The Universe consists of a huge number of cosmic bodies. Every night we can contemplate stars in the sky that seem very small, although this is not the case. In fact, some of them are many times larger than the Sun. It is assumed that a planetary system is formed near each lonely star. For example, near the Sun a solar system was formed, consisting of eight large, as well as small, comets, black holes, cosmic dust, etc.
The Earth is a cosmic body because it is a planet, a spherical object that reflects sunlight. Seven other planets are also visible to us only because they reflect the light of a star. In addition to Mercury, Venus, Mars, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, which was also considered a planet until 2006, the Solar System also contains a huge number of asteroids, which are also called minor planets. Their number reaches 400 thousand, but many scientists agree that there are more than a billion of them.
Comets are also cosmic bodies that move along elongated trajectories and approach the Sun at a certain time. They consist of gas, plasma and dust; Overgrown with ice, they reach a size of tens of kilometers. Comets gradually melt as they approach the star. Due to the high temperature, the ice evaporates, forming a head and tail, reaching amazing sizes.
Asteroids are cosmic bodies of the Solar System, also called minor planets. Their main part is concentrated between Mars and Jupiter. They consist of iron and stone and are divided into two types: light and dark. The first of them are lighter, the second are heavier. Asteroids have irregular shapes. It is assumed that they were formed from the remains of cosmic matter after the formation of the main planets, or they are fragments of a planet located between Mars and Jupiter.
Some cosmic bodies reach the Earth, but when passing through thick layers of the atmosphere, they become heated during friction and are torn into small pieces. Therefore, relatively small meteorites fell on our planet. This phenomenon is by no means uncommon; asteroid fragments are stored in many museums around the world; they have been found in 3,500 places.
There are not only large objects in space, but also tiny ones. For example, meteoroids are bodies up to 10 m in size. Cosmic dust is even smaller, up to 100 microns in size. It appears in the atmospheres of stars as a result of gas emissions or explosions. Not all cosmic bodies have been studied by scientists. These include black holes, which exist in almost every galaxy. They cannot be seen, only their location can be determined. Black holes have a very strong attraction, so they don't even let light escape from them. They annually absorb huge volumes of hot gas.
Cosmic bodies have different shapes, sizes, and locations in relation to the Sun. Some of them are combined into separate groups to make them easier to classify. For example, asteroids located between the Kuiper belt and Jupiter are called Centaurs. Vulcanoids are believed to be located between the Sun and Mercury, although no objects have yet been discovered.
Space is fraught with many unknown secrets. The gaze of humanity is constantly turned to the Universe. Each sign we receive from space provides answers and at the same time raises many new questions.
What cosmic bodies are visible to the naked eye from
Group of cosmic bodies
What is the name of the closest
What are celestial bodies?
Celestial bodies are objects that fill the Universe. Space objects include: comets, planets, meteorites, asteroids, stars, which necessarily have their own names.
The subjects of astronomy are cosmic (astronomical) celestial bodies.
The sizes of celestial bodies existing in universal space are very different: from gigantic to microscopic.
The structure of the stellar system is considered using the example of the Solar system. Planets move around a star (Sun). These objects, in turn, have natural satellites, dust rings, and an asteroid belt has formed between Mars and Jupiter.
On October 30, 2017, residents of Sverdlovsk will observe the asteroid Iris. According to scientific calculations, an asteroid in the main asteroid belt will approach Earth by 127 million kilometers.
Based on spectral analysis and general laws of physics, it has been established that the Sun consists of gases. The view of the Sun through a telescope shows granules of the photosphere creating a gas cloud. The only star in the system produces and emits two types of energy. According to scientific calculations, the diameter of the Sun is 109 times greater than the diameter of the Earth.
At the beginning of the 10s of the 21st century, the world was gripped by another doomsday hysteria. Information was spread that the “planet devil” was bringing the apocalypse. The Earth's magnetic poles will shift as a result of the Earth being between Nibiru and the Sun.
Today, information about the new planet fades into the background and is not confirmed by science. But, at the same time, there are statements that Nibiru has already flown past us, or through us, having changed its primary physical indicators: having comparatively reduced its size or critically changed its density.
What cosmic bodies form the Solar System?
The solar system is the Sun and 8 planets with their satellites, the interplanetary medium, as well as asteroids or dwarf planets, united in two belts - the near or main belt and the distant or Kuiper belt. The largest Kuiper planet is Pluto. This approach gives a specific answer to the question: how many large planets are there in the Solar System?
