The LARGEST Known Structure in the Universe

Hey Space Placers!

Yesterday I blogged on the biggest spiral galaxy known. Today it is the LARGEST known structure in the Universe.

Spanning some 4 BILLION light years, the structure is known as a Large Quasar Group or LQG. Quasars - active and super luminous centers of galaxies powered by black holes - are known to exist at the center of most galaxies and have been found to congregate in groups since about 1982.

An artist’s rendering of the most distant quasar
Artist Rendition of a Very Distant Quasar
ESO
What makes this LQG so large is the linear dimension that spans such a large distance and encompasses 73 quasars.

Read the original paper http://mnras.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2013/01/07/mnras.sts497.full

 Sky Guy in VA


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