A model of the cosmic web, showing bright galaxies clustering where tendrils of gas meet(Picture: BBC)

Thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have discovered the earliest known thread of the ‘cosmic web’ ever detected.

The universe is made up of a cosmic web that is a vast network of filaments, sheets, and voids.

Galaxies are not randomly distributed throughout space, but rather found in these interconnected structures. The cosmic web formed as gravity drew matter together in the early universe.

In two recent papers published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, scientists detail evidence that this massive cosmic highway stretches back nearly to the dawn of the universe. 

A team of astronomers led by Xiaohui Fan used the Webb telescope’s NIRCam instrument to study a distant galaxy cluster called MACS0416.

While examining the data, they noticed a faint, elongated object they couldn’t identify.

Further observations of the object revealed that it was a filament of gas and stars located in the constellation Ursa Major, about 3 million light-years long.

A team of astronomers led by Xiaohui Fan used the Webb telescope’s NIRCam instrument to study a distant galaxy cluster called MACS0416 (Picture: PA)

‘I was surprised by how long and how narrow this filament is,’ said Fan. ‘I expected to find something, but I didn’t expect such a long, distinctly thin structure.’

Located just 830 million years after the Big Bang, this filament is made up of 10 closely packed galaxies stretching over 3 million light-years.

This discovery is part of a project called ASPIRE (A SPectroscopic survey of biased halos In the Reionization Era), whose main goal is to study the properties of galaxies in the reionization era, which is the period of time when the first stars and galaxies formed.

The project will use JWST’s powerful infrared capabilities to study the light from these early galaxies. The program will observe 25 quasars that existed within the first billion years after the Big Bang, a time known as the Epoch of Reionization.

The discovery of this filament is proof that the cosmic web was already in place just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, helping us better understand how galaxies formed and evolved over time.

The JWST has already provided dazzling images giving scientists a peek into some of the oldest and most distant galaxies ever seen. The data collected from its instruments allows them to understand these galaxies more deeply.

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Galaxies are not randomly distributed throughout space.