Nearly half of the universe’s ordinary matter was uncharted, until now

Much of it resides in strings of hot gas between galaxies

An illustration of the web of cosmic matter with many branches, which are blue on the left side of the image and red and yellow on the right side. The web is interspersed with bright spots at intersections, representing galaxy clusters.

A vast cosmic web of matter exists in space, linking clusters of galaxies. But much of the ordinary matter in those branches is sparse and difficult to detect, which is why it has been called “missing" matter.

Illustris Simulation/Illustris Collaboration

Nearly half of the universe’s ordinary matter has been hiding — until now.