We didn't think it was possible. Scientists have discovered a mega structure that challenges ideas about space (2 photos)

Astronomers have discovered a ring-shaped cosmic giant galactic structure, the size of which challenges existing theories of the universe, reports The Guardian.





The ring-shaped structure in size challenges the scientific postulate of the cosmological principle.

The find was called the “Big Ring”. According to the data obtained, the structure covers about 3% of the radius of the entire observable Universe and is an almost perfectly round group of galaxies.



Artist's rendering of what the Great Ring (shown in blue) and the Giant Arc (shown in red) would look like in the sky if they were visible from Earth. Photo by University of Central Lancashire

According to scientists, the diameter of the structure reaches 1.3 billion light years, making this discovery the largest galactic group ever known. A megastructure discovered by a Lancashire PhD student challenges scientific postulates about the cosmological principle.

This principle, which is the main tenet of modern cosmology, states that each observer at the same moment in time, regardless of the place and direction of observation, discovers on average the same picture in the Universe. This means that the Universe should be homogeneous and look the same in all directions.

It states that the maximum size for any cosmic structure should not exceed 1.2 billion light years, but the Great Ring goes beyond this. By comparison, our Milky Way galaxy has a diameter of about 100,000 light years.

Theoretically, if we increase the scale of the Universe, then it should appear before us as a huge space devoid of features, that is, nothing should stand out in it. However, the Great Circle is another unusually large structure, in addition to the Giant Arc, which is located very close to the Great Circle and was also discovered by Alexia Lopez in 2021. The Great Ring and the Giant Arc, estimated to span 3.3 billion light years, go beyond this.

“Neither of these two ultra-large structures are easy to explain in our current understanding of the universe. … We would expect perhaps one extremely large structure in our entire observable universe. However, the Great Ring and the Giant Arc are two huge structures and even cosmological neighbors, which is extremely exciting,” said University of Central Lancashire PhD student Alexia Lopes.