Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Classifying the Cosmos pp 391–411Cite as

The Intergalactic Medium Family

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

  • 685 Accesses

Part of the book series: Astronomers' Universe ((ASTRONOM))

Abstract

We now move into the Family of the intergalactic medium, consisting of both gas and dust. Intergalactic gas is a hot, highly rarefied plasma consisting primarily of ionized hydrogen, along with traces of other elements such as helium and oxygen. It has been detected at temperatures ranging from 300,000 to five million degrees Celsius. This so-called Warm Hot Intergalactic Medium (WHIM) constitutes the bulk of the intergalactic medium (IGM). As with the interstellar medium, there is also a cooler neutral hydrogen component of the intergalactic medium in regions where there is not enough energy for ionization. Intergalactic molecules have not been discovered, but dust (G 16) also often coexists with the gas components.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   34.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   44.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Bart P. Wakker and H. van Woerden, “High Velocity Clouds, ARAA, 35 (1997), 217–266; Wakker and Philipp Richter, “Our Growing Breathing Galaxy,” SciAm (January, 2004), 38–47.

  2. 2.

    John N. Bahcall et al., “The Ultraviolet Absorption Spectrum of the Quasar H1821 +643 (z = 0.297),”ApJ, 397 (1992), 68–80, reported at HSTPR, January 13, 1992, “NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope Observations Indicate Nearby Hydrogen Clouds May Be Associated with Galaxies,” http://hubblesite.org/news_release/news/1992-04

  3. 3.

    Todd Tripp et al., “Intervening O VI Quasar Absorption Systems at Low Redshift: A Significant Baryon Reservoir,” ApJ, 534 (2000), L1–L5; HSTPR, May 3, 2000; “Lost and Found: Hubble Finds Much of the Universe’s Missing Hydrogen,” https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo0018a/

  4. 4.

    Charles Danforth and J. Michael Shull, “The Low-z Intergalactic Medium. I. O VI Baryon Census,” ApJ, 624 (2005), 555–560; Charles Danforth and J. Michael Shull, “The Low-z Intergalactic Medium. III. H I and Metal Absorbers at z < 0.4,” ApJ, 679 (2008), 194–219; HST PR, May 20, 2008, “Hubble Survey Finds Missing Matter, Probes Intergalactic Web,” http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2008/20/full/

  5. 5.

    HST PR, August 9, 2001, “New View of Primordial Helium Traces the Structure of Early Universe,” http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2001/27.

  6. 6.

    Joel N. Bregman and Jimmy A. Irwin, “A Shadow of the Extragalactic X-Ray Background,” ApJ, 565 (2002), L13–L16.

  7. 7.

    Fabrizio Nicastro et al., ‘Chandra Discovery of a Tree in the X-Ray Forest Toward PKS 2155-304: The Local Filament?” ApJ, 573 (2002), 157–167; Chandra PR, “Hot Intergalactic Gas: Chandra Discovers ‘Rivers of Gravity’ That Define Cosmic Landscape,” at http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2002/igm/;

  8. 8.

    Piero Madau et al., “21 Centimeter Tomography of the Intergalactic Medium at High Redshift,” ApJ, 475 (1997), 429–444.

  9. 9.

    HST PR, “September 9, 2009, “Fingerprinting the Distant Universe Using the Light from Quasar PKS 0405–123,” at http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2009/25/image/ak/

  10. 10.

    Chandra PR, May 11, 2010, “X-Ray Discovery Points to Location of Missing Matter,” http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/news/10-048.html; L. Zappacosta et al., “Studying the WHIM Content of the Galaxy Large-Scale Structures along the Line of Sight to H 2356-309,” ApJ, in press; T. Fang et al., “Confirmation of X-ray Absorption by Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium in the Sculptor Wall,” ApJ, 714 (2010), 714 ff.; F. Nicastro et al., “Observations of the missing baryons in the warm–hot intergalactic medium,” Nature, 558 (2018), 406–409; Taotao Fang, “Missing matter found in the cosmic web,” Nature News, June 20, 2018, https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05432-2; Daniel Strain, University of Colorado Press Release, June 20, 2018, “Researchers find last of universe’s missing ordinary matter,” https://www.colorado.edu/today/2018/06/20/missing-baryons

  11. 11.

