The Universe’s chaos sometimes unfolds right in front of our eyes, unveiling some of the most incredible cosmic features ever seen. And astronomers don’t miss any chance to capture them.
Recent discovery is no exception at all, and now we have something that could have severe implications for our understanding of the Universe’s evolution.Â
Here is what you need to know.
Peculiar Arc of Galaxies Reveals Secrets About the Universe
A team of astronomers found an almost symmetrical arc of galaxies, 9.2 billion light-years away. What’s more intriguing is that at 3.3 billion light-years across rests one of the biggest structures ever discovered.
The Giant ArcÂ
Astronomers dubbed it the Giant Arc, and it could join a growing number of massive structures.Â
Alexia Lopez is an astronomer at the University of Central Lancashire, UK. She explains:
“The growing number of large-scale structures over the size limit of what is considered theoretically viable is becoming harder to ignore.”
We need to find out how big those structures are, and the current theoretical limit is 1.2 billion light-years. That means the recent discovery is almost three times larger.
The standard model of cosmology
To understand better, there’s a standard model of cosmology based on something known as the Cosmological Principle. According to this, the Universe is homogenous but on large scales.
Every part of the Universe could be more or less like the rest of the parts, but without any bumps or irregularities.
Furthermore, massive structures, more than 1.2 billion light-years, could be exactly perceived as those bumps. And one or more, for example, could build a coincidental arrangement.Â
The astronomers still figure more things out to determine how large the Giant Arc is, including examining other data.Â
However, if they succeed in finding out that, there’s still a question they need to answer: what do we consider to be “sufficiently large?”