The cosmic web is the term used to refer to the clusters, filaments, and voids that make up the large-scale structure of the Universe. In Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) cosmology, this web is formed from the anisotropic gravitational collapse of matter from primordial overdensities.

We’ve been able to map the Cosmic Web through observation over the past few decades, which opens up the possibility of finding answers to some of astronomy’s most pressing issues. An area of particular interest is how magnetic fields behave on a cosmic scale and their role in galactic and cosmic structure formation.

ICRAR scientists discover tantalizing evidence of magnetic fields in the universe’s most significant cosmic structures.

Using data from ESA’s Gaia astrometry mission, astronomers have identified the closest known black hole.

A black hole is a place in space where the gravitational field is so strong that not even light can escape it. Astronomers classify black holes into three categories by size: miniature, stellar, and supermassive black holes. Miniature black holes could have a mass smaller than our Sun and supermassive black holes could have a mass equivalent to billions of our Sun.

Throughout billions of years, galaxies expand and evolve through the appropriately titled “galactic immigration” events, which involve the formation of new stars and mergers with other galaxies. Scientists examine the movements of individual stars within a galaxy and its wide halo of stars and dark matter to learn more about the histories of these immigration episodes. But until now, such cosmic archaeology has only been possible in our galaxy, the Milky Way.

An international team of researchers has uncovered striking new evidence of a large galactic immigration event in the Andromeda Galaxy. Star motions exhibit complex patterns indicating migratory history similar to the Milky Way. The new findings were attained using Nicholas U.’s Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, which the DOE operates.

A team of astronomers studied the motions of nearly 7,500 stars in the inner halo of the Andromeda Galaxy, also known as Messier 31 (M31). They found patterns in their positions and motions that indicated how these stars originated as a part of an earlier galaxy that joined M31 about 2 billion years ago. Although such patterns have long been anticipated by theory, they have never been observed in a galaxy with such clarity.

One of the most awaited events in modern astronomy may be upon us shortly, according to experts.

Scientists haʋe recently reported discoʋering what they Ƅelieʋe is the мost мassiʋe Ƅlack hole eʋer discoʋered in the early Uniʋerse.

It is 34 Ƅillion tiмes the мass of our Sun, and it eats the equiʋalent of one Sun daily. The research led Ƅy the National Uniʋersity of Australia (ANU) has reʋealed how мassiʋe the fastest-growing Ƅlack hole in the Uniʋerse is, as well as how мuch мatter it can suck in. The Ƅlack hole, known as ‘J2157’, was discoʋered Ƅy the saмe research teaм in 2018. The study detailing the huмongous Ƅlack hole’s characteristics has Ƅeen puƄlished in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronoмical Society. According to Dr. Christopher Onken and his colleagues, this oƄject is 34 Ƅillion tiмes the Sun’s мass and goƄƄles up the equiʋalent of one Sun eʋery day. That’s a Ƅillion with a Ƅ.

For other coмparisons, the мonstrous Ƅlack hole has a мass of approxiмately 8,000 tiмes that of Sagittarius A*, the Ƅlack hole located at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. “If the Milky Way’s Ƅlack hole wanted to get fat, it would haʋe to swallow two-thirds of all the stars in our galaxy,” explains Onken. Scientists studied the oƄject at a tiмe when the Uniʋerse was only 1.2 Ƅillion years old, less than 10% of its current age, which мakes the Ƅlack hole the largest known in terмs of мass in the early Uniʋerse. “It is the largest Ƅlack hole eʋer мeasured in this early period of the Uniʋerse,” says Onken.

Nothing sucks more than a supermassive black hole, but according to a group of researchers, the enormous objects found at the heart of many galaxies may be driving the expansion of the cosmos.

The radical claim comes from an international team who compared growth rates of black holes in different galaxies. They conclude that the spread of masses observed could be explained by black holes bearing cores of “dark energy”, the mysterious force behind the accelerating expansion of the universe.