Scientists have discovered enormous filaments in galaxies other than our Milky Way. So far, these mysterious structures have only been spotted in the heart of our own galaxy. They were captured last year by the ultra-sensitive MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa. The images showed nearly 1,000 strands of magnetic filaments, measuring up to 150 light-years in length, in surprisingly neat and regular arrangements. But now, after the latest discovery, scientists have understood that they are no longer unique to the Milky Way. These filaments were first discovered in the 1980s by astrophysicist Farhad Yusuf-Zadeh of Northwestern University in the US. Since then, these strand-like structures have captured the attention of scientists across the globe.
"After studying filaments in our own galactic centre for all these years, I was extremely excited to see these tremendously beautiful structures. Because we found these filaments elsewhere in the universe, it hints that something universal is happening," Mr Yusuf-Zadeh was quoted as saying by Science Alert.
The newly-discovered filaments are far larger than the structures seen in the Milky Way - between 100 to 1,000 times larger.
"What's remarkable is that their electrons stay together on such a long scale. If an electron traveled at the speed of light along the filament's length, it would take it 700,000 years. And they don't travel at the speed of light," said Mr Yusuf-Zadeh.
The study about the new discovery has been published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. It said the despite the differences, they are analogous to each other as might be anticipated based on their similar morphologies.
In both cases, the filaments are in rough pressure equilibrium with their surroundings but are more strongly magnetised, consistent with scenarios in which they are formed by dynamical processes at work in their surroundings, it added.