Ancient pop art
The search for protogalaxies was really a search for hydrogen, the most common element in the cosmos. Møller described how he and his colleagues observed these early star-forming regions:
"Most of the hydrogen is still there after the first stars were formed, so it is mostly a hydrogen cloud still, but now it is a hydrogen cloud with hot young stars inside it. This makes the hydrogen glow, much the same process as in the old neon signs of the pop-art generation, and the glowing hydrogen is what gives us a chance to find them."
Møller worked with the ESO's Johan Fynbo and Bjarne Thomsen of the Institute of Physics and Astronomy in Aarhus, Denmark, to spot the hydrogen clumps.
The group used variations in the light spectrum of the objects, a technique known as redshift, to place the objects on a 3-D map. They have "little doubt" that they've seen for the first time a cosmic filament in the early universe, which if true would lend credence to the computer models' that predict the structures.
"This then also lends support to the second prediction that the small objects will merge," Møller said. "The objects seen in the filament are very faint indeed, and we would need to merge many such objects to create a galaxy as large and massive as our own Milky Way."
And we'd have to wait billions of years to see that happen.
The findings, which will appear in the European journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, stretch observational techniques to the limit, and the researchers admit that many more observations will be required before any detailed comparisons can be made to computer models.
The results' greatest value, the researchers say, might be that they provide a new way to study a most ancient and cosmic spider web.
A truly cosmic thought
While some researchers insist on a spider web analogy for the early universe, Møller prefers a sponge. He says there were a lot of huge voids, bubbles that were nearly empty of matter.
"Separating the voids are thin over-dense regions, which will be walls between two voids at first," he explained. "But as the voids grow they break through the walls, which become thin filaments."
To visualize this, here's an experiment you can try at home:
Take a sponge, any sponge, but preferably a real sea sponge. "Cut it halfway down the middle with a knife and look down into the cut," Møller suggested. "That is pretty much what the early universe looks like."
Interestingly, as you think about the universe and this sponge, some scientists would say you're employing a structure of nature very similar to the one you are pondering.
"The forces that hold a sponge, a spider web and a brain together in the shape they have are all electromagnetic," Møller said. "The structure serves a function, and it was in each case most likely the cheapest way for nature to achieve that function."
We assume, however, that even Sherlock Holmes would not advise further knife-wielding examinations in search of proof for this heady notion.
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