A team of astronomers has made a groundbreaking discovery by mapping the near universe from 425 million to 800 million light-years away. They have identified the largest known structure residing there, named Quipu, which stretches 1.3 billion light-years long and contains the mass of 200 quadrillion stars.
Quipu is considered the largest structure in the nearby universe, but not necessarily the entire universe. Larger structures might exist beyond our current cosmic volume. Led by Hans Böhringer of the Max Planck Institute, the researchers used galaxy clusters that are bright in X-rays to create a survey covering about 86% of the sky.
The Quipu superstructure consists of five large superstructures, including Quipu itself, which has 68 galaxy clusters. These structures contain about 45% of galaxy clusters, 30% of galaxies, and 25% of matter in the universe. They also distort the wavelength of radiation passing through from deeper space.
The discovery has significant implications for our understanding of the universe. Studying Quipu and similar superstructures can provide insights into cosmological parameters and the Big Bang. The researchers hope to map the large-scale matter distribution to improve measurements of the Hubble constant and cosmic microwave background.
Quipu is not easily visible in the night sky due to the Milky Way blocking our view, but it appears readily on surveys. If seen with the naked eye, Quipu would be located in the constellations of Pictor, Carina, and others, near other superclusters like Vela.
The researchers have named Quipu after an ancient Inca recording device due to its shape resembling bundles of cords. However, further research is needed to determine if Quipu and the nearby Vela supercluster are connected.
Source: https://earthsky.org/space/quipu-largest-structure-in-the-universe