Astronomers have discovered a cosmic “ring” so large that it defies explanation by current theories of the universe. It is located about 9.2 billion light-years away from Earth and It is so huge that it is 1.3 billion light years across and a circumference of 4,000 million light years. If it were closer, it would be like seeing our full moon 15 times bigger than normal. It is one of the largest objects ever seen in space.
Astronomers used several different statistical algorithms to identify possible large-scale structures, and that’s when the Great Ring appeared. It looks like an almost perfect ring in the sky, but the truth is, it is It has a rather spiral shape.aligned towards the Earth.
He discovers a huge ring-like structure that defies all theories
Record numbers
Is this the biggest we’ve found? Curiously, this is not the first space wonder to be identified. What’s more, the same team of scientists from the University of Central Lancashire in England (UCLAN) discovered another comparable cosmic structure called A “Giant Arc in the Sky” that spans a staggering 3.3 billion light-years.
“Neither of these two ultra-large structures is easy to explain based on our current understanding of the universe.” said the British PhD student who made the unexpected discovery. “And their ultra-large size, distinctive shapes and cosmological proximity must surely tell us something important, but what exactly?” he asks.
It is so large that its existence should be impossible, according to new research presented at the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in New Orleans, United States, which challenges a fundamental assumption of our understanding of the universe, the so-called cosmological principle.
This principle states that over a certain spatial scale The universe is homogeneous and appears identical in all directions. This means that according to the cosmological principle, if we get far enough away from our universe, everything starts to look more or less the same. This is because the laws of physics are identical throughout the universe and affect all groups of matter in the universe equally.
An artist’s impression of the Great Ring in blue and the Giant’s Arch in red.
“From current cosmological theories, we didn’t think structures on this scale were possible,” said Alexia Lopez, a PhD student at the University of Central Lancashire who led the analysis. “We could expect possibly extremely large structure in our entire observable universe.”
Even more surprising is that the Great Ring and the Giant Arch they appear to be placed close together in space. They are seen at the same distance from Earth and at the same time period in the history of the universe. In the night sky, the two structures are only 12 degrees apart. The ring was found near cBoötes onstellation, near a giant arc 3.3 billion light-years wide, discovered by the same team in 2021. The Great Ring is centered near 0 on the x-axis, occupying approximately -650 to +650 on the x-axis (equivalent to 1.3 billion light-years)
The universe never ceases to surprise us
Why are these megastructures so important? UCLan researchers are now challenged to understand the implications of these massive structures on our current understanding of the universe. And we have already seen that the presence of the Great Ring contradicts the Cosmological Principle.
“Cosmologists estimate that the current theoretical limit on the size of these structures is 1.2 billion light-years, but both structures are much larger: the Giant Arc is almost three times larger, and the circumference of the Great Ring is comparable to the length of the Giant Arc. According to current cosmological theories “We didn’t think structures of this scale were possible,” Lopez added.
Universe
Explanation?
In the same work, scientists assume several reasons for the existence of these impressive cosmic structures. And it:
“One possibility is the Great Ring is related to baryon acoustic oscillations (BEAM). BAOs arise from oscillations in the early universe and should appear today, at least statistically, as spherical shells in the arrangement of galaxies. However, a detailed analysis of the Great Ring revealed that it is not actually compatible with the BAO explanation: The Great Ring is too large and not spherical,” López elaborated.
Another explanation is the existence of cosmic strings, hypothetical “defects” in the structure of the universe which could cause mass to accumulate along major faults.
The discovery alone won’t be enough to change our understanding of cosmology as we know it, but López believes astronomers can’t ignore the implications of these megastructures forever.
ring structure
Reference:
- Alexia López et al. The great cosmological mystery. Discovery of second ultra-large structure in distant space further challenges what we understand about the universe https://www.uclan.ac.uk/news/big-ring-in-the-sky 243rd Meeting of the American Astronomical Society January 11, 2024
