Largest structure ever found in the universe is 1.4 billion light years long

The Universe contains many types of massive formations that shape our understanding of how stars and galaxies group together. Astronomers have long studied these sprawling patterns, which give valuable clues about where matter gathers and where it remains thinly spread.

These features define how cosmic evolution unfolds and guide current theories of how the universe expands.

Recently, a team of experts announced a giant find. This collection of galaxy clusters surpasses previous giants by orders of magnitude.

This study adds fresh insights by demonstrating that our cosmic neighborhood can still surprise us with unexpected details about how matter arranges itself across unimaginable distances.

Galaxy clusters distribution

Hans Böhringer from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) coordinated the effort in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Physics (MPP) and teams in Spain and South Africa.

Their work relied on the ROSAT X-ray satellite’s survey, which singled out clusters of galaxies by detecting the energetic radiation these huge clusters emit.

These data allowed the researchers to build a three-dimensional map of our cosmic vicinity.

“If you look at the distribution of the galaxy clusters in the sky in a spherical shell with a distance of 416 to 826 million light-years, you immediately notice a huge structure that stretches from high northern latitudes to almost the southern end of the sky,” explains Böhringer.

By tracing each cluster’s position in space, his team pinpointed how matter spreads out in swirling patterns of galaxies.

The Quipu superstructure

The researchers named this discovery “Quipu,” taking inspiration from the knotted string recording system once used by the Incas.

Observed as a long strand with smaller threads branching off, the Quipu superstructure contains 68 galaxy clusters with a combined mass of about 2.4 × 10^17 solar masses.

Its size of roughly 1.4 billion light-years makes Quipu the largest superstructure ever accurately measured, surpassing the Sloan Great Wall’s 1.1 billion light-years.

“This breaks the size record of all reliably measured cosmic structures,” note the researchers who compared the finding with other known formations.

“The Quipu superstructure, end to end, is slightly longer than the Sloan Great Wall,” says J. Richard Gott III at Princeton University, who helped discover the Sloan Great Wall. “Congratulations to them for finding it.”

The name also reflects a connection to Chile, where many distance measurements took place, and where ancient quipus are showcased in Santiago.

Quipu and cosmological principle

Across extremely large distances, matter is believed to spread out nearly evenly. At smaller scales of about a billion light-years, it collects in superclusters and leaves behind voids.

This balance underpins the cosmological principle, which suggests that if we look far enough, the universe should appear uniform in every direction.

Some experts argue these huge arrangements question that principle’s validity, with past findings triggering debates.

“Making observations in too small a part of the universe, which has been done earlier on, can be misleading,” says Böhringer.

Another point comes from an ambiguous definition of the principle. “There is not yet one definition of the cosmological principle that every cosmologist agrees on,” says Alexia Lopez at the University of Central Lancashire in the UK.

Meanwhile, Seshadri Nadathur at the University of Portsmouth notes that “some of those galaxies may drift apart from each other instead of collapsing in on themselves, in which case, according to some interpretations, it’s not really a bound structure.”

Cosmic measurements and consequences

Quipu’s existence highlights how vast formations can shape calculations of cosmic expansion rates and the properties of primordial radiation left over from the early universe.

Astronomers pay close attention to features like superclusters because they alter light paths and influence how we determine important parameters such as the Hubble constant.

Small discrepancies can add up when researchers aim for precise numbers in modern cosmological studies.

“Even if these are only corrections of a few percent, they become increasingly important as the accuracy of cosmological observations increases,” emphasizes Gayoung Chon from the Max Planck Institute for Physics.

This structure offers a reminder that the cosmos presents patterns on many scales. Those patterns appear to affect how we interpret data on the universe’s origin and shape the evolution of galaxies in our vicinity and beyond.

Quipu and the Incas

The Incas once managed vast territories using quipus, a system of knotted strings that helped track resources and information.

Each knot arrangement acted like a code, revealing essential data in a form that required no written script.

Quipu’s naming borrowed that image of intertwined threads.

Researchers see it as a nod to humanity’s long history of gathering knowledge, whether through knotted strings or advanced telescopes that trace the distribution of galaxies across cosmic depths.

What happens next?

The discovery underscores how ongoing surveys might uncover more structures.

Scientists are keen to see if similar patterns exist in parts of the sky that remain less charted, which could either confirm current theories or reveal new gaps in our understanding.

Future maps will rely on technology to gather clearer data from remote regions.

These efforts reflect a human wish to capture our place in the universe, searching for the patterns that connect everything from particles to vast congregations of galaxies.

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Featured image: The open cluster Westerlund 1 is located roughly 12,000 light-years away in the southern constellation Ara (the Altar) where it resides behind a huge interstellar cloud of gas and dust. Credit: ESA

The full study was published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

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