The Webb Space Telescope illuminates the first lines of the Cosmic Web

Fibers of 10 galaxies seen only 830 million years after the birth of the universe

Woven throughout our universe is a web-like galactic structure called the cosmic web. Galaxies are strung together by threads in this vast web, which also has huge gaps. Now, astronomers using the Webb have discovered the early structure of this structure, a narrow filament of 10 galaxies that existed only 830 million years after the Big Bang. 3 million[{” attribute=””>light-year-long structure is anchored by a luminous quasar – a galaxy with an active, supermassive black hole at its core. The team believes this early thread of the cosmic web will eventually evolve into a massive cluster of galaxies.

The same study also probes the properties of eight quasars in the young universe. Scientists determined that the galaxies’ central black holes, which existed less than a billion years after the big bang, range in mass from 600 million to 2 billion times that of our Sun. They are still working to explain how these black holes could grow so large so fast.

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