Mapping the cosmic web comprehensively will offer astronomers crucial insights into the formation and evolution of galaxies.
The Caltech team employed the Keck Cosmic Web Imager housed at the W. M. Keck Observatory atop Maunakea in Hawaii to observe these cosmic structures.
Spectrum data can unveil the presence of hydrogen gas through its most prominent emission line,, the Lyman alpha line. "We are basically creating a 3D map of the cosmic web. We take spectra for every point in an image at range of wavelengths, and the wavelengths translate to distance,” explained Martin.Detecting the faint light of the cosmic web posed a distinctive challenge because it could easily be mistaken for nearby background light.
"We look at two different patches of sky, A and B. The filament structures will be at distinct distances in the two directions in the patches, so you can take the background light from image B and subtract it from A, and vice versa, leaving just the structures. I ran detailed simulations of this in 2019 to convince myself that this method would work," he explained.
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