Understanding the Cosmic Web and WHIM

Amelia, a PhD student, discusses her research on the largest structures of the universe, focusing on the cosmic web and filaments of galaxies. She explains the scale of the universe, the missing mass problem, and the role of the warm hot intergalactic medium (WHIM). Using signal stacking, she and her team detected filaments, contributing to solving the missing mass problem.

What is Amelia currently researching as a PhD student?

• The formation of stars

• The largest structures of the universe

• The smallest particles in the universe

• The behavior of black holes

How many Earths can fit inside the Sun?

• One hundred million

• Ten million

• One million

• One billion

What is the approximate size of the Milky Way galaxy?

• 10,000 light years across

• 50,000 light years across

• 100,000 light years across

• 200,000 light years across

What is the cosmic web?

• A type of dark matter

• A network of black holes

• A distribution of galaxies in the universe

• A collection of solar systems

What are the three main components of the cosmic web?

• Black holes, quasars, and nebulae

• Stars, planets, and moons

• Clusters, voids, and filaments

• Asteroids, comets, and meteors

What is the missing visible mass problem?

• The inability to detect dark matter

• The difficulty in measuring the mass of black holes

• The discrepancy between observed and simulated visible mass

• The lack of visible stars in the universe

What is the warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM)?

• A type of dark matter

• A plasma of hot electrons between galaxies

• A cold gas surrounding stars

• A dense cluster of galaxies

Why can't current x-ray telescopes easily detect the WHIM?

• The WHIM is moving too fast

• The WHIM is too sparse and underdense

• The WHIM is too bright

• The WHIM is too cold

What technique is used to detect signals from the WHIM?

• Signal amplification

• Signal stacking

• Signal compression

• Signal filtering

What was the outcome of stacking x-ray images of filaments?

• No significant findings

• A detection above the noise

• A decrease in signal strength

• An increase in noise