Detection of pure warm-hot intergalactic medium emission from a 7.2 Mpc long filament in the Shapley supercluster using X-ray spectroscopy

Vol. 698
3. Cosmology (including clusters of galaxies)

Detection of pure warm-hot intergalactic medium emission from a 7.2 Mpc long filament in the Shapley supercluster using X-ray spectroscopy

A significant fraction of the local Universe’s baryonic content remains undetected. Cosmological simulations indicate that most of the missing baryons are located in cosmic filaments in the form of the warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM). This paper reports the first X-ray spectroscopic detection of pure WHIM emission from an individual, pristine filament without significant contamination from unresolved point sources or gas clumps.