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A new study recently revealed the best evidence by far, of the cosmic filaments that connect
ancient galaxies to what is called the cosmic web. Mainstream scientists think these
filaments in the cosmic web are created by the elusive dark matter
which clumps together into filaments, and causes normal matter to clump along
these. Now so far, we have not been able to detect any of this supposed dark matter. The
more we look for this dark matter, the more normal matter we find often in the form of plasma.
For the first time, scientists have spotted what they term ”a pipeline gas filament” feeding an
enormous galaxy that they believe formed when the universe was only 2.5 billion years old.
This discovery seems to support a long-standing model that suggests
star-forming material is delivered to huge galaxies via these cosmic filaments.
They have previously detected these filaments connecting the galaxies,
but those were not able to capture detailed chemical information
of this stream. Fu and his colleagues were able to identify the chemical signature
of the gas streaming into the galaxy, thanks to a very rare and fortuitous
alignment of some quasars. They believe these quasars are situated far behind the galaxies
and could be used as a light source to help see the details in the gas stream
more clearly. They were able to probe the abundance of chemicals in the filament using the
light from the quasar. These showed that the stream lacked heavy elements such as aluminum, carbon,
iron, and magnesium. This implied that the gas had to be flowing
in towards the galaxy, because if the gas was flowing out of the galaxy, it would have been
enriched with heavy elements which are produced by the stars
in the galaxy. These filaments seem to be the only way that this cold gas could
get pumped into the galaxy, without being disrupted by the hot
atmospheric surroundings of the galaxy. They believe that this is a process that
is important in understanding how these massive galaxies formed in the early universe. Let's just
take a step back here, as there are many aspects to this report which would lead to a very different
conclusion. We will start with the fact that this bulk of work focuses on what they
consider massive starburst galaxies, at high redshifts in the vicinity of background quasars.
Add into this the fact that they detect gas around these quasars,
that appears to connect them to the galaxy itself. Many of you will be familiar with the
brilliant Halton Arp and his extensive work looking at exactly these scenarios.
He found a clear correlation to the proximity of quasars and the host galaxy, and speculated that
these quasars were ejected from the host galaxies, and would continue outwards from these
and slowly develop into a companion galaxy later on. He also saw very strong evidence of this
ejection process occurring in an X-pattern through the center of the galaxy.
Here are some examples from the many, many images that Halton examined.
Let's just take another look at this galaxy. We can clearly see the quasars,
that they identify, seem to be strung out below the galaxy. Not in a perfectly straight line, but
more an arc shape. Halton felt that this arc curve may be caused by the galaxy rotating by up to a
quarter of a turn. We also see a companion galaxy off on the other axis,
situated some distance from the host galaxy. Halton was also able to find examples of
quasars that were clearly embedded in gas material, that connected all the way back to the
host galaxies. This is exactly what we are seeing here as well, when Halton made these
discoveries they were ignored as the redshift of the quasars would place them
much further back than the host galaxies. Despite the connection via the gas cloud,
the redshift of these objects is not solely related to the recessional
velocity, and hence their distance from us. Halton viewed that the redshift was
instead an intrinsic component of the object, that as the object aged, would reduce. So
quasars are initially born as high redshift objects, and then slowly reduce their redshift.
Once they evolve into a companion galaxy, their redshift would be almost the same
as the host galaxy. The important point was the redshift of the quasars was always an offset of the
original host galaxy. And when we look at the redshift of the
object, we do indeed see that the redshift of the quasar
does reduce as you move further out. So the first quasar would have a 0.242
higher redshift than the host galaxy and the second quasar only 0.075. So again, as we're moving
further out, this is reducing. If we examine the two companion galaxies that they have identified,
again here we see a much lower value for the redshift, as these in Halton's view would be more
mature. Now these steps also fit quite closely with the quantization that Halton Arp
saw for these types of objects, as they move further out from the host galaxies.
This galaxy also reminds me of NGC3067 and the quasar 3C232 which Halton Arp looked at.
Here there was a quasar embedded in a hydrogen filament. Astronomers claimed that the quasar had
to be situated behind the filament and could not be embedded within it. The
argument was that the filament at the same redshift of the galaxy
absorbed continuum light from the quasar, but did not show excited optical emission lines,
proving that the quasar was much further back than the hydrogen filament.
Halton however, pointed out that in order to get to this conclusion, they needed to make a short
extrapolation. The photons needed to ionize the hydrogen in the filament,
and make it fluoresce, were at a shorter wavelength than those in the spectrum.
The actual amount needs to be determined by the amount of hydrogen at redshifts
intermediate between the quasar and the hydrogen filament, the degree to
which the filament was composed of small dense clouds, and the relative beaming angle between
the ultraviolet and radio wavelengths of the quasar. These are all values they do not know, so
they have to guess in order to derive their value. Now one important point to realize is that they
see a direct link between these star-forming galaxies and the neutral gas reservoirs that may
fuel the future star formation. Again, here we must consider the type of galaxy.
These are considered to be active galaxies and once more, these are
exactly the galaxies that Halton had identified. These types of galaxies often had
quasars associated with them and companion galaxies. We know that these types of galaxies
also output vast amounts of materials from massive jets that they produce.
It was along these jets that Halton found many of the associated quasars.
The material was not flowing inwards but was flowing outwards in his view, forming a sort of
umbilical cord back to the host galaxy. Another important point to realize is
that if you accept the idea that redshift is largely an intrinsic
component of the host object, then this too would apply to the galaxy.
This immediately would mean that this too is not a distant massive old galaxy.
Instead, it is a younger more active one in the process of creating newer younger galaxies
through the emission of these quasars. The increased activity will also lead to
more energy within the galaxy, and hence a higher current density,
leading to rapid star formation. They identify interesting absorption
structures towards both quasars, which include variable metallicities and
what the author sees as a filament structure which will eventually collapse to form a
cluster of galaxies. This, and the unexpectedly large covering factor
that they have identified for the quasars, is much easier to explain if you
take the bold step to see that these quasars are instead embedded within the filament.
Where they identify a filament structure which is associated with the quasar,
this is actually the umbilical cord connecting the quasar
back into the large filament extending from the host galaxy.
Galaxies undergo a life cycle which includes the ejection of material
which forms quasars, which eventually forms companion galaxies.
We see all these phases in this galaxy and its surroundings. We see clear evidence of the existence
of filaments connecting to the galaxy. We see companion galaxies located along
two of the axes of the galaxy. And most importantly, we see two quasars
embedded within the filament and these have a delicate filament
structure that connects them back into this filament. At some point
coincidences cease to exist. You must start to see the data in a new
light. Halton Arp was a pioneer in this field.
Our universe is electric and screams this at every possible opportunity.
You just have to be willing to shake off the old paradigms to see it come to life.
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