  We study the topology of a space parametrizing stable tropical curves of
genus g with volume 1, showing that its reduced rational homology is
canonically identified with both the top weight cohomology of M_g and also with
the genus g part of the homology of Kontsevich's graph complex. Using a theorem
of Willwacher relating this graph complex to the Grothendieck-Teichmueller Lie
algebra, we deduce that H^{4g-6}(M_g;Q) is nonzero for g=3, g=5, and g at least
7. This disproves a recent conjecture of Church, Farb, and Putman as well as an
older, more general conjecture of Kontsevich. We also give an independent proof
of another theorem of Willwacher, that homology of the graph complex vanishes
in negative degrees.
