Thanks to the rapid development of technology, astronomers are making more and more interesting and incredible discoveries in the universe. For example, the title of "the largest object in the Universe" passes from one finds to another almost every year. Some discovered objects are so huge that they baffle even the best scientists on our planet with their fact. Let's talk about the ten largest ones.
Supervoid
More recently, scientists have discovered the largest cold spot in the universe (at least known to the science of the universe). It is located in the southern part of the constellation Eridanus. With its length of 1.8 billion light years, this spot baffles scientists, because they could not even imagine that such an object could actually exist.
Despite the presence of the word "void" in the title (from English "void" means "emptiness"), the space here is not entirely empty. This region of space contains about 30 percent fewer clusters of galaxies than the surrounding space. According to scientists, voids account for up to 50 percent of the volume of the Universe, and this percentage, in their opinion, will continue to grow due to super-strong gravity, which attracts all the matter around them. Two things make this void interesting: its unimaginable size and its relationship to the enigmatic cold relic slick WMAP.
Interestingly, the new discovered supervoid is now perceived by scientists as the best explanation for such a phenomenon as cold spots, or regions of space filled with cosmic relic (background) microwave radiation. Scientists have long debated what these cold spots really are.
One of the proposed theories, for example, suggests that cold spots are black hole imprints from parallel universes caused by quantum entanglement between universes.
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However, many scientists of our time are more inclined to believe that the appearance of these cold spots can be provoked by supervoids. This is explained by the fact that when protons pass through the entrance, they lose their energy and become weaker.
However, there is a possibility that the location of the super voids relatively close to the location of the cold spots could be a mere coincidence. Scientists still have a lot of research to do and ultimately find out if the voids are the cause of the mysterious cold spots or something else.
Superblob
In 2006, the title of the largest object in the Universe was given to the discovered mysterious space "bubble" (or blob, as scientists usually call them). True, he retained this title for a short time. This 200 million light-year bubble is a giant cluster of gas, dust and galaxies. With some caveats, this object looks like a giant green jellyfish. The object was discovered by Japanese astronomers when they studied one of the regions of space known for the presence of a huge volume of cosmic gas. The blob was found thanks to the use of a special telescopic filter, which unexpectedly indicated the presence of this bubble.
Each of the three "tentacles" of this bubble contains galaxies, which are located four times denser among themselves than usual in the Universe. The cluster of galaxies and gas balls inside this bubble are called the Lyman-Alpha bubbles. These objects are believed to have formed about 2 billion years after the Big Bang and are true relics of the ancient universe. Scientists speculate that the blob itself formed when massive stars that existed in the early days of space suddenly went supernovae and released a huge amount of gas. The object is so massive that scientists believe that it is, by and large, one of the first formed space objects in the universe. According to theories, over time, more and more new galaxies will form from the gas accumulated here.
Shapley Supercluster
For many years, scientists have believed that our Milky Way galaxy is being pulled across the universe to the constellation Centaurus at a speed of 2.2 million kilometers per hour. Astronomers theorize that this is due to the Great Attractor, an object with enough gravity to pull entire galaxies toward it. True, scientists could not find out what kind of object it was for a long time, since this object is located behind the so-called "zone of avoidance" (ZOA), a region of the sky near the plane of the Milky Way, where the absorption of light by interstellar dust is so great that it is impossible to see what's behind it.
However, over time, X-ray astronomy came to the rescue, which developed quite strongly that it allowed to look beyond the ZOA region and find out what is the cause of such a strong gravitational pool. All that scientists saw turned out to be an ordinary cluster of galaxies, which puzzled scientists even more. These galaxies could not be the Great Attractor and have sufficient gravity to attract our Milky Way. This figure is only 44 percent of the required. However, as soon as scientists decided to look deeper into space, they soon discovered that the "great cosmic magnet" is a much larger object than previously thought. This object is the Shapley supercluster.
The Shapley Supercluster, a supermassive cluster of galaxies, is located behind the Great Attractor. It is so huge and has such a powerful attraction that it attracts both the Attractor itself and our own galaxy. The supercluster consists of more than 8000 galaxies with a mass of more than 10 million Suns. Every galaxy in our region of space is currently attracted by this supercluster.
