The Biggest Thing In The Universe Is So Gigantic It Shouldn't Exist At All
video
Jacqueline Howard
What's the biggest known structure in the universe?
Astronomers used to think it was a "filament" of galaxies known as the Sloan Great Wall. But recent research suggests a different structure is even bigger -- and its size has astronomers scratching their heads.
Meet the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall (Her-CrB GW). Check it out in the video above.
"The
Her-CrB GW is larger than the theoretical upper limit on how big
universal structures can be," Dr. Jon Hakkila, an astrophysics professor
at the College of Charleston in South Carolina
and one of the astronomers who discovered the structure, told The
Huffington Post in an email. "Thus, it is a conundrum: it shouldn't
exist but apparently does."
Mysteries just like this are why
astronomers scan the skies for a glimpse into the past, as they shed
light not only on the early years of our universe, but also more about
our galaxy, our solar system, and ultimately, ourselves.
"We are now mapping structures across the sky," astronomer Dr. Jay M. Pasachoff, director of the Hopkins Observatory at Williams College
in Williamstown, Mass., who was not involved in the great wall's
discovery, told The Huffington Post. "We’re learning how the universe
grew up. So we’re learning about how our cluster of galaxies grew up and
how our own galaxy grew up and how our sun formed, and how the Earth
formed soon there after. We’re looking back at our history."
Because
astronomers are still mapping the sky, there just may be something even
grander than the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall in our universe.
"The
danger of finding the biggest, or most distant, or the oldest things in
the universe is always that sooner or later someone is likely to come
along and find something bigger, more distant, or older than the thing
you found," Hakkila said. "So far we have not been upstaged, but it has
only been about six months since we published."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/27/biggest-thing-in-universe-video_n_5365111.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g031BkhcPKc&r=1