Warm–hot intergalactic medium

The term warm / hot intergalactic medium or engl. Warm -hot intergalactic medium, short WHIM refers to an intergalactic medium in a relatively high temperature range, which fills the space between individual galaxies. It consists largely of ionized hydrogen and a significant proportion of helium.

The gas is ionized by relatively high ( seen astrophysical warm ) temperatures from K to K. This condition is therefore called warm- hot. Computer simulations indicate that a large fraction of the baryonic matter in the universe exists currently in this state. During the last five years, for example, the Max Planck Society collected a lot of other material using optical spectroscopy and large ground-based telescopes and ultraviolet spectroscopy from space data that is currently evaluated.

The intergalactic medium occupies the intergalactic space. The extinction of starlight by the IGM is iA negligibly small.