Great Wall CfA2
Like most objects on this list, the Great Wall (also known as the Great Wall of CfA2) once boasted the title of the largest known space object in the universe. It was discovered by American astrophysicist Margaret Joan Geller and John Peter Huchra while studying the redshift effect for the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Scientists estimate it is 500 million light years long and 16 million light years wide. In its shape, it resembles the Great Wall of China. Hence the nickname he received.
The exact dimensions of the Great Wall are still a mystery to scientists. It could be much larger than it is believed and be 750 million light years across. The problem with sizing is its location. As with the Shapley supercluster, the Great Wall is partially obscured by a "zone of avoidance."
In general, this "zone of avoidance" does not allow discerning about 20 percent of the observable (accessible for current technologies) Universe, because dense accumulations of gas and dust located inside the Milky Way (as well as a high concentration of stars) strongly distort optical wavelengths. In order to see through the "zone of avoidance", astronomers have to use other types of waves, such as infrared, which allow them to break through another 10 percent of the "zone of avoidance". Through what infrared waves cannot penetrate, radio waves, as well as near infrared waves and X-rays, penetrate. Nevertheless, the actual lack of the ability to see such a large region of space is somewhat frustrating for scientists. A "zone of avoidance" may contain information that can fill in the gaps in our knowledge of space.
Supercluster Laniakea
Galaxies are usually grouped together. These groups are called clusters. Regions of space where these clusters are more densely spaced together are called superclusters. Astronomers have previously mapped these objects by determining their physical location in the universe, but recently a new way of mapping local space has been invented, shedding light on data previously unknown to astronomy.
The new principle of mapping the local space and the galaxies located in it is based not so much on calculating the physical location of an object, but on measuring the gravitational effect it exerts. Thanks to the new method, the location of galaxies is determined and on the basis of this, a map of the distribution of gravity in the Universe is compiled. Compared to the old ones, the new method is more advanced because it allows astronomers not only to mark new objects in the universe we see, but also to find new objects in places where it was not possible to look before. Since the method is based on measuring the level of influence of certain galaxies, and not on observing these galaxies, thanks to it we can find even those objects that we cannot directly see.
The first results of studying our local galaxies using a new research method have already been obtained. Scientists, based on the boundaries of the gravitational flow, mark a new supercluster. The importance of this research is that it will allow us to better understand where we belong in the universe. Previously, it was thought that the Milky Way is inside the Virgo supercluster, but the new research method shows that this region is just an arm of the even larger Laniakea supercluster - one of the largest objects in the Universe. It spans 520 million light years, and we are somewhere within it.
Sloan's Great Wall
The Sloan Great Wall was first discovered in 2003 as part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, a scientific mapping of hundreds of millions of galaxies to determine the presence of the largest objects in the universe. Sloan's Great Wall is a giant galactic filament made up of several superclusters that spread out across the universe like the tentacles of a giant octopus. At 1.4 billion light years long, the "wall" was once thought to be the largest object in the universe.
Sloan's Great Wall itself is not as well-studied as the super-concretions that lie within it. Some of these superclusters are interesting in their own right and deserve special mention. One, for example, has a nucleus of galaxies, which together look like giant tendrils from the side. Another supercluster has a very high level of interaction between galaxies, many of which are currently undergoing merging.
The presence of the "wall" and any other larger objects creates new questions about the mysteries of the universe. Their existence is contrary to the cosmological principle, which theoretically limits how large objects in the universe can be. According to this principle, the laws of the universe do not allow objects over 1.2 billion light years in size to exist. However, objects like Sloan's Great Wall completely contradict this opinion.
Quasar group Huge-LQG7
Quasars are high-energy astronomical objects located in the center of galaxies. It is believed that the center of quasars are supermassive black holes that pull on the surrounding matter. This results in a massive amount of radiation that is 1,000 times more powerful than all the stars within the galaxy. At the moment, the third largest object in the Universe is considered to be the Huge-LQG group of quasars, consisting of 73 quasars scattered over 4 billion light years. Scientists believe that this massive group of quasars, as well as similar ones, are one of the main predecessors and sources of the largest objects in the universe, such as, for example, the Sloan Great Wall.
