Scientists discover something strange – and it cannot be explained

Structure – Temporarily given the meaningful name 'The big ring in the sky“It was given – its diameter is about 1.3 billion light-years (!) and its circumference is 4 billion light-years.

The strange large structure consists of galaxies, and was discovered by a student at the University of California University of Central Lancashire, Alexia Lopez. With discovery The big ring in the sky You have found a great cosmic mystery. Because the structures are as big as The big ring in the sky In fact – according to current theories – it should not exist.

There is more
What makes it even weirder is that The big ring in the sky It's not the first strange large structure Lopez has discovered. The student has already discovered Giant arc in the sky; An object 3.3 billion light-years across. To make things even stranger, they both find themselves… The big ring in the sky as Giant arc in the sky Located in the same part of the universe; They are at roughly the same distance from Earth, at the same time, and only 12 degrees apart in the sky.

inexplicable
“Neither of these hypermassive structures is easy to explain with our current understanding of the universe,” Lopez said. “Their very large size, distinctive shape, and the fact that they are relatively close together should tell us something important. But what exactly?”

Cosmic principle
It's a mystery. First of all, of course, because structures of this size should not exist according to current theories. For example, there is the cosmological principle that the universe is isotropic and homogeneous. According to this principle, the universe appears the same in all directions, and has the same properties everywhere. “The cosmological principle assumes that the part of the universe we can see gives a good idea of ​​what we can expect to find in the rest of the universe. So when we look at the universe on a larger scale, we expect matter to be distributed in a similar way. According to this principle, we are not expected to find Much larger structures in one place in the universe than could be imagined elsewhere, not to mention that scientists expect to find two in the same part of the universe.

The limit has been exceeded
“Cosmologists have calculated that the current theoretical limit on the size of the structures is 1.2 billion light-years,” Lopez says. “But both structures are much larger: Giant bow It is approximately three times larger and the circumference of the large ring is the same as the length of the ring Giant bow. “Based on current cosmological theories, we would not expect structures of this size to exist.” And now it turns out there are two. “the Big ring And the Giant bow “They are two massive buildings and even cosmic neighbors, which is particularly cool.”

It is therefore not entirely clear how the presence of both massive structures should be explained. “The identification of two exceptional, very large, very close structures suggests that together they form an even more extraordinary cosmic system,” said Lopez, who announced the discovery of the large ring last week at a committee meeting. American Astronomical Society. “to Big ring And the Giant bow They constitute – individually and collectively – a great cosmic mystery.