Astronomers have identified what could be the largest structure ever observed in the known universe—a vast network of galaxy clusters and superclusters containing an astonishing 200 quadrillion solar masses. Named Quipu, the structure takes inspiration from the ancient Incan system of recording numbers using knotted cords.
Quipu spans approximately 1.3 billion light-years—over 13,000 times the length of the Milky Way—and consists of a central filament with multiple branching strands. This massive structure is easily visible in a sky map of galaxy clusters within the target redshift range, even without specialized detection methods.
The discovery was made as part of an ongoing effort to map the universe’s matter distribution across different wavelengths of light. Distant cosmic structures appear shifted toward the red part of the spectrum, a phenomenon called redshift. The researchers found Quipu in their datasets between 425 million and 815 million light-years from Earth.
These superstructures affect the universe’s expansion and bend light. They distort measurements of the universe’s expansion, known as the Hubble constant, and cause gravitational lensing, bending light and distorting distant sky images.
The five superstructures account for 45% of the galaxy clusters, 30% of the galaxies, and 25% of the matter in the observable universe, making up 13% of the universe’s total volume. This groundbreaking discovery sheds new light on the largest known structures in the universe, providing valuable insights into its evolution.
Source: https://interestingengineering.com/space/largest-structure-in-known-universe-discovered-13000-times-longer-than-milky-way