According to a paper published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, an group of astronomers claim to have discovered what might be the largest structure in the observable universe. The enormous feature is comprised of nine gamma-ray bursts (GRB), forming a ring that streaks across some 5 billion light years through space.
“We were totally surprised…we did not expect to find it…it seems to undermine our established understanding of how the universe developed.”
According to the cosmological principle, the structure of the universe theoretically limits its largest structures to 1.2 billion light years across. This new discovery pushes that limit nearly five-fold.
The ring’s diameter stretches more than 70 times that of the full moon as seen from Earth. The GRBs each appear to be about 7 billion light years away, the probability that these features are positioned in this way by chance is just one in 20,000, according to lead author Professor Lajos Balazs from the Konkoly Observatory in Budapest.