The Huge-LQG group of quasars was discovered after analyzing the same data that discovered the Sloan Great Wall. Scientists have determined its presence after mapping one of the regions of space using a special algorithm that measures the density of the location of quasars in a certain area.
It should be noted that the very existence of the Huge-LQG is still a matter of controversy. While some scientists believe that this region of space does indeed represent a group of quasars, other scientists believe that quasars within this region of space are randomly located and are not part of the same group.
Giant Gamma Ring
Spreading over 5 billion light-years, the Giant GRB Ring is the second largest object in the universe. In addition to its incredible size, this object attracts attention due to its unusual shape. Astronomers, studying bursts of gamma rays (huge bursts of energy that form as a result of the death of massive stars), discovered a series of nine bursts, the sources of which were located at the same distance to the Earth. These bursts formed a ring in the sky 70 times the diameter of the full moon. Given that gamma ray bursts themselves are quite rare, the chance that they will form a similar shape in the sky is 1 in 20,000. This allowed scientists to believe that they are witnessing one of the largest objects in the universe.
By itself, "ring" is just a term describing the visual representation of this phenomenon when viewed from Earth. There are theories that the giant gamma-ray ring may be a projection of a sphere around which all gamma-ray bursts occurred in a relatively short period of time, about 250 million years. True, here the question arises as to what kind of source could create such a sphere. One explanation revolves around the possibility that galaxies could cluster around a huge concentration of dark matter. However, this is only a theory. Scientists still don't know how these structures are formed.
Great Wall of Hercules - Northern Crown
The largest object in the universe was also discovered by astronomers as part of observing gamma rays. Dubbed the Great Wall of Hercules - the Northern Crown, this object spans 10 billion light years, making it twice the size of the Giant Galactic Gamma Ring. Since the brightest bursts of gamma rays are produced by larger stars, usually located in areas of space that contain more matter, astronomers each time metaphorically treat each burst as a needle prick into something larger. When scientists discovered that gamma-ray bursts too often occur in the area of space in the direction of the constellations Hercules and the Northern Corona, they determined that there was an astronomical object, which was most likelydense concentration of galactic clusters and other matter.
Interesting fact: the name "Great Wall Hercules - Northern Crown" was invented by a Filipino teenager, who wrote it down on Wikipedia (anyone who does not know can edit this electronic encyclopedia). Shortly after the news that astronomers had discovered a huge structure in the cosmic sky, a corresponding article appeared on the pages of "Wikipedia". Despite the fact that the invented name does not accurately describe this object (the wall covers several constellations at once, not just two), the world Internet quickly got used to it. This may be the first time that Wikipedia has given a name to a discovered and scientifically interesting object.
Since the very existence of this "wall" also contradicts the cosmological principle, scientists have to revise some of their theories about how the universe actually formed.
Cosmic web
Scientists believe that the expansion of the universe is not random. There are theories according to which all galaxies in space are organized into one incredible structure, reminiscent of thread-like connections that unite dense regions. These filaments are scattered between the less dense voids. Scientists call this structure the Cosmic Web.
According to scientists, the web was formed at very early stages in the history of the universe. The early stage of the formation of the web was unstable and heterogeneous, which subsequently helped the formation of everything that is now in the Universe. It is believed that the "threads" of this web played a large role in the evolution of the Universe, thanks to which this evolution has accelerated. The galaxies inside these filaments have a significantly higher star formation rate. In addition, these filaments are a kind of bridge for the gravitational interaction between galaxies. After forming in these filaments, galaxies travel to galaxy clusters, where they eventually die.
Only recently have scientists begun to understand what this Cosmic Web really is. Moreover, they even discovered its presence in the radiation of the distant quasar they were studying. Quasars are known to be the brightest objects in the Universe. The light of one of them went straight to one of the filaments, which heated the gases in it and made them glow. On the basis of these observations, scientists drew threads between other galaxies, thereby drawing up a picture of the "skeleton of the cosmos."
Nikolay Khizhnyak