One of the largest structures in the Universe turned out to be even larger than scientists thought. Using gamma-ray bursts – bright flares of energy from deep space – astrophysicists from Hungary and the United States have discovered that the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall, discovered in 2014, could be up to 10 billion light-years across. This calls into question standard cosmological models, according to which the Universe should be homogeneous on large scales.
The researchers, led by Istvan Horvath, analyzed 542 gamma-ray bursts – short but super-powerful emissions that exceed the brightness of entire galaxies for an instant. In contrast to conventional studies of galaxies, gamma-ray bursts accompanying the death of massive stars allow us to “see” the processes of formation of structures that otherwise remain invisible.
These “beacons” have helped detect clusters of matter at incredible distances. The bursts are found to be concentrated along the Hercules Wall, which extends over a redshift range from z≈0.33 to z≈2.43. This means that the structure has existed for billions of years and occupies a significant portion of the observed cosmos.
Challenge for science
According to the cosmological principle, the size of structures in the Universe cannot exceed 1.2 billion light-years. However, the Great Wall of Hercules is almost 8 times larger! This unexpected discovery points to two possible scenarios: either our models of the evolution of the universe are incomplete, or the cosmological principle is flawed and needs revision.
“If such huge structures really exist, we don’t understand how they form yet,” the study authors explain. For example, even the Giant Quasar Group or the Sloan Great Wall seem trifling next to this giant.
Humanity on a cosmic scale
The Great Wall of Hercules not only changes scientific ideas, but also reminds us of humanity’s place in the universe. Next time you look up at the starry sky, imagine: our galaxy is just a crumb in a web that stretches billions of light-years across. And who knows – maybe thanks to such discoveries we will learn to read the map of space in a whole new way.
The study is now in the peer-review stage. The full text is available at arXiv.
We previously reported on how the most massive structure in the universe turned out to resemble an Inca artifact.
According to Gizmodo
