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What is the largest structure in the Universe?

Have you ever wondered what is the biggest structure in our Universe? Well, the answer is the Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall. It's so massive that it takes light approximately 10 billion (10,000,000,000) years to cross it. It was first detected in 2013 by a team of astronomers while analyzing data from the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission, together with other data from ground-based telescopes. Now, a new study using advanced statistical tools offered arguments that suggest that the structure may not be real and speculated about its potential origin. 


This enormous image shows Hubble’s view of the massive galaxy cluster MACS J0717.5+3745. Credit: NASA, ESA, Harald Ebeling (the University of Hawaii at Manoa) & Jean-Paul Kneib (LAM)

The Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall is by far the largest structure in the observable Universe inferred from the clustering of gamma-ray bursts. The length of this structure is roughly 10% of the entire Universe. The structure lies in the constellations Hercules and Corona Borealis, hence the name. The main feature of this structure is that it contains a very high concentration of gamma-ray bursts (GRB). A GRB is the most energetic explosion in the Universe known to date. They usually occur when a massive star explodes into a neutron star or a black hole and can last from ten milliseconds to several hours but can release energy equivalent to the energy released by the Sun in its entire lifetime. 

Although the discovery received worldwide attraction, more research was warranted to understand the physical origin of this structure. As astronomical datasets of GRBs continue to become better and larger, the time has never been better to arrive at a definite answer to the mystery of this enormous structure. A similar GRB-defined structure called the Giant GRB Ring has recently been reported with a comparatively smaller size (5 billion light-years). The existence of these structures has a very important implication about the true nature of our Universe. According to the cosmological principle, our Universe assumes homogeneity and isotropy which implies GRBs should be uniformly distributed in the sky. Now, since GRBs are preferentially being detected in these structures, it, therefore, challenges the assumptions of homogeneity and isotropy and therefore the cosmological principle. If more of these structures are found and verified, it may lead to a drastic paradigm shift in cosmology and we may need to revise our knowledge about the Universe. 

This following YouTube video clearly describes the Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall.



In the new study, scientists put forwarded arguments and speculations about the physical origin of this structure based on careful statistical tests as well as on the extensive study of the related literature. The study could not confirm the existence of the structure but discusses that once the proposed gamma-satellite mission THESEUS is in operation, we could precisely pinpoint the origin of the Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall concretely. The study has been published in MNRAS.

Article Information: I. Horvath et al., "The clustering of gamma-ray bursts in the Hercules--Corona Borealis Great Wall: the largest structure in the Universe?", MNRAS

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