I've should write a sonnet about this. I've got my first line (see the title). I'll give it a try soon.
But it appears that a major mystery of missing matter (see what I did there) has been solved. Researchers say that they've identified tendrils/wisps/strands/ribbons of extremely hot oxygen gas, essentially ionized plasma, in the space between galaxies. Enough, according to their calculations, to solve the conundrum of the 30% of matter that the Universe needed but which couldn't be found, before now.
The term for it is the Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium (WHIM). Cute.
Rather than write all the details here, I'll stop now and provide a link to one of the many articles that described the daunting details of this dazzling discovery. For some reason I am into alliteration tonight.
Researchers find last of universe's missing ordinary matter
"To search for missing atoms in that perverse territory, the international team pointed a series of satellites at a quasar called 1ES 1553—a black hole at the center of a galaxy that is consuming and spitting out huge quantities of gas. “It’s basically a really bright lighthouse out in space,” Shull said."
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| This really has nothing to do with the story but it's a cool image |
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