Astronomers Spot Shock Waves Shaking The Universe For First Time

A glimpse of shock waves rippling along strands of the cosmic web amidst the enormous tangle of galaxies, gas and dark matter in the observable universe was caught by astronomers, claims an official media report.

According to some research studies, these shock waves are likely to give astronomers larger magnetic fields, whose properties and origins are mysterious to a great extent.

Commenting on the newfound waves’ astrophysicist Marcus Bruggen of the University of Hamburg, Germany said the discovery of waves can allow astronomers to confirm the existence of the shock waves which was so far just a prediction by simulations. 

These shock waves help to showcase large-scale magnetic fields that form something like a sheath around these filaments, Bruggen added.

Further astronomer Reinout van Weeren of Leiden University, Netherlands asserts, scientists have earlier observed shock waves around galaxy clusters and shocks in filaments and adds that something like the recent observation has never been really seen.

Shock waves around filaments generally accelerate charged particles through the magnetic fields that suffuse the cosmic web, following the particles emitting light at wavelengths that radio telescopes detect.