#DarkMatter!🧪🔭🎈
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Normal #intergalactic #matter (IGM) located in the space between galaxies far exceeds matter found within #galaxies themselves, due to vast volume of space between galaxies, even though density in that space is very low. I'm even excluding #DarkMatter!🧪🔭🎈
www.americanscientist.org/article/the-...
Evolution of the intergalactic medium begins shortly after the Big Bang, when the density of normal matter—protons, electrons, and photons—was oscillating under the competing influences of gravity and pressure. At the same time, dark matter was quietly assembling into a primitive cosmic web. About 380,000 years after the Big Bang, the protons and electrons combined to form neutral hydrogen gas (blue), which was quickly drawn into the existing lattice of dark matter by gravity. The gas and the dark matter continued to assemble in the cold darkness until the first stars were born in the highest-density regions of the intergalactic medium. The light from these stars eventually reionized and reheated the universe, probably within the first one billion years (pink). As the galaxies began to take shape, the cumulative production of heavy elements by the stars began to "pollute" the intergalactic medium (green). CR: Tom Dunne
January 2, 2025 at 8:24 AM