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Graphic depiction of the Giant Arc – Image: SCIENCE NEWS.
According to Sci-News, it is a cosmic arc spanning approximately 3.3 billion light-years, with a width of up to 330 million light-years. Named the “Giant Arc,” it lies at a distance of 9.2 billion light-years from us, situated in the constellation Lynx.
This structure dwarfs the “Sloan Great Wall,” a collection of numerous galaxies and galaxy clusters previously identified. To put it into perspective, if giant galaxies like the Milky Way, with Earth at its center – estimated to have a diameter of about 100,000 light-years – were placed end to end, it would take 33,000 of them to cover the length of this cosmic arc. Of course, the number of galaxies and galaxy clusters within this arc is much greater, given its impressive width, and most galaxies in the universe are smaller than the “giant” containing Earth.
Dr. Alexia Lope from the University of Central Lancashire (UK) noted that this discovery poses several “cautious challenges” to cosmological principles. The theoretical limit for a structure’s size in the universe is around 1.2 billion light-years. Clearly, this object exceeds that limit by nearly three times.
Live Science reports that scientists are using telescopes to analyze the spectra of the brightest objects within this structure – the super-bright galaxies – to understand how their light has reached Earth. This also aids in indirectly examining fainter objects around them, allowing for a more detailed mapping of the “Giant Arc.”
The authors also emphasize that due to the 9.2 billion light-years’ distance from Earth, the image of this Giant Arc is, in fact, a “ghost” from the past. In reality, it may not exist as we currently perceive it.
The research was recently presented at the 238th online meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS).