Astronomers have identified what is believed to be the largest structure in the universe, named “Quipu” after an ancient Incan measuring system. The massive superstructure spans 1.3 billion light-years across and contains over 45% of galaxy clusters, 30% of galaxies, and 25% of matter in the observable universe.
The discovery was made using data from a study published on the preprint website ArXiv, although the findings have yet to be peer-reviewed. According to researchers, Quipu is a prominent structure that can be seen with the naked eye on a sky map, suggesting its massive size and gravitational pull.
Quipu is part of a larger group of superclusters, which are collections of galaxy clusters and galaxies not gravitationally bound to each other. The study found that Quipu plays a significant role in shaping the movement of nearby galaxies and influencing our understanding of the cosmic microwave background radiation.
However, the researchers also note that Quipu is expected to collapse into smaller units in the future, marking its existence as a “transient configuration.” This discovery has implications for our understanding of galaxy evolution and cosmological models, suggesting that studying massive structures like Quipu could shed new light on these complex phenomena.
Source: https://www.ndtv.com/science/largest-structure-in-universe-13-000-times-the-length-of-milky-way-discovered-study-7664118