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1
Illustration of Sculptor Wall and Spectrum of H 2356-309
This artist's illustration (left) shows a close-up view of the Sculptor Wall, which is comprised of galaxies along with the warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM). Scientists used Chandra and XMM-Newton to detect the WHIM in this structure by examining the X-ray light from a distant quasar, which is represented in the spectrum (right). This discovery is the strongest evidence yet that the "missing matter" in the nearby Universe is located in an enormous web of hot, diffuse gas.
(Credit: Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss; Spectrum: NASA/CXC/Univ. of California Irvine/T. Fang et al.)
This artist's illustration (left) shows a close-up view of the Sculptor Wall, which is comprised of galaxies along with the warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM). Scientists used Chandra and XMM-Newton to detect the WHIM in this structure by examining the X-ray light from a distant quasar, which is represented in the spectrum (right). This discovery is the strongest evidence yet that the "missing matter" in the nearby Universe is located in an enormous web of hot, diffuse gas.
(Credit: Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss; Spectrum: NASA/CXC/Univ. of California Irvine/T. Fang et al.)
2
Position of the Sculptor Wall
This figure shows the position of galaxies in the sky, where the Milky Way is shown at the bottom, and galaxies extending out to 800 million light years from the Milky Way are shown. In this mapping we are looking down on the Milky Way and the line-of-sight towards the target of the new observations, an AGN called H2356-309. This AGN is outside the limits of this figure, as it is located two billion light years from the Milky Way. Galaxies from a range of declinations around H2356-309 were included. The line-of-sight to H2356-309 is shown by the red dashed line and the approximate position of the Sculptor Wall is shown by the light blue line. The line of sight to H2356-209 is intercepted by the Sculptor Wall about 400 million light years from the Milky Way, causing some of the X-rays from the AGN to be absorbed by gas in the WHIM.
(Credit: NASA/CXC/Univ. of California Irvine/T. Fang et al.)
This figure shows the position of galaxies in the sky, where the Milky Way is shown at the bottom, and galaxies extending out to 800 million light years from the Milky Way are shown. In this mapping we are looking down on the Milky Way and the line-of-sight towards the target of the new observations, an AGN called H2356-309. This AGN is outside the limits of this figure, as it is located two billion light years from the Milky Way. Galaxies from a range of declinations around H2356-309 were included. The line-of-sight to H2356-309 is shown by the red dashed line and the approximate position of the Sculptor Wall is shown by the light blue line. The line of sight to H2356-209 is intercepted by the Sculptor Wall about 400 million light years from the Milky Way, causing some of the X-rays from the AGN to be absorbed by gas in the WHIM.
(Credit: NASA/CXC/Univ. of California Irvine/T. Fang et al.)
Return to H2356-309 (May 11, 2010)
Revised: November 30, 2022