The list of known large planets of the system is divided into two groups - terrestrial and Jovian.
All terrestrial planets have a similar structure and chemical composition of the core, mantle and crust. This makes it possible to study the process of atmospheric formation on the planets of the inner group.
The fall of cosmic bodies is subject to the laws of physics
The speed of the Earth is 30 km/s. The movement of the Earth together with the Sun relative to the center of the galaxy can cause a global catastrophe. The trajectories of planets sometimes intersect with the lines of movement of other cosmic bodies, which is a threat of these objects falling onto our planet. The consequences of collisions or falls to Earth can be very severe. Parasitizing factors resulting from the fall of large meteorites, as well as collisions with an asteroid or comet, will be explosions generating colossal energy and strong earthquakes.
Prevention of such space disasters is possible if the entire world community joins forces.
When developing defense and countermeasure systems, it is necessary to take into account that the rules of behavior during space attacks must provide for the possibility of the manifestation of properties unknown to mankind.
What is a cosmic body? What characteristics should it have?
The Earth is considered as a cosmic body capable of reflecting light.
All visible bodies in the solar system reflect the light of stars. What objects belong to cosmic bodies? In space, in addition to clearly visible large objects, there are a lot of small and even tiny ones. The list of very small space objects begins with cosmic dust (100 microns), which is the result of gas emissions after explosions in the atmospheres of planets.
Astronomical objects come in different sizes, shapes and positions relative to the Sun. Some of them are combined into separate groups to make them easier to classify.
What kind of cosmic bodies are there in our galaxy?
Our Universe is filled with a variety of cosmic objects. All galaxies are empty spaces filled with different forms of astronomical bodies. From the school astronomy course we know about stars, planets and satellites. But there are many types of interplanetary fillers: nebulae, star clusters and galaxies, almost unstudied quasars, pulsars, black holes.
Large astronomically, these are stars - hot light-emitting objects. In turn, they are divided into large and small. Depending on their spectrum, they are brown and white dwarfs, variable stars and red giants.
All celestial bodies can be divided into two types: those that provide energy (stars) and those that do not (cosmic dust, meteorites, comets, planets).
Each celestial body has its own characteristics.
Classification of cosmic bodies of our system according to composition:
- silicate;
- ice;
- combined.
Artificial space objects are space objects: manned spacecraft, manned orbital stations, manned stations on celestial bodies.
On Mercury, the Sun moves in the opposite direction. According to the information received, terrestrial bacteria are expected to be found in the atmosphere of Venus. The Earth moves around the Sun at a speed of 108,000 km per hour. Mars has two satellites. Jupiter has 60 moons and five rings. Saturn is compressed at the poles due to its rapid rotation. Uranus and Venus move around the Sun in the opposite direction. On Neptune there is such a phenomenon as.
A star is a hot gaseous cosmic body in which thermonuclear reactions occur.
Cool stars are brown dwarfs that do not have enough energy. The list of astronomical discoveries is completed by the cool star from the constellation Bootes CFBDSIR 1458 10ab.
White dwarfs are cosmic bodies with a cooled surface, in which the thermonuclear process no longer occurs, and they consist of high-density matter.
Hot stars are celestial bodies that emit blue light.
The temperature of the main star of the Bug Nebula is -200,000 degrees.
A glowing trace in the sky can be left by comets, small shapeless space formations left from meteorites, fireballs, and various remains of artificial satellites that enter the solid layers of the atmosphere.
Asteroids are sometimes classified as small planets. In fact, they look like stars of low brightness due to the active reflection of light. Cercera, from the constellation Canis, is considered the largest asteroid in the universe.
What cosmic bodies are visible to the naked eye from Earth?
Stars are cosmic bodies that emit heat and light into space.
Why are planets visible in the night sky that do not emit light? All stars glow due to the release of energy during nuclear reactions. The resulting energy is used to restrain gravitational forces and for light emissions.
But why do cold space objects also emit a glow? Planets, comets, and asteroids do not emit, but reflect starlight.
Group of cosmic bodies
Space is filled with bodies of different sizes and shapes. These objects move differently relative to the Sun and other objects. For convenience, there is a certain classification. Examples of groups: “Centaurs” - located between the Kuiper belt and Jupiter, “Vulcanoids” - presumably between the Sun and Mercury, the 8 planets of the system are also divided into two: the inner (terrestrial) group and the outer (Jupiterian) group.
What is the name of the cosmic body closest to the earth?
