Filament (astronomy)

Filament has a number of meanings in astronomy. For other uses, see filament.

In astronomy, filaments are the largest known structures in the universe, thread-like structures with a typical length of 70 to 150 megaparsec that form the boundaries between large voids in the universe. Filaments consist of galaxies; parts where a large number of galaxies are very close to each other are called superclusters.
In solar astronomy, a filament is a strand of cool plasma suspended over the photosphere by magnetic fields, which appears dark as seen against the disk of the Sun.
In astrophysical plasmas, filaments are another name for Birkeland currents (or field-aligned currents), as seen in the aurora and plasma lamps.

One of the characteristics of a plasma is its ability to form filaments.

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