1. #1

    OMG That is HUGE...

    Oh grow up you guys. Im talkin about the largest structure ever discovered in the universe.

    Astronomers have discovered the largest known structure in the universe, a clump of active galactic cores that stretches 4 billion light-years from end to end.
    The structure is a large quasar group (LQG), a collection of extremely luminous galactic nuclei powered by supermassive central black holes. This particular group is so large that it challenges modern cosmological theory, researchers said.

    "While it is difficult to fathom the scale of this LQG, we can say quite definitely it is the largest structure ever seen in the entire universe," lead author Roger Clowes, of the University of Central Lancashire in England, said in a statement. "This is hugely exciting, not least because it runs counter to our current understanding of the scale of the universe."

    Quasars are the brightest objects in the universe. For decades, astronomers have known that they tend to assemble in huge groups, some of which are more than 600 million light-years wide.

    But the record-breaking quasar group, which Clowes and his team spotted in data gathered by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, is on another scale altogether. The newfound LQC is composed of 73 quasars and spans about 1.6 billion light-years in most directions, though it is 4 billion light-years across at its widest point.

    To put that mind-boggling size into perspective, the disk of the Milky Way galaxy — home of Earth's solar system — is about 100,000 light-years wide. And the Milky Way is separated from its nearest galactic neighbor, Andromeda, by about 2.5 million light-years.

    The newly discovered LQC is so enormous, in fact, that theory predicts it shouldn't exist, researchers said. The quasar group appears to violate a widely accepted assumption known as the cosmological principle, which holds that the universe is essentially homogeneous when viewed at a sufficiently large scale.

    Calculations suggest that structures larger than about 1.2 billion light-years should not exist, researchers said.

    "Our team has been looking at similar cases which add further weight to this challenge, and we will be continuing to investigate these fascinating phenomena," Clowes said.
    The new study was published Friday in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
    Source

    It would take 4 billion years travelling at a speed of 299,792,458 miles per second just to cross the damn thing at its widest point. Talk bout mind blown.
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  2. #2
    Jarr3tt88's Avatar Senior Member
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    Re: OMG That is HUGE...

    Space is ******g nuts! Where is this thing? And how did it not eat us up yet? haha If there was other life out, a ton of it was destroyed because of this thing.
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  3. #3

    Re: OMG That is HUGE...

    I read this article before, but space is just so unimaginably large that it boggles the mind to even try to understand it. One thing that I love to think about, is the fact that if we see light from a star 1 million light years away, that light that we see is actually a million years old, and that star might not even exist anymore. It's crazy!
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  4. #4

    Re: OMG That is HUGE...

    Originally Posted by InstantNews
    I read this article before, but space is just so unimaginably large that it boggles the mind to even try to understand it. One thing that I love to think about, is the fact that if we see light from a star 1 million light years away, that light that we see is actually a million years old, and that star might not even exist anymore. It's crazy!
    Yeah, so LQG must be billions of years old( ).

    It makes you wonder if us humans will ever break the speed barrier of light and do interstellar travel, if we do we'd have to exeed lights speed by billions, even the closest solar system is something like 4 light years away (i think), it's insane-we are so insignificant.


    I wonder how long it would take to travel across LQC in a Jet....(my brain hurts)
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  5. #5

    Re: OMG That is HUGE...

    Life wouldn't be as interesting without all the mystery

    Good thread.
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  6. #6
    willyums's Avatar Senior Member
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    Re: OMG That is HUGE...

    I love space, especially stuff like this: http://www.universetoday.com/11430/t...of-everything/
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  7. #7

    Re: OMG That is HUGE...

    Surprised the object limit hasn't been hit yet.
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  8. #8
    nannerdw's Avatar Senior Member
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    Re: OMG That is HUGE...

    Originally Posted by ChicagoAJ
    Surprised the object limit hasn't been hit yet.
    I know. We're still getting a really good framerate, too.
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  9. #9

    Re: OMG That is HUGE...

    Originally Posted by nannerdw
    Originally Posted by ChicagoAJ
    Surprised the object limit hasn't been hit yet.
    I know. We're still getting a really good framerate, too.
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  10. #10

    Re: OMG That is HUGE...

    Originally Posted by LitTlExJeZuZ


    It makes you wonder if us humans will ever break the speed barrier of light and do interstellar travel, if we do we'd have to exeed lights speed by billions, even the closest solar system is something like 4 light years away (i think), it's insane-we are so insignificant.


    Wormholes could make traveling through space more realistic. The speed of light being the "speed limit" of travel is really just a theory. Two sub-atomic particles can react instantaneous with each other no matter the distance. The sub-atomic world does not abide by our rules and laws and that is as fascinating as space itself.
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