Discovery of the Great Ring, the mysterious star cluster that challenges our understanding of the shape of the universe

a structure as extra large ringSo much so that its dimension is difficult to explain, challenging the current understanding of the universe, has been discovered by a group of scientists led by a graduate student.

structure, known as nice ringMade up of galaxies and galaxy clusters, located 9.2 billion light years Ground. The diameter of this structure is 1.3 billion light years and the circumference is 4 billion light years.

“If we could go out and see it directly, the diameter of the Great Ring would require about 15 full moons to cover it,” said scientists at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLen) in the United Kingdom, who observed it. Was. in a statement.

The Great Ring is the second ultralarge structure discovered by doctoral student Alexia Lopez, who also discovered it two years earlier giant bow in the sky.

Surprisingly, the Great Ring and the Giant Arc – which have a diameter of 3.3 billion light years – are located in the same region. ‘Cosmological neighborhood’, Both are seen at the same distance, at the same cosmic time, and are separated by only 12 degrees in the sky.

“According to current cosmological theories, we did not think that structures of this scale were possible. “We can probably expect a very large amount of structure throughout our entire observable universe,” Lopez said. “However, the Great Ring and the Giant Arch are two huge structures and are even cosmological neighbors, which is exceptionally attractive”,

He added, “Either of these two ultralarge structures are not easy to explain in our current understanding of the universe.” “Their ultra-large size, distinctive shape and cosmological proximity certainly tell us something important,” he said, adding that he doesn’t know exactly what.

“One possibility is that the Great Ring is related to Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO), BAOs arise from oscillations in the early universe and today, at least statistically, should appear as Spherical spheres in the system of galaxies“, said the scientist. “However, detailed analysis of the Great Ring revealed that this is actually not consistent with BAO’s explanation: the Great Ring is very large and not circular.”

Lopez pointed out that other explanations that deviate from what is generally considered standard understanding in cosmology may be necessary. One possibility could be the theory of conformal cyclic cosmology (CCC), proposed by 2020 Nobel Laureate in Physics Roger Penrose. Rings in the universe may be a sign of CCC.

Another explanation could be the effect of the passage of so-called ‘cosmic ropes’. are cosmic strings Filamentary “topical defects” Of large size, which may have formed in the early universe.

Jim Peebles, another Nobel laureate, recently hypothesized that cosmic strings may play a role in the origin of some other peculiarities in the mass distribution of galaxies.

However, The Great Ring defies cosmological theory, as did the Giant Arc before it. And if the Great Ring and the Great Arc combine to form an even larger structure, the challenge to the cosmological theory becomes even more compelling.

Such large structures, the University of Central Lancashire said in its statement, They challenge the idea of ​​what an “average” area is like. from outer space. They exceed the size limit considered theoretically feasible and pose potential challenges to cosmological theory.

“The cosmological principle holds that the part of the universe that we can see is a ‘faithful model’ of what we expect the rest of the universe to be like,” Lopez said. “When we look at the universe on a large scale we expect matter to be distributed evenly throughout space, so above a certain size there should be no noticeable irregularities.”

Scientists presenting their findings about the Great Ring at the upcoming meeting of the American Astronomical Society this week concluded that the identification of two extraordinary ultralarge structures in such close configuration raises the possibility that they may combine to form an even more extraordinary universe. Create related system. ,