Archived AstroTours
Filamentary, My Dear Watson: How the cosmic web can help us solve the universe's mysteries
By Martine Lokken on 07 July, 2022On the largest scales in our universe, matter is woven together into a three-dimensional web of structure. Cosmic filaments—strands of material that are made up of galaxies, gas, and dark matter—bridge the gaps between dense clumps in the web. The properties of these filaments depend on the formation history of the universe and can therefore help us better understand the nature of cosmology’s great unknowns: dark matter and dark energy. In this talk, I will review the recent advances in measuring and analyzing filaments and discuss how we can use them to unravel the mysteries of the universe.
About Martine Lokken
Martine Lokken is a PhD candidate at the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics at the University of Toronto. She studies the structure of matter on the largest scales in our universe in order to tackle major problems in cosmology, and is particularly fascinated by the mysterious source of the accelerated expansion of the universe. Martine grew up in Rhode Island, the smallest U.S. state, and went on to receive her Bachelor of Science from the University of Virginia. Outside of research, she loves to learn different styles of dance from around the world.