This vast structure includes galaxies and the largest known giant gas bubbles in the universe.
The newly discovered images of “Lyman-alpha blobs”
Known as “Lyman-alpha blobs,” these galaxies and gas bubbles are aligned in three cosmic filaments and were formed approximately 2 billion years after the Big Bang.
The recent detection of this structure was made possible through the use of the Subaru and Keck telescopes atop Mauna Kea. The galaxies within this structure are clustered together about 4 times closer than the average distance between other galaxies in the universe.
Some of these gas bubbles extend up to 400,000 light-years wide, nearly twice the diameter of our neighboring Andromeda galaxy. Scientists believe these bubbles were formed as giant stars emerged in the universe, causing it to explode like a supernova and inflating the gas surrounding them.
Another hypothesis suggests that these gas bubbles are massive reservoirs that may one day give birth to new galaxies.
This discovery provides researchers with fresh insights into the nature of cosmic structures and the potential existence of even larger structures comprising multiple galaxies in the universe, as indicated by Ryosuke Yamauchi, a researcher from Tohoku University.