Researchers have identified colossal “superstructures” in space that hold the potential to reshape the very scientific principles used to comprehend the universe.
Scientists have found a huge thing in really far-away space that might make us rethink what we know about the universe.
This enormous thing is called the “Big Ring,” and it’s about 9.2 billion light-years away from us. The Big Ring is about 1.3 billion light-years wide and has a circle around it that’s about four billion light-years. To imagine it, if the Big Ring were visible in our night sky, you’d need 15 full moons to cover it, even though it’s way, way farther away than the moon.
Interestingly, this marks the second colossal structure stumbled upon by Alexia Lopez, a PhD student at the University Central Lancashire. The earlier find, known as the Giant Arc, is even more immense, boasting a diameter of 3.3 billion light-years. Strangely enough, both the Big Ring and the Giant Arc are nearly celestial neighbors, situated only about 12 degrees apart in the cosmic timeline.
When we peer deep into space, we are essentially looking back in time. This means that, given the Big Ring is around 1.3 billion light-years away, we are observing it as it existed 1.3 billion years ago because that’s how long the light took to reach us. Both of these colossal structures are visible to us at the same cosmic point in time.
“In our current understanding of the universe, neither of these two extremely massive structures is straightforward to explain. Their extraordinary sizes, unique shapes, and being relatively close in the cosmic sense are undoubtedly indicating something significant, but the precise nature of that remains a puzzle,” stated Lopez in a press release.
Lopez suggests that one potential explanation for the Big Ring is its connection to “Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations” (BAOs). These BAOs are echoes from the early universe, and based on statistics, they should manifest as spherical shells in the arrangement of galaxies. However, the Big Ring’s size exceeds expectations, and it lacks a spherical shape.
This implies that these superstructures demand alternative explanations beyond the current standard understanding of cosmology. Another hypothesis proposes that the Big Ring might be influenced by “cosmic strings,” akin to “defects” in the fabric of space-time. These defects could materialize as structures and matter in the celestial panorama.
However, the idea of cosmic strings is still just a theory, like other explanations. The researchers shared their findings at the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) on Wednesday. They’re sticking with their interest in studying superstructures, thinking it might change the very science we use to understand the universe.