Synopsis
Animation of Absorption by Intergalactic Gas. MPEG In this animation, X-rays from a distant quasar traveling toward Earth and the Chandra X-ray Observatory are shown as waves of colored light. As they pass through a cloud of intergalactic gas, which appears as the white, filamentary structure, some of the X-rays are absorbed. Chandra can measure the amount of dimming in the X-rays due to oxygen ions in the cloud. This allows astronomers to estimate the temperature, density, and mass of the absorbing gas, which is part of an intergalactic web of hot gas and dark matter that contains most of the material in the universe.
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