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Science 4 January 2008:
Vol. 319. no. 5859, pp. 50 - 52
DOI: 10.1126/science.1152008
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Perspective

The Cosmic Web in Our Own Backyard

Rodrigo A. Ibata1 and Geraint F. Lewis2

On the largest scales, matter is strung out on an intricate pattern known as the cosmic web. The tendrils of this web should reach right into our own cosmic backyard, lacing the Galactic halo with lumps of dark matter. The search for these lumps, lit up by stars that formed within them, is a major astronomical endeavor, although it has failed to find the huge expected population. Is this a dark matter crisis, or does it provide clues to the complexities of gas physics in the early universe? New technologies in the coming decade will reveal the answer.

1 Observatoire Astronomique de Strasbourg, 11, rue de l'Université, 67000 Strasbourg, France.
2 Institute of Astronomy, School of Physics, A29, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)