Scientists have discovered an incomprehensible massive structure in distant space and it could challenge our very understanding of the universe.
This ultra-large superstructure is a “Big Ring” in the sky that is about 9.2 billion light-years away from Earth. The Big Ring measures about 1.3 billion light years across, with a circumference of about four billion light-years, according to the University of Central Lancashire. To put that into perspective, if the Big Rings were visible to us in the night sky, it would take 15 full Moon to cover it despite being millions of times farther away than the natural satellite.
Curiously enough, this is the second such structure that was discovered by Alexia Lopez, who is a PhD student at the University Central Lancashire. The previous structure is called the Giant Arc, and it is even more massive, with a diameter of 3.3 billion light-years. Oddly enough, both the Big Ring and the Giant Arc are almost cosmic neighbours and are only about 12 degrees apart from the time.
The further away we look in space, the further back in time we go. What that means is that since the Big Ring is about 1.3 billion light-years away, we are seeing it as it was 1.3 billion years ago because the light took that long to travel to us. Both superstructures are seen at the same cosmic time.
“Neither of these two ultra-large structures is easy to explain in our current understanding of the universe. And their ultra-large sizes, distinctive shapes, and cosmological proximity must surely be telling us something important – but what exactly?,” said Lopez in a press statement.
According to Lopez, one possible explanation is that the Big Ring could be related to “Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations” (BAOs). These BAOs are acoustic waves from the early universe, and statistically, they should appear as spherical shells in the arrangement of galaxies. But the Big Ring is too large and is not spherical.
This means that these superstructures need other explanations that are different from what scientists now agree is the standard understanding of cosmology. Another theory is that it could be caused by “cosmic strings,” which you can think of as “defects” in the space-time fabric. These defects could manifest themselves as what looks like structures and matter in the sky.
But even that is still little more than a theory, along with all the other potential explanations. The results of the research were presented at the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) on Wednesday and the researchers are continuing their interest in looking at superstructures, with the belief that it could lead to a change in the very science that we use to explaining the universe.
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First uploaded on: 16-01-2024 at 12:59 IST