What is the name of the celestial body orbiting a planet? The natural satellite Moon moves around the Earth, according to the forces of gravity. Some planets of our system also have satellites: Mars - 2, Jupiter - 60, Neptune - 14, Uranus - 27, Saturn - 62.
All objects subject to solar gravity are part of the huge and incomprehensible solar system.
Thanks to the rapid development of technology, astronomers are making more and more interesting and incredible discoveries in the Universe. For example, the title of “the largest object in the Universe” passes from one discovery to another almost every year. Some discovered objects are so huge that they baffle even the best scientists on our planet with their existence. Let's talk about the ten biggest ones.
Supervoid
Just recently, scientists discovered the largest cold spot in the Universe (at least the Universe known to science). It is located in the southern part of the constellation Eridanus. With a length of 1.8 billion light years, this spot baffles scientists because they could not even imagine that such an object could actually exist.
Despite the presence of the word “void” in the name (from English “void” means “emptiness”), the space here is not completely empty. This region of space contains about 30 percent fewer galaxy clusters than the surrounding space. According to scientists, voids make up up to 50 percent of the volume of the Universe, and this percentage, in their opinion, will continue to grow due to super-strong gravity, which attracts all the matter surrounding them. What makes this void interesting are two things: its incredible size and its relationship to the mysterious WMAP cold spot.
Interestingly, the newly discovered supervoid is now perceived by scientists as the best explanation for such a phenomenon as cold spots, or regions of outer space filled with cosmic relict (background) microwave radiation. Scientists have long debated what these cold spots actually are.
One proposed theory, for example, suggests that cold spots are imprints of black holes of parallel universes, caused by quantum entanglement between universes.
However, many modern scientists are more inclined to believe that the appearance of these cold spots can be provoked by supervoids. This is explained by the fact that when protons pass through the void, they lose their energy and become weaker.
However, there is a possibility that the location of supervoids relatively close to the location of cold spots may be a simple coincidence. Scientists still have a lot of research to do on this matter and ultimately figure out whether the voids are the cause of the mysterious cold spots or their source is something else.
Superblob
In 2006, the discovery of a mysterious cosmic “bubble” (or blob, as scientists usually call them) received the title of the largest object in the Universe. True, he did not retain this title for long. This bubble, 200 million light years across, is a giant collection of gas, dust and galaxies. With some caveats, this object looks like a giant green jellyfish. The object was discovered by Japanese astronomers while studying one of the regions of space known for the presence of a huge volume of cosmic gas. It was possible to find the blob thanks to the use of a special telescope filter, which unexpectedly indicated the presence of this bubble.
Each of the three “tentacles” of this bubble contains galaxies that are four times more densely packed together than is normal in the Universe. The cluster of galaxies and balls of gas inside this bubble are called Liman-Alpha bubbles. These objects are believed to have formed approximately 2 billion years after the Big Bang and are true relics of the ancient Universe. Scientists theorize that the blob itself formed when massive stars that existed in the early days of the cosmos suddenly went supernova and released a gigantic volume of gas. The object is so massive that scientists believe it is, overall, one of the first cosmic objects to form in the Universe. According to theories, over time, more and more new galaxies will form from the gas accumulated here.
Shapley Supercluster
For many years, scientists have believed that our Milky Way galaxy is being pulled across the Universe towards the constellation Centaurus at a speed of 2.2 million kilometers per hour. Astronomers theorize that the reason for this is the Great Attractor, an object with such a gravitational force that it is enough to attract entire galaxies to itself. However, for a long time scientists could not find out what kind of object this was, since this object is located beyond the so-called “zone of avoidance” (ZOA), a region of the sky near the plane of the Milky Way, where the absorption of light by interstellar dust is so great that it is impossible to see what is behind it.
However, over time, X-ray astronomy came to the rescue, which developed sufficiently that it made it possible to look beyond the ZOA region and find out what was causing such a strong gravitational pool. All that scientists saw turned out to be an ordinary cluster of galaxies, which baffled scientists even more. These galaxies could not be the Great Attractor and have sufficient gravity to attract our Milky Way. This figure is only 44 percent of what is required. However, once scientists decided to look deeper into space, they soon discovered that the “great cosmic magnet” was a much larger object than previously thought. This object is the Shapley supercluster.
The Shapley supercluster, which is a supermassive cluster of galaxies, is located behind the Great Attractor. It is so huge and has such a powerful attraction that it attracts both the Attractor itself and our own galaxy. The supercluster consists of more than 8,000 galaxies with a mass of more than 10 million Suns. Every galaxy in our region of space is currently being attracted by this supercluster.
