Astronomers have found the largest stellar structure in the visible universe: a huge concentration of quasars and galaxies clustered over an area of more than 600 million light years.
Astronomers have found the largest stellar structure in the visible universe: a huge concentration of quasars and galaxies clustered over an area of more than 600 million light years.
The structure includes billions of billions of suns like the Earth's sun and is 6.5 billion light years away from us. This means that the structure existed when the universe was a third of its current age, 10 billion years. In fact, the light captured by the telescope began its journey even before the solar system was formed.
Astronomers are now grappling with the meaning of the huge discovery. It is not clear whether the stellar structure is gravitationally connected or whether it is a kind of "wave", created during the straight expansion of the universe after the big bang. In the event that it is indeed a uniform body, this raises many question marks on the accepted theories regarding the shrinking of the universe. There is great difficulty in explaining how such a large stellar body was formed in such a relatively short time. The astronomers hope that continued research and data calculation of the stellar structure will bring them to an understanding of the phenomenon.
The structure consists of 11 regular galaxies and 18 quasars, which are galaxies that emit large amounts of light and radio waves. Sky gazers will be able to spot it just below the center of the Leo constellation.
