Animation of Absorption by Intergalactic Gas
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In this animation, X-rays from a distant quasar traveling toward Earth and the Chandra X-ray Observatory are shown as waves of colored light. As they pass through a cloud of intergalactic gas, which appears as the white, filamentary structure, some of the X-rays are absorbed. Chandra can measure the amount of dimming in the X-rays due to oxygen ions in the cloud. This allows astronomers to estimate the temperature, density, and mass of the absorbing gas, which is part of an intergalactic web of hot gas and dark matter that contains most of the material in the universe.
[Runtime: 0:19]
Animation: NASA/CXC/A.Hobart

Animation of Rivers of Gravity
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Over the course of billions of years, dark matter and gas collapse to produce vast channels in the geometry of space. This animation illustrates how this process resembles erosion patterns created by rivers. Most galaxies and galaxy clusters lie at the junction of these channels, whereas the hot gas lies like a fog over the dark matter in the entire channel system.
[Run time = 0:32 sec]
Animation: NASA/CXC/D.Berry

Illustration of Absorption of X-rays by Intergalactic Gas
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• Illustration of Absorption of X-rays by Intergalactic Gas This sequence begins with an illustration of X-rays from a distant quasar traveling through clouds of clouds of intergalactic gas and being partially absorbed. The inset shows how oxygen ions in the clouds produce dips in the spectrum, or X-ray energy signature, of the quasar PKS 2155-304. A careful study of these dips enables astronomers to estimate the temperature, density, and mass of the absorbing gas.
  [Runtime: 0:23]
  Credit: Illustration: NASA/CXC/A.Hobart; Spectrum: NASA/CXC/T.Fang et al.