Great Wall CfA2
Like most of the objects on this list, the Great Wall (also known as the CfA2 Great Wall) once also boasted the title of the largest known space object in the Universe. It was discovered by American astrophysicist Margaret Joan Geller and John Peter Huchra while studying the redshift effect for the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. According to scientists, its length is 500 million light years and its width is 16 million light years. In its shape it resembles the Great Wall of China. Hence the nickname he received.
The exact dimensions of the Great Wall still remain a mystery to scientists. It may be much larger than thought, spanning 750 million light years. The problem in determining the exact dimensions lies in its location. As with the Shapley Supercluster, the Great Wall is partially obscured by an "avoidance zone."
In general, this “zone of avoidance” does not allow us to see about 20 percent of the observable (reachable with current technology) Universe, because the dense accumulations of gas and dust located inside the Milky Way (as well as the high concentration of stars) greatly distort optical wavelengths. To look through the avoidance zone, astronomers have to use other types of waves, such as infrared, which allow them to penetrate another 10 percent of the avoidance zone. What infrared waves cannot penetrate, radio waves, as well as near-infrared waves and x-rays, can penetrate. However, the virtual inability to see such a large region of space is somewhat frustrating for scientists. The "Zone of Avoidance" may contain information that could fill gaps in our knowledge of space.
Laniakea Supercluster
Galaxies are usually grouped together. These groups are called clusters. Regions of space where these clusters are more densely located among themselves are called superclusters. Previously, astronomers mapped these objects by determining their physical location in the Universe, but recently a new way of mapping local space was invented, shedding light on data previously unknown to astronomy.
The new principle of mapping local space and the galaxies in it is based not so much on calculating the physical location of an object, but on measuring the gravitational influence it exerts. Thanks to the new method, the location of galaxies is determined and, based on this, a map of the distribution of gravity in the Universe is compiled. Compared to the old ones, the new method is more advanced because it allows astronomers not only to mark new objects in the universe we see, but also to find new objects in places where they had not been able to look before. Since the method is based on measuring the level of influence of certain galaxies, and not on observing these galaxies, thanks to it we can even find objects that we cannot directly see.
The first results of studying our local galaxies using a new research method have already been obtained. Scientists, based on the boundaries of the gravitational flow, note a new supercluster. The importance of this research is that it will allow us to better understand where our place is in the Universe. It was previously thought that the Milky Way was located inside the Virgo Supercluster, but a new research method shows that this region is just an arm of the even larger Laniakea Supercluster - one of the largest objects in the Universe. It extends over 520 million light years, and somewhere within it we are.
Great Wall of Sloan
The Sloan Great Wall was first discovered in 2003 as part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, a scientific mapping of hundreds of millions of galaxies to determine the presence of the largest objects in the Universe. Sloan's Great Wall is a giant galactic filament, consisting of several superclusters spread across the Universe like the tentacles of a giant octopus. With a length of 1.4 billion light years, the "wall" was once considered the largest object in the Universe.
The Great Wall of Sloan itself is not as studied as the superclusters that lie within it. Some of these superclusters are interesting in their own right and deserve special mention. One, for example, has a core of galaxies that together from the outside look like giant tendrils. Another supercluster has a very high level of galaxy interaction, many of which are currently undergoing a merger period.
The presence of the “wall” and any other larger objects creates new questions about the mysteries of the Universe. Their existence contradicts a cosmological principle that theoretically limits how large objects in the universe can be. According to this principle, the laws of the Universe do not allow objects larger than 1.2 billion light years to exist. However, objects like Sloan's Great Wall completely contradict this opinion.
Huge-LQG7 Quasar Group
Quasars are high-energy astronomical objects located at the center of galaxies. It is believed that the centers of quasars are supermassive black holes that pull surrounding matter towards themselves. This results in enormous radiation, 1000 times more powerful than all the stars within the galaxy. Currently, the third largest object in the Universe is the Huge-LQG group of quasars, consisting of 73 quasars scattered over more than 4 billion light years. Scientists believe that this massive group of quasars, as well as similar ones, are one of the main predecessors and sources of the largest objects in the Universe, such as, for example, the Great Wall of Sloan.
The Huge-LQG group of quasars was discovered after analyzing the same data that led to the discovery of Sloan's Great Wall. Scientists determined its presence after mapping one of the regions of space using a special algorithm that measures the density of quasars in a certain area.
It should be noted that the very existence of Huge-LQG is still a matter of debate. While some scientists believe that this region of space actually represents a group of quasars, other scientists believe that the quasars within this region of space are randomly located and are not part of the same group.
