Scientists have discovered the first evidence of shockwaves rippling through the “cosmic web,” a massive network of interweaving filaments that represents the largest structure in the universe.
The discovery represents tantalizing evidence of magnetic fields weaving through the gas, dust, and dark matter tendrils which link galaxies together.
Scientists first began to think that on the largest scales, the universe is ordered in a web-like pattern with filaments that cross vast voids in space and pull galaxies into clusters in the 1960s. Two decades later using computer modeling, researchers were able to determine what this vast universal network might look like for the first time.
Astronomers have since mapped the cosmic web with actual observations in the process answering questions about its structure. One element