Gas filaments of the cosmic web located around active galaxies in a protocluster.

Umehata, H.
Fumagalli, M.
Smail, I.
Matsuda, Y.
Swinbank, A. M.
Cantalupo, S.
Sykes, C.
Ivison, R. J.
Steidel, C. C.
Shapley, A. E.
Vernet, J.
Yamada, T.
Tamura, Y.
Kubo, M.
Nakanishi, K.
Kajisawa, M.
Hatsukade, B.
Kohno, K.

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Publication date

October 2019

DOI

10.1126/science.aaw5949

Publisher

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Journal

Science

Abstract

Cosmological simulations predict the Universe contains a network of intergalactic gas filaments, within which galaxies form and evolve. However, the faintness of any emission from these filaments has limited tests of this prediction. We report the detection of rest-frame ultraviolet Lyman-alpha radiation from multiple filaments extending more than one megaparsec between galaxies within the SSA 22 proto-cluster at a redshift of 3.1. Intense star formation and supermassive black-hole activity is occurring within the galaxies embedded in these structures, which are the likely sources of the elevated ionizing radiation powering the observed Lyman-alpha emission. Our observations map the gas in filamentary structures of the type thought to fuel ...