Scientists have recently discovered what may be the largest-scale structure in the known universe; it appears to be a grouping of galaxies, galaxy structures, gasses, filaments and dust that spans about 1.3 billion light years in length. It’s estimated that it contains 200 quadrillion times as much mass as our Sun.
The new structure has been named “Quipu,” after the ancient Incan recording device composed of a variety of knotted cords; the color, order and number of cords were used for numbering or other records. Like a quipu, the superstructure is varied and complex, with one main “strand” of galaxies and filaments, with several side groupings, reported Live Science.
The discovery was posted on Cornell University’s ArXiv prepublication site on Jan. 31; the paper was accepted by Astronomy & Astrophysics, but hasn’t yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.
“Quipu is actually a prominent structure readily noticeable by eye in a sky map of clusters in the target redshift range, without the help of a detection method,” the team wrote.
The biggest single entity that scientists have identified in the universe previously is a supercluster of galaxies called the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall, but its existence has been disputed. Some scientists believe that the discoverers (a team of American and Hungarian astronomers led by István Horváth, Jon Hakkila and Zsolt Bagoly) unintentionally introduced biases in certain statistical tests, and that’s how the structure was found. The truth can be confirmed in a few years by the Transient High-Energy Sky and Early Universe Surveyor (THESEUS) space telescope mission proposed by the European Space Agency, with a scheduled launch date of 2037. This mission will study gamma-ray bursts and X-rays for investigating star formation rates in the early universe.
