the.com/cosmic web
the universe's plumbing: galaxies strung like dew on invisible strands of dark matter.
means the largest-scale structure of the universe, where matter forms filaments, sheets, and voids instead of scattering randomly.
from emerged from 1980s computer simulations of galaxy surveys, when astronomers noticed galaxies clustered along filaments around vast empty voids, rather than sitting randomly like sprinkled dust.
main ingredientmostly dark matter, invisible and unaccounted for
void sizesome empty bubbles span 300 million light-years
missing baryonshalf the universe's ordinary matter hid here
formation timetook over 10 billion years to assemble
for instance
sloan great wall — a galaxy filament 1.4 billion light-years long, found 2003
laniakea supercluster — our home filament, mapped in 2014, holds 100,000 galaxies
illustris simulation — 2014 supercomputer model recreating the web's growth from the big bang