Cosmos Born with Weak Magnetic Field Shaped Universe
Imagine a newly born universe, just seconds after the Big Bang. Matter was still a soup of elementary particles and yet there was already something invisible shaping its destiny: Weaker than a refrigerator magnet, but persistent enough to influence the formation of galaxies, clusters, and the cosmic web.
A tiny field with a decisive role
, based on more than 250,000 simulations of the evolution of the early universe, presents a scenario in which the initial magnetic field had an intensity of just 0.2 nanogauss. Despite that extreme weakness, the field would have played a crucial role: , those invisible structures that connect galaxy clusters and define the “architecture” of the universe on a large scale.
The cosmic web, a map of invisible filaments
is described as a network of filaments and voids. In the first millions of years after the Big Bang, the magnetic field, however faint, would have served as an invisible scaffold for gravity to concentrate matter. Over time, those filaments became cosmic highways through which gas flowed to give rise to stars, clusters, and galaxies. argue that the coincidence between the simulation results and current observations supports the hypothesis of a universe that was born with an extremely weak magnetic field.
An expanding mystery
helps to answer one of the great questions of cosmology: how is it possible that even the emptiest regions of intergalactic space are magnetized? The study’s conclusion is clear: even could have been enough to initiate a process that, over time, magnetized the entire cosmos.
Implications for the future of astronomy
What is most intriguing is that this theory can be tested in the next decade. could detect signals in the early galaxies that confirm the imprint of those initial magnetic fields. If so, science will not only have solved a mystery but will have demonstrated that apparent weakness can hide colossal power. In this case, almost non-existent became the invisible thread that wove the skeleton of the universe.