    Charles C. Steidel et al., “Lyα Imaging of a Proto-Cluster Region at <z>=3.09,” ApJ, 532 (2000), 170–182: 172, 181–182.

  12. 12.

    K. K. Nilsson et al, “A Lyman-α blob in the GOODS South field: evidence for cold accretion onto a dark matter halo,” A&A, 452 (2006), L23–26.

  13. 13.

    J. E. Geach et al., “The Chandra Deep Protocluster Survey: Lyα Blobs are Powered by Heating, Not Cooling,” ApJ, 700 (2009), 1–9; Chandra Press release, June 24, 2009, “Lyman Alpha Blobs: Galaxies Coming of Age in Cosmic Blobs,” at http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2009/labs/

  14. 14.

    Carnegie Institution for Science Press Release April 22, 2009,“Mysterious Space Blob Discovered at Cosmic Dawn,” http://www.ciw.edu/news/mysterious_space_blob_discovered_cosmic_dawn; Masami Ouchi et. al., “Discovery of a giant Lyα Emitter near the Reionization Epoch,” ApJ, 696 (2009), 1164–1175.

  15. 15.

    The quotation is reported at Science News, “Astronomers Unravel Mystery of Gigantic Lyman-Alpha Blobs,” http://www.sci-news.com/astronomy/lyman-alpha-blobs-04208.html., based on the press release from the European Southern Observatory September 21, 2016, “ALMA Uncovers Secrets of Giant Space Blob,” at https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1632/. The research is published at J. Geach et al. 2016. “ALMA observations of Lyman-alpha Blob 1: halo sub-structure illuminated from within,” ApJ, Volume 832, Issue 1, article id. 37, 7 pp. (2016).

  16. 16.

    Simone Bianchi and Andrea Ferrara, “Intergalactic medium metal enrichment through dust sputtering,” MNRAS, 358 (2005), 379 ff; for general material see Mark Bailey, ed., Dust in the Universe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1988).

  17. 17.

    F. Zwicky, “Non-Uniformities in the Apparent Distribution of Clusters of Galaxies,” PASP, 69 (1957), 518–529: 522 and 525; and Zwicky, “New Observations of Importance to Cosmology,” in Problems of Extra-Galactic Research (New York: MacMillan, 1962), p. 347. See also K. H. Schmidt, “Existence and amount of intergalactic dust,” Astrophysics and Space Science 34 (1975) 23–31.

  18. 18.

    Dennis Zaritsky, “ Preliminary Evidence for Dust in Galactic Halos,” AJ, 108 (1994), 1619–1626.

  19. 19.

    Anthony Aguirre, “Intergalactic Dust and Observations of Type IA Supernovae,” ApJ, 525 (1999), 583; Simone Bianchi and Andrea Ferrara, “Intergalactic medium metal enrichment through dust sputtering,” MNRAS, 358 (2005), 379 ff

  20. 20.

    ESA Press Release, November 6, 1997, “ISO Proves that Intergalactic Space is Dusty;” M. Stickel et al., “Far-infrared emission of intracluster dust in the Coma galaxy cluster,” A&A, 329 (1998), 55–60. HST Press Release, “Super Star Clusters in Dust-Enshrouded Galaxy,” http://hubblesite.org/image/1940/news/9-active-galaxies-quasars. On dust clouds near the Milky Way Galaxy see Bogdan Wszolek et al., “Far-Infrared Emission from an Intergalactic Dust Cloud?,” Astrophysics and Space Science, 152 (1988), 29–34.

  21. 21.

    E. Xilouris et al., “Abundant Dust Found in Intergalactic Space,” APJ, 651 (206), L107–L110.

  22. 22.

    Brice Menard et al., “Measuring the galaxy-mass and galaxy-dust correlations through magnification and reddening,” MNRAS 405 (2009), 1025–1039, reported in “Colors of Quasars Reveal a Dusty Universe,” SDSS News Release, Feb 26, 2009; G. R. Meurer, “Dust in the High Redshift Universe,” in Astrophysics of Dust, A. N. Witt et al., eds (San Francisco: ASP Conference series, 2003).

  23. 23.

