In case you missed it last month, the biggest structure in the observable universe was discovered. It's large quasar group called the Huge-LQG, and it's home to 73 quasars and is a staggering 4 billion light-years across!
Up until this time, the Sloan Great Wall held the title of the biggest, most bad-ass behemoth structure around. This wall of galaxies measured in at 1.38 billion light-years across, but this has been left battered and bleeding on the floor and the title stolen by the Huge-LQG. Initially it was named U1.27 due to its average redshift of 1.27 and is found in the constellation Leo.
The sheer size of this structure challenges the Cosmological Principle, the theory that the universe looks the same on a larger scale no matter where it's observed from. Taking this into consideration, scientists believe that the biggest structure should be no bigger than 370 megaparsecs... but the Huge-LQG is 1200 megaparsecs, or 1600 times the distance between the Milky Way and Andromeda. Because of this it brings into question the validity of the current interpretations on the Cosmological Principle.
It's pretty mind boggling trying to comprehend the size of the gang of Quasars, also it's exciting that it might alter the understanding on the actual scale of the universe. I know this though... it's big! (insert other words for big and repeat to fade)
Following its discovery scientists are continuing to investigate and add weight to the challenge that the grand structure presents.
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