Its length is 4000 light years.
SDSS Astronomical Survey data has revealed a ring of galaxies 4,000 light-years long and 1,300 years in diameter, challenging basic assumptions of cosmology.
The Great Ring of Heaven is 9.2 billion light-years from Earth. If we could go out and see it directly, its diameter would need about 15 full moons to cover it.
This is the second very large structure discovered by University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) PhD student Alexia Lopez, who two years ago also discovered the giant arc in the sky.
Remarkably, the Great Ring and the Giant Arc, which are 3.3 billion light-years across, are in the same cosmic neighbourhood: they are seen at the same distance, at the same cosmic time, and only 12 degrees apart in the sky. .
“Neither of these ultra-massive structures is easy to explain in our current understanding of the universe. Their very large sizes, distinct shapes, and cosmic proximity certainly tell us something important, but what exactly?”
Structures this large challenge our idea of what the “average” region of space looks like. They exceed the maximum size of what is considered theoretically viable and pose potential challenges to the cosmological principle.
