2024-01-12 20:24:00
An ultra-large ring-shaped structure, so large that it is difficult to explain its dimension as it challenges the current understanding of the universe, has been discovered by a group of scientists led by a graduate student.
The structure, known as the Great Ring, made up of galaxies and galaxy clusters, is located 9.2 billion light years from Earth. The formation has a diameter of 1.3 billion light years and a circumference of 4 billion light years.
“If we could go out and see it directly, the diameter of the Great Ring would need about 15 full Moons to cover it,” the scientists from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) in the United Kingdom, who achieved the sighting, said in a statement.
Image published by the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) in the United Kingdom of the ultra-large ring (blue) discovered by doctoral student Alexia López. The structure is located 9.2 billion light years from Earth.
Credit: University Central Lancashire (UCLan).
Cosmological neighbors
Great Ring is the second ultra-large structure discovered by doctoral student Alexia López, who, two years ago, also discovered the Giant Arch in the sky.
Surprisingly, the Great Ring and the Giant Arc – which is 3.3 billion light years in diameter – are located in the same ‘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 could expect perhaps an extremely large structure in our entire observable universe,” said López. “However, the Great Ring and the Giant Arch are two huge structures and even cosmological neighbors, which is extraordinarily fascinating.”
“Neither of these two ultralarge structures is easy to explain in our current understanding of the universe,” he continued. “Their ultra-large sizes, distinctive shapes, and cosmological proximity must surely tell us something important,” he added, saying he didn’t know what exactly.
“One possibility is that the Great Ring is related to baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO). “BAOs arise from oscillations in the early universe and today they should appear, at least statistically, as spherical layers in the arrangement of galaxies,” the scientist mentioned. “However, a detailed analysis of the Great Ring revealed that it is not really compatible with BAO’s explanation: the Great Ring is too large and is not spherical.”
Alexia Lopez, PdD student at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), who discovered the Great Ring and the Giant Arch.
Credit: University Central Lancashire (UCLan).
Beyond understanding the universe
López explained that other explanations that deviate from what is generally considered the standard understanding in cosmology may be necessary. One possibility could be a theory of conformal cyclic cosmology (CCC), proposed by the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics, Roger Penrose. Rings in the universe could be a sign of CCC.
Another explanation could be the effect of the passage of the so-called ‘cosmic ropes’. Cosmic strings are large filamentary “topological defects” that could have been created in the early universe.
Jim Peebles, another Nobel Prize winner, recently hypothesized that cosmic strings might play a role in the origin of some other peculiarities in the large-scale distribution of galaxies.
The Great Ring, however, defies Cosmological Principle, as the Giant Arch did before. And if the Great Ring and the Giant Arch together form an even greater structure, then the challenge to the Cosmological Principle becomes even more compelling.
Such large structures, Central Lancashire University said in its statement, challenge the idea of what an “average” region of outer space looks like. They exceed the size limit of what is considered theoretically viable and pose potential challenges to the Cosmological Principle.
“The Cosmological Principle assumes that the part of the universe that we can see is considered a ‘faithful sample’ of what we expect the rest of the universe to be like,” López said. “We expect matter to be evenly distributed throughout space when we view the universe on a large scale, so there should be no noticeable irregularities above a certain size.”
The identification of two extraordinary ultralarge structures in such a close configuration raises the possibility that together they form an even more extraordinary cosmological system, concluded the scientists, who presented their findings about the Great Ring at the upcoming meeting of the American Astronomical Society held this week.
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