Astronomers spot one of the largest spinning structures EVER found

"Using some of the world's most powerful telescopes, a team of researchers found more than 280 galaxies stretched in a line through the cosmos. These galaxies are studded throughout a vast filament of gas and dark matter, which is turning on its central axis like a giant cosmic 'rolling pin'. The researchers say that this filament, and the hundreds of galaxies inside it, is spinning at speeds over 246,000 miles per hour (396,000 km/s)."

"'The filament is long and thin. 'The narrowness of this filament means that a rolling pin of the same dimensions would only be a few millimetres thick. 'But the radius of the filament is about 10 billion times the distance between Earth and the sun.' In their new study, published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Professor Jarvis and his co-authors focused on 14 galaxies in this structure. These hydrogen-rich galaxies span a line 5.5 million light-years long and 117,000 light-years thick."

"Although researchers have two-dimensional maps for the 280 galaxies in the line, new observations mean that these 14 galaxies can be tracked in 3D. Importantly, that means the researchers were able to study their rotation with a high level of precision. The galaxies on either side of the filament's spine are moving in opposite directions, suggesting that the entire structure is rotating. But more surprisingly, the researchers also found that many of the galaxies themselves were rotating"

More than 280 galaxies align along a razor-thin filament of gas and dark matter that rotates about its central axis. The filament measures roughly 50 million light-years long and about 163,000 light-years across, with reported rotation speeds exceeding 246,000 miles per hour (396,000 km/s). A focused set of 14 hydrogen-rich galaxies was mapped in three dimensions, spanning 5.5 million light-years by 117,000 light-years, enabling precise measurement of galaxy rotation. Galaxies on opposite sides of the filament's spine move in opposite directions, indicating collective rotation of the large-scale structure and internal galaxy spins.

Read at Mail Online