    S. Villeux et al., “A Search for Very Extended Ionized Gas in Nearby Starburst and Active Galaxies,” AJ, 126 (2003), 2185–2208.

  24. 24.

    C. R. Lynds and A. R. Sandage, “Evidence for an Explosion in the Center of the Galaxy M82,” AJ, 137 (1963), 1005–1021; J. A. Burke, “Mass flow from stellar systems-I. Radial flow from spherical systems,” MNRAS, 140 (1968), 241 ff. The quote is from the first paper with “Galactic Winds” in its title, H. E. Johnson and W. I. Axford, “Galactic Winds,” ApJ, 165 (1971), 381–390, which appeared in April of that year. A second paper, William G. Mathews and James C. Baker, “Galactic Winds,” ApJ, 170 (1971), 2241–259 appeared in December. This history is reviewed in Sylvain Veilleux et al., “Galactic Winds,” ARAA, 43 (2005), pp. 769–826.

  25. 25.

    Timothy Heckman et al, “Absorption-Line Probes of Gas and Dust in Galactic Superwinds,” ApJ Supplement, 129 (2000), 493–516.

  26. 26.

    Sylvain Veilleux, quoted in Fraser Cain,“Galactic Winds Connects Galaxies,” http://www.universetoday.com/9056/galactic-wind-connects-galaxies/, November 21, 2003; and AJ (2003), above, p. 3.

  27. 27.

    Kurt Adelberger, Charles Steidel et al., “Galaxies and Intergalactic Matter at Redshift z~3: Overview,” ApJ, 584 (2003), 45–75: 46.

  28. 28.

    SylvainVeilleux, quoted in http://www.universetoday.com/9056/galactic-wind-connects-galaxies/; J.S. Spilker el al., “Fast molecular outflow from a dusty star-forming galaxy in the early Universe,” Science (2018).

  29. 29.

    John Linsley, “Evidence for a Primary Cosmic-Ray Particle with Energy 1020 eV,” Phys Rev Letters, 10 (1963), 146–148. On the context see Roger Clay and Bruce Dawson, Cosmic Bullets: High Energy Particles in Astrophysics (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1997), 122–125.

  30. 30.

    James W. Cronin, Thomas K. Gaisser and Simon P. Swordy, “Cosmic Rays at the Energy Frontier,” SciAm, Jan 1997, 62–67.

  31. 31.

    Michael Freidlander, A Thin Cosmic Rain: Particles From Outer Space (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2000), p. 118.

  32. 32.

    Bertram Schwarzschild, “The highest-energy cosmic rays may be iron nuclei,” Physics Today (May 2010), 14–18.

  33. 33.

    The Pierre Auger Collaboration, “Correlation of the Highest-Energy Cosmic Rays with Nearby Extragalactic Objects,” Science318, 938 (2007), and J. Abraham et al., Auger collaboration, “Measurement of the energy spectrum of cosmic rays above 1018 eV using the Pierre Auger Observatory,” Physics Letters B, 685, (2010), 239–246.

  34. 34.

    The IceCube Collaboration et al., “Multimessenger observations of a flaring blazar coincident with high-energy neutrino IceCube170922A,” Science, 361 (2018), 146–147, http://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6398/eaat1378.

  35. 35.

    C. E. Fichtel et al, “Diffuse Gamma Radiation,” ApJ, 222 (1978), 833–849; P. Sreekumar et al., “EGRET Observations of the Extragalactic Gamma-Ray Emission,” ApJ, 494 (1998), 523–534, including historical references.

  36. 36.

    A. A. Abdo and the LAT Collaboration, “Spectrum of the Isotropic Diffuse Gamma-Ray Emission Derived from First-Year Fermi Large Area Telescope Data,” Phys. Rev. Lett., 104 (March 12, 2010); Fermi PR, March 2, 2010, “NASA’s Fermi Probes ‘Dragons’ of the Gamma-ray Sky,” at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/news/gamma-ray-dragons.html

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ashburn, VA, USA

    Steven J. Dick

Authors
  1. Steven J. Dick
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Dick, S.J. (2019). The Intergalactic Medium Family. In: Classifying the Cosmos. Astronomers' Universe. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10380-4_17

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation