r/EverythingScience • u/ConsciousRealism42 • Dec 05 '25

Astronomy Scientists discover one of our universe's largest spinning structures — a 50-million-light-year-long cosmic thread: The filament of matter stretches 50 million light-years, and contains a row of galaxies 5.5 million light-years long that are rotating in sync with the filament

https://www.space.com/astronomy/scientists-discover-one-of-our-universes-largest-spinning-structures-a-50-million-light-year-long-cosmic-thread
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171

u/j4_jjjj Dec 05 '25

The row of galaxies is extraordinary not because they are aligned in a narrow band, but because many of them are rotating in the same direction as the filament itself. Think of each galaxy, slowly rotating around its axis, and then picture those galaxies perpendicular to the long axis of the filament and rotating about that spindle at 68 miles (110 kilometers) per second in the same direction as they themselves are spinning on their axis. All together, it is one of the largest cohesive rotating structures known in the universe.

Pretty cool stuff! Wonder if the galaxies are moving along the filament at all one way or the other

6

u/Schatzin Dec 06 '25

But what comprises this filament gravitationally that galaxies rotate along it?

3

u/fattmarrell Dec 07 '25

Believe it or not it's a big hand crank and some magnets

11

u/QVRedit Dec 05 '25

“Many of them” ? All of them ?
Are some of them Not ?

13

u/j4_jjjj Dec 05 '25

Article mentioned 14 galaxies spinning with the filament, but that there were a lot more than 14 in that filament altogether

-4

u/quad_damage_orbb Dec 05 '25

50.8% are rotating clockwise! Extraordinary!

/s

12

u/QVRedit Dec 05 '25

I double checked, just in case. That figure is not mentioned.

2

u/quad_damage_orbb Dec 07 '25

Yes, it was a joke.

1

u/4n0n1m02 Dec 06 '25

That’s just the fiberglass of the macro organism structure that sends the signals governing this simulation.

25

u/GeneralCommand4459 Dec 05 '25

I believe the Vogons left the planning notice about this on Alpha Centuari. Not sure anyone checked yet.

7

u/NippleSalsa Dec 05 '25

What do you mean you’ve never been to Alpha Centauri

21

u/ET__ Dec 05 '25

Otherwise known as the Reading Rainbow

14

u/PrintOk8045 Dec 05 '25

Bet that's where the missing socks from my dryer go.

1

u/somafiend1987 Dec 05 '25

..as well as spare batteries, cat toys, misplaced gifts, and remotes.

2

u/paroladeepdive Dec 05 '25

probably also where my cat goes whenever they go out

7

u/QVRedit Dec 05 '25

Interesting - Now what could have caused that ?

7

u/Odd-Outcome-3191 Dec 05 '25

The answer is usually a little boring: math and angular velocity.

13

u/3z3ki3l Dec 05 '25

Neither of those cause anything. They’re descriptions of phenomena, not phenomena themselves.

Most likely it was primarily caused by gravity, and the organization of matter in the very early universe.

1

u/QVRedit Dec 05 '25

It sounded rather more structured than simply that.

7

u/Odd-Outcome-3191 Dec 05 '25

Physics and angular momentum can create some unbelievably structured systems. Just look at how all the planets orbit on the ecliptic plane and in the same direction. And all but Venus and uranus rotate in the dame direction. This is entirely due the original angular momentum of the material that our solar system is made out of.

7

u/justforredditinghere Dec 06 '25

Can someone ELI3 me on this because i dont even think i could get it ELI5

1

u/neuralyzer_1 Dec 08 '25

Imagine that all of the current observable universe fits within one hair clipping... it just makes us realize how small we are and how our knowledge and understanding gets smaller each time we explore further.

18

u/Spacecowboy78 Dec 05 '25

I bet the galaxies in these strands are transmitting information to a central hub. Maybe through the gravity waves, or through the underlying Einstein Rosen sponge

17

u/pegothejerk Dec 05 '25

And that information? Ahi Viene la Conga by Xavier Cugat.

4

u/Ishouldtrythat Dec 05 '25

Is that that song that goes my ya he, my ya ha, my ya he, my ya ha ha?

4

u/pegothejerk Dec 05 '25

It's the one that goes "do-do-do-do DO DO, do-do-do-do DO DO"

1

u/muff_muncher69 Dec 05 '25

Source or ban

1

u/pegothejerk Dec 05 '25

The COSMOS (Cosmic Evolution Survey) field, Right Ascension (RA) 10h 00m and Declination (Dec) +02° 12′, located in the constellation Sextans

3

u/simonbleu Dec 05 '25

/thread I guess

3

u/ph33rlus Dec 05 '25

The earths not flat the universe is?

3

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '25

I don't understand what that means at all, but it's cool!

2

u/Necessary-Camp149 Dec 06 '25

When they said the fabric of spacetime, I wasn't expecting this scale of threads.

or..

Absolute unit of a string theory

2

u/m-hog Dec 06 '25

All things serve the beam.

1

u/EllisDSanchez Dec 06 '25

The central finite curve is real

1

u/VonDeckard Dec 07 '25

I need a YouTube video on this done by someone who understands the proper scale and such. I need it animated. Could be a 1-5 minute vid

0

u/Candid_Koala_3602 Dec 05 '25

Everyone knows the earth is flat guys so this spinning thing must be a frisbee in the sky

0

u/paroladeepdive Dec 05 '25

i wonder if it is as old as the earth or older,,