A mysterious “trail” of magnetic fields and relativistic electrons has been detected along filaments connecting two galaxy clusters, dubbed Abell 0399 and Abell 0401. The monumental discovery is thought to be the first of its kind, revealing a glimpse at how magnetic fields and high-energy particles extend along “cosmic webs” connecting distant objects in the universe. National Institute of Astrophysics (Inaf) of Cagliari scientists identified the bridge using the Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) radio telescope.
The so-called cosmic web describes the filamentary structures through which matter is distributed across the universe.
At their intersections sit huge concentrations of galaxies, known as clusters.
And it is between such galaxies scientists have now detected magnetic fields for the first time.
Using the LoFar radio telescope, the team spotted what have been described as “aurora on cosmic scales”.
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Dr Matteo Murgia, from the National Institute of Astrophysics, said: “We typically observe this emission mechanism in action in individual galaxies and even in galaxy clusters, but never before has a radio emission been observed connecting two of these systems.
“Understanding the nature of this radio source is a real challenge, since the electrons, during their radiative life time, manage to cover a much smaller space than the entire source.
“There must therefore exist some mechanism responsible for their acceleration that operates along the entire filament.”
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This suggests the existence of the magnetic field may be amplified by other processes.
However there is still much left to be understood about the mysterious radio signals.
The team is planning additional observations to the region to collect more data it hopes to ultimately confirm the discovery.
Some galaxy clusters can have in the central zones a sort of radio emission halo confirming the presence of a magnetic field and the Abell 0399 and Abell 0401 clusters, at little more than 900 million light years from the Earth, are two cases of this type already known for a long time.
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The discovery came after examining surveys carried out by European Space Agency’s Planck Surveyor space probe, which detected the presence of a filament connecting the two clusters and this stimulated the curiosity of Federica Govoni and her team, who started investigating the possible extension of the magnetic field beyond the centre of the two clusters up to the filament that connects them.
In the image’s central parts there is very hot plasma thought to be emitting X-rays shown in red.
A tenuous yellow filament connects the two clusters.
The radio emissions in blue show sources associated to galaxies and two haloes spread at the centre of the two clusters but also between them.