Is it possible to understand the universe without understanding the largest structures that reside in it? In principle, not likely. In practical terms? Definitely not. Extremely large objects can distort our understanding of the cosmos.
Astronomers have found the largest structure in the universe so far, named Quipu after an Incan measuring system. It contains a shocking 200 quadrillion solar masses.
Astronomy is an endeavor where extremely large numbers are a part of daily discourse. But even in astronomy, 200 quadrillion is a number so large it's rarely encountered. And if Quipu's extremely large mass doesn't garner attention, its size surely does.
The object, called a superstructure, is more than 400 megaparsecs long. That's more than 1.3 billion light-years. READ MORE...
No comments:
Post a Comment