Giant gamma ring
Stretching over 5 billion light years, the Giant GRB Ring is the second largest object in the Universe. In addition to its incredible size, this object attracts attention due to its unusual shape. Astronomers studying gamma-ray bursts (huge bursts of energy that result from the death of massive stars) discovered a series of nine bursts, the sources of which were the same distance from Earth. These bursts formed a ring in the sky 70 times the diameter of the full Moon. Considering that gamma-ray bursts themselves are a fairly rare phenomenon, the chance that they will form a similar shape in the sky is 1 in 20,000. This allowed scientists to believe that they are witnessing one of the largest objects in the Universe.
The "ring" itself is just a term that describes the visual representation of this phenomenon when observed from Earth. There are theories that the giant gamma-ray ring may be a projection of the sphere around which all the gamma-ray bursts occurred in a relatively short period of time, about 250 million years. True, here the question arises about what kind of source could create such a sphere. One explanation revolves around the possibility that galaxies may cluster in clusters around huge concentrations of dark matter. However, this is just a theory. Scientists still do not know how such structures are formed.
Great Wall of Hercules - Northern Crown
The largest object in the Universe was also discovered by astronomers while observing gamma rays. This object, called the Great Wall of Hercules - Corona Borealis, extends over 10 billion light years, making it twice the size of the Giant Gamma-ray Ring. Because the brightest gamma-ray bursts come from larger stars, usually located in regions of space that contain more matter, astronomers metaphorically view each gamma-ray burst as a needle pricking something larger. When scientists discovered that a region of space in the direction of the constellations Hercules and Corona Borealis was experiencing excessive bursts of gamma rays, they determined that there was an astronomical object there, most likely a dense concentration of galaxy clusters and other matter.
Interesting fact: the name “Great Wall Hercules - Northern Crown” was invented by a Filipino teenager who wrote it down in Wikipedia (anyone who doesn’t know can make edits to this electronic encyclopedia). Shortly after the news that astronomers had discovered a huge structure in the cosmic horizon, a corresponding article appeared on the pages of Wikipedia. Despite the fact that the invented name does not accurately describe this object (the wall covers several constellations at once, and not just two), the world Internet quickly got used to it. This may be the first time that Wikipedia has given a name to a discovered and scientifically interesting object.
Since the very existence of this “wall” also contradicts the cosmological principle, scientists have to revise some of their theories about how the Universe actually formed.
Cosmic web
Scientists believe that the expansion of the Universe does not occur randomly. There are theories according to which all the galaxies of space are organized into one incredibly sized structure, reminiscent of thread-like connections that unite dense regions with each other. These threads are scattered between less dense voids. Scientists call this structure the Cosmic Web.
According to scientists, the web was formed at very early stages of the history of the Universe. The early stage of the formation of the web was unstable and heterogeneous, which subsequently helped the formation of everything that is now in the Universe. It is believed that the “threads” of this web played a large role in the evolution of the Universe, thanks to which this evolution accelerated. Galaxies located inside these filaments have a significantly higher rate of star formation. In addition, these filaments are a kind of bridge for gravitational interaction between galaxies. After their formation in these filaments, galaxies move towards galaxy clusters, where they eventually die over time.
Only recently have scientists begun to understand what this Cosmic Web actually is. Moreover, they even discovered its presence in the radiation of the distant quasar they studied. Quasars are known to be the brightest objects in the Universe. The light from one of them went straight to one of the filaments, which heated the gases in it and made them glow. Based on these observations, scientists drew threads between other galaxies, thereby creating a picture of the “skeleton of space.”
27 October 2015, 15:38Ancient pyramids, the world's tallest skyscraper in Dubai almost half a kilometer high, the grandiose Everest - one look at these huge objects will take your breath away. And at the same time, compared to some objects in the universe, they differ in microscopic size.
Largest asteroid
Today, Ceres is considered the largest asteroid in the universe: its mass is almost a third of the entire mass of the asteroid belt, and its diameter is over 1000 kilometers. The asteroid is so large that it is sometimes called a "dwarf planet."
The largest planet
The largest planet in the Universe is TrES-4. It was discovered in 2006 and is located in the constellation Hercules. The planet, called TrES-4, orbits a star that is about 1,400 light-years away from planet Earth.
