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Cosmic filaments may be the biggest spinning objects in space

Understanding filaments’ rotation could help astronomers figure out the origins of cosmic spin

illustration of a cosmic filament

Cosmic filaments are strands of dark matter and galaxies that rotate (illustrated). As the filaments spin, they pull matter into their orbit and toward galaxy clusters at each end.

A. Khalatyan/J. Fohlmeister/AIP

By Jaime Chambers

Moons do it, stars do it, even whole galaxies do it. Now, two teams of scientists say cosmic filaments do it, too.