Chandra and FUSE View of the WHIM: the Local Group and Beyond
Abstract
In this contribution, I review the current observational evidence for the existence of filaments of Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium (WHIM). In particular, I first focus on the controversial issue of the identification of the z∼ 0 highly ionized far-ultraviolet (i.e. OVI) and X-ray (i.e. OVII, OVIII and NeIX) absorbers with either a very tenuous and diffuse WHIM filament, or with much denser condensations of material at large distances in the Galactic halo. I then present our recent detection (confidence level > 3σ) of the OVII WHIM at z > 0 and derive an estimate of the total number of baryons contained in this hard-to-detect phase of the IGM.
- Publication:
-
Maps of the Cosmos
- Pub Date:
- January 2005
- DOI:
- 10.1017/S0074180900196731
- arXiv:
- arXiv:astro-ph/0311162
- Bibcode:
- 2005IAUS..216..297N
- Keywords:
-
- Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 8 pages, 3 figures, proceedings of the IAU Symposium N. 216, "Maps of the Cosmos"