescale3
800,000,000 light years
Chandra_131_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 2h 22m 22.5s
DEC = 42° 20’ 48.4”
Orientation
North is 0.6° CCW
Field of View
6.1 x 5.0 arcminutes
Constellation
Andromeda
Chandra_131_1280
×
ID
131
Subject Category
D.6.1.1  
Subject Name
Hot Intergalactic Gas
Credits
Illustration: SAO/CXC/A.Hobart,
Release Date
2002-07-31
Lightyears
800,000,000
Redshift
800,000,000
Reference Url
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2002/igm/
Type
Artwork
Image Quality
Good
Distance Notes
Facility
Instrument
Color Assignment
Band
Bandpass
Central Wavelength
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
2000.0
Reference Value
35.59360123000, 42.34679031000
Reference Dimension
2227.00, 1845.00
Reference Pixel
1818.26722221133, 1071.31956430748
Scale
-0.00004549487, 0.00004549487
Rotation
0.57612089747
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Position
FITS Header
Notes
World Coordinate System resolved using PinpointWCS 0.9.0 revision 213+ by the Chandra X-ray Center
Creator (Curator)
Chandra X-ray Observatory
URL
http://chandra.harvard.edu
Name
Chandra X-ray Observatory Center
Email
cxcpub@cfa.harvard.edu
Telephone
617.496.7941
Address
60 Garden st.
City
Cambridge
State/Province
MA
Postal Code
02138
Country
USA
Rights
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/image_use.html
Publisher
Chandra X-ray Observatory Center
Publisher ID
chandra
Resource ID
igm_illustration_spec.tif
Metadata Date
2013-09-20T10:34:55-04:00
Metadata Version
1.2
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Universescalefull
800,000,000 light years

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