Posted on 07/07/2026 8:35:50 PM PDT by Red Badger
If they were visible to the naked eye, these structures would be huge in the sky. Image Credit: UCLan/Stellarium
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The cosmological principle states that, on the largest scales, the universe is uniform and isotropic. In other words, it should look broadly the same no matter where you are or which direction you look. You would not expect to find a single enormous structure in one particular region of the sky.
Finding two in relatively close proximity is even more surprising.
Five years ago, researchers discovered the Giant Arc, a vast crescent of galaxies stretching 3.3 billion light years across and located around 9.2 billion light years from Earth.
Then, in 2024, the same team announced an even more surprising discovery: a second enormous structure they named the Big Ring. Measuring 1.3 billion light years across and sitting at roughly the same distance, the Big Ring lies just 12 degrees away from the Giant Arc in the night sky.
“We could expect maybe one exceedingly large structure in all our observable universe. Yet, the Big Ring and the Giant Arc are two huge structures and are even cosmological neighbours, which is extraordinarily fascinating,” discoverer Alexia Lopez, a graduate researcher from the University of Central Lancashire, said in a statement.
“Neither of these two ultra-large structures is easy to explain in our current understanding of the universe. And their ultra-large sizes, distinctive shapes, and cosmological proximity must surely be telling us something important – but what exactly?”
An exact explanation for this is yet to be provided. According to the cosmological principle, galaxies should be evenly distributed, and despite the presence of galaxy clusters and the so-called cosmic web, these structures tend to average out. So structures cannot grow beyond a certain limit.
“Cosmologists calculate the current theoretical size limit of structures to be 1.2 billion light-years, yet both of these structures are much larger – the Giant Arc is almost three times bigger and the Big Ring’s circumference is comparable to the Giant Arc’s length,” Lopez continued.
“From current cosmological theories we didn't think structures on this scale were possible. We could expect maybe one exceedingly large structure in all our observable universe. Yet, the Big Ring and the Giant Arc are two huge structures and are even cosmological neighbours, which is extraordinarily fascinating.”
Further observations will be needed to confirm these claims and provide insight that the theory can use to understand what the presence of these structures means for our understanding of the Universe.
Lopez presented her findings on the Big Ring at the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society. The research was later published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics.
An earlier version of this article appeared in 2024.
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Ping!.................
...our current understanding of the universe.
Well that ain’t saying much...
a baby knows as much as any of us.
I still find it unbelievable that until the first quarter of the 20th century, galaxies outside our own were basically unknown...............
bah Viewed from some other vantage point, there are no “structures.”
Maybe revering a moon-god is a little short sighted ... they could be casting Al'lah as a god of the universe. Yeah, that's the ticket.
I think I'll just shut up now.
I was hoping they found a Dyson’s sphere.
That is no moon, it’s a space station.
Personally, I find it interesting that until space probes and improved sensors were developed in the 1960's, we had no way to really grasp what the surface of planets like Venus were like. Respected and scientifically literate sci-fi authors were depicting Venus as hot but habitable (even to humans) and potentially filled with life even into the 1950s.
There is a good probability that the dead have a better understanding of the universe than we do.
Wouldn’t those structures have different temperatures than the current AVERAGE temp of the universe at 2.7 Kelvin? Could that mean that the universe hasn’t had the time to equilibrate its temperature equally in all directions?
Could those structures collapse on themselves due to gravity? Lots of questions.
Just when we thought it was Settled Science, this happens.
“My life as a sex slave on Venus...”.
The recent accepted norm is a universe from nothing that defies logic and the one “big bang.” At this point the best astrophysicists become mumbling idiots. Was there only one big bang or two or three or an infinite number of such?
Thus brings in the question of GOD. As a young man of science I was a total atheist. A few degrees later I questioned my beliefs. It all came back to the beginning of the universe from nothing as mentioned defied all logic. Thus the God question. God could explain it all as he is eternal but we do not even know what eternal is as it has no beginning nor ending. I do believe in God but do not understand the words of eternity past and present and future.
The entire universe that we see is the slave of of entropy. When entropy reins supreme there is no energy, no light, no matter and absolute zero. In effect the universe no longer exists. It becomes absolute zero with nothing left.
But the physicists must explain where the total enthalpy of the universe went. They can not.
These “scientists” don’t even know enough or ALL about our own planet and they use this pablum to justify getting grants and “graduate researcher” can keep spewing shite that no one can really dispute because its all conjecture and speculative as opposed to looking at where WE live in depth. gets OLD !
Big Ring was left in the cosmic bathtub when Giant Arc took a bath. Scientists are watching for the outline of Big Rubber Duck.
The entire universe that we see is the slave of of entropy. When entropy reins supreme there is no energy, no light, no matter and absolute zero. In effect the universe no longer exists. It becomes absolute zero with nothing left.
But the physicists must explain where the total enthalpy of the universe went. They can not.
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