warm-hot intergalactic medium

English

Noun

warm–hot intergalactic medium (uncountable)

1. (astronomy) A sparse, warm-to-hot (105 to 107 K) plasma that cosmologists believe to exist in the spaces between galaxies and to contain 40–50% of the baryons in the universe at the current epoch.

Synonyms

• WHIM (abbreviation)

See also

• inter-galactic medium (IGM)
• intra-cluster medium (ICM)
• inter-stellar medium (ISM)
• inter-planetary medium (IPM)