Astronomers have unearthed a second exceptionally large cosmic formation that challenges established theories about the universe.
Also known as the ‘Big Ring on the Sky’, this colossal ring-shaped object is located 9.2 billion light-years from Earth and has a staggering diameter of 1.3 billion light-years and a circumference of approximately four billion light-years . To provide context, the vast diameter of the Great Ring could accommodate fifteen full moons side by side.
Remarkably, this is not the first discovery of such cosmic wonders by the UCLan team. Two years earlier, they identified another analogous structure called the ‘Giant Arc on the Sky’, which stretched a whopping 3.3 billion light-years.
The scientists found that the two are at the same distance, during the same cosmic period, and are only 12 degrees apart in the sky.
“Neither of these two ultra-large structures is easily explained in our current understanding of the universe. And their ultra-large sizes, distinctive shapes and cosmological proximity must surely tell us something important – but what exactly? said PhD student Alexia Lopez.
“Cosmologists calculate that the current theoretical maximum size of structures is 1.2 billion light-years, yet both structures are much larger – the Giant Arc is almost three times larger and the circumference of the Great Ring is comparable to the length of the Giant Arc. Based on current cosmological theories, we didn’t think structures on this scale were possible,” Lopez added.
“One possibility is that the Great Ring may be related to Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations (BAOs). BAOs arise from oscillations in the early universe and should appear today, at least statistically, as spherical shells in the arrangement of galaxies.
“However, a detailed analysis of the Great Ring showed that it is not really compatible with the BAO statement: the Great Ring is too large and not spherical,” Lopez explains in the publication Edition.
