"Astronomers have observed enormous filaments of galaxies tied together with dark matter - the stuff scientists believe makes up 85 percent of the total mass of the universe - stretching across unfathomably vast distances. Some of these behemoth structures have been observed to spin in the same direction, a dazzling and mysterious cosmic dance stretching across tens of millions of light-years, and a tantalizing clue in our efforts to understand how galaxies, and eventually stars, are formed."
"As detailed in a study published this month in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, they observed 14 galaxies arranged in a "razor-thin" string that measures roughly 5.5 million light-years long and 117,000 light-years across. This structure is located inside a much larger filament that contains 280 other galaxies, reaching a length of 50 million light-years."
""This is the largest individual spinning structure so far detected," colead author and University of Oxford postdoctoral researcher Lyla Jung told Reuters. "Statistically, we believe there are other spinning structures, some of which could be larger. However, we have not been able to detect them directly with our current data and telescopes.""
Enormous galaxy filaments bound by dark matter can span tens of millions of light-years and show coherent rotational motion. Radio observations with the MeerKAT array identified a razor-thin string of 14 galaxies about 5.5 million light-years long and 117,000 light-years across nested within a larger filament containing 280 galaxies and extending roughly 50 million light-years. Many galaxies in the larger filament rotate in the same direction as the filament. The string represents the largest individual spinning structure detected so far. The coherence of spin alignment implies filaments and dark matter can impart angular momentum over vast distances.
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