By studying the Cosmic Web, scientists gain insights into the formation and evolution of galaxies, as well as the distribution of matter in the universe. It provides a deeper understanding of how the cosmos is interconnected.

The Dark Matter Filaments of our Universe

The behavior of one of nature's humblest creatures is helping astronomers probe the largest structures in the universe.

The single-cell organism, known as slime mold (Physarum polycephalum), builds complex filamentary networks in search of food, finding near-optimal pathways to connect different locations. In shaping the universe, gravity builds a vast cobweb structure of filaments tying galaxies and clusters of galaxies together along faint bridges hundreds of millions of light-years long. There is an uncanny resemblance between the two networks: one crafted by biological evolution, and the other by the primordial force of gravity.

Mapping the Dark Matter Filaments

Researchers turned to slime mold, a single-cell organism found on Earth, to help them build a map of the filaments in the local universe (within 500 million light-years from Earth) and find the gas within them. The researchers designed a computer algorithm inspired by the organism's behavior and applied it to data containing the positions of 37,000 galaxies ("food" for the slime mold) mapped by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The algorithm produced a three-dimensional map of the underlying cosmic web's intricate filamentary network, the purple structure in the image.

Dark Matter Filament Simulation Map

Cosmic Filaments​ pulls Galaxy Material and Dark Matter into a Rotating Strand of Cosmic Web

​

A computer simulation shows how a cosmic filament twists galaxies and dark matter into a strand of the cosmic web. Filaments pull matter into rotation and toward clusters at their ends, visualized here with “test particles” shaped like comets. They can stretch millions of light-years, making them the largest known spinning objects in space. Of course, it has been established that the Cosmic Filaments contain Hydrogen and Dark Matter, etc, so each junction exit would spin out the necessary material to form galaxies and planetary systems. 

Read more: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/dark-matter-cosmic-filaments-biggest-spinning-objects-space