While mapping the nearby universe, astronomers discovered the largest-known structure in the universe, about 425 million to 800 light-years away from us.
It is made up of a group of galaxy clusters that span roughly 1.3 billion light-years across and contains 200 quadrillion solar masses.
The newfound structure was named Quipu, after an Incan counting system that involves using knots on cords. The knots convey information based on numbers, colors, and order.
Quipu is considered the largest object in the universe in terms of length, beating out previous record-holders like the Laniākea supercluster. The galaxies within Quipu are too far away for us to see with our eyes at night, but they show up clearly on surveys.
"Quipu is actually a prominent structure readily noticeable by eye in a sky map of clusters in the target redshift range, without the help of a detection method," wrote the team in charge of the study.
It is close to the Vela supercluster, which astronomers have known about since 2016. Currently, there are no signs of Quipu and Vela being linked together despite their proximity.
The research is part of an ongoing effort to map the matter distribution of the universe at different wavelengths of light. Quipu is not the only massive structure that was found.
The researchers detected four more giant structures: the Shapley supercluster, the Hercules supercluster, the Serpens-Corona Borealis, and the Sculptor-Pegasus superstructure.
Together, they contain about 45 percent of the galaxy clusters, 30 percent of the galaxies, and 25 percent of the matter in the universe. In total, they make up 13 percent of the universe's volume.
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Structures of such enormity are bound to affect their surroundings in some way. The structures affect the overall environment in the universe by distorting and modifying the wavelength of radiation passing through space.
"For a precise determination of cosmological parameters, we need to understand the effects of the local large-scale structure of the universe on the measurements," wrote the study authors.
"They include modifications of the cosmic microwave background, distortions of sky images by large-scale gravitational lensing, and the influence of large-scale streaming motions on measurements of the Hubble constant."
Moving forward, researchers can look into how these colossal structures have affected the evolution of galaxies. Of course, they won't stick around forever.
As the universe continues to expand, the galaxy clusters will slowly be pulled apart. However, that does not make them any less important.
"In the future cosmic evolution, these superstructures are bound to break up into several collapsing units," wrote the researchers.
"They are thus transient configurations. But at present, they are special physical entities with characteristic properties and special cosmic environments deserving special attention."