The planet TrES-4 itself is a ball that consists primarily of hydrogen. Its dimensions are 20 times greater than the size of the Earth. Researchers claim that the diameter of the discovered planet is almost 2 times (more precisely 1.7) larger than the diameter of Jupiter (this is the largest planet in the solar system). The temperature of TrES-4 is about 1260 degrees Celsius.
The largest black hole
In terms of area, black holes are not that big. However, given their mass, these objects are the largest in the universe. And the largest black hole in space is a quasar, whose mass is 17 billion times (!) greater than the mass of the Sun. This is a huge black hole at the very center of the galaxy NGC 1277, an object that is larger than the entire solar system - its mass is 14% of the total mass of the entire galaxy.
Largest galaxy
The so-called “super galaxies” are several galaxies merged together and located in galactic “clusters”, clusters of galaxies. The largest of these “super galaxies” is IC1101, which is 60 times larger than the galaxy where our Solar System is located. The extent of IC1101 is 6 million light years. For comparison, the length of the Milky Way is only 100 thousand light years.
The largest star in the Universe
VY Canis Majoris is the largest known star and one of the brightest stars in the sky. This is a red hypergiant, which is located in the constellation Canis Major. The radius of this star is approximately 1800-2200 times greater than the radius of our Sun, its diameter is approximately 3 billion kilometers.
Huge deposits of water
Astronomers have discovered the largest and most massive reserves of water ever found in the Universe. The giant cloud, which is about 12 billion years old, contains 140 trillion times more water than all of Earth's oceans combined.
A cloud of gaseous water surrounds a supermassive black hole, which is located 12 billion light years from Earth. This discovery shows that water has dominated the universe for almost all of its existence, the researchers said.
Largest galaxy cluster
El Gordo is located more than 7 billion light years from Earth, so what we see today is just its early stages. According to researchers who have studied this galaxy cluster, it is the largest, hottest and emits more radiation than any other known cluster at the same distance or further away.
The central galaxy at the center of El Gordo is incredibly bright and has an unusual blue glow. The study authors suggest that this extreme galaxy is the result of a collision and merger of two galaxies.
Using the Spitzer Space Telescope and optical images, scientists estimate that 1 percent of the cluster's total mass is stars, and the rest is hot gas that fills the space between the stars. This ratio of stars to gas is similar to that in other massive clusters.
Supervoid
Just recently, scientists discovered the largest cold spot in the Universe (at least the Universe known to science). It is located in the southern part of the constellation Eridanus. With a length of 1.8 billion light years, this spot baffles scientists because they could not even imagine that such an object could actually exist.
Despite the presence of the word “void” in the name (from English “void” means “emptiness”), the space here is not completely empty. This region of space contains about 30 percent fewer galaxy clusters than the surrounding space. According to scientists, voids make up up to 50 percent of the volume of the Universe, and this percentage, in their opinion, will continue to grow due to super-strong gravity, which attracts all the matter surrounding them. What makes this void interesting are two things: its incredible size and its relationship to the mysterious WMAP cold spot.
Superblob
In 2006, the discovery of a mysterious cosmic “bubble” (or blob, as scientists usually call them) received the title of the largest object in the Universe. True, he did not retain this title for long. This bubble, 200 million light years across, is a giant collection of gas, dust and galaxies.
Each of the three “tentacles” of this bubble contains galaxies that are four times more densely packed together than is normal in the Universe. The cluster of galaxies and balls of gas inside this bubble are called Liman-Alpha bubbles. These objects are believed to have formed approximately 2 billion years after the Big Bang and are true relics of the ancient Universe.
Shapley Supercluster
For many years, scientists have believed that our Milky Way galaxy is being pulled across the Universe towards the constellation Centaurus at a speed of 2.2 million kilometers per hour. Astronomers theorize that the reason for this is the Great Attractor, an object with such a gravitational force that it is enough to attract entire galaxies to itself. However, for a long time scientists could not find out what kind of object this was, since this object is located beyond the so-called “zone of avoidance” (ZOA), a region of the sky near the plane of the Milky Way, where the absorption of light by interstellar dust is so great that it is impossible to see what is behind it.
Once scientists decided to look deeper into space, they soon discovered that the “great cosmic magnet” was a much larger object than previously thought. This object is the Shapley supercluster.
The Shapley supercluster is a supermassive cluster of galaxies. It is so huge and has such a powerful attraction that our own galaxy. The supercluster consists of more than 8,000 galaxies with a mass of more than 10 million Suns. Every galaxy in our region of space is currently being attracted by this supercluster.
Laniakea Supercluster
Galaxies are usually grouped together. These groups are called clusters. Regions of space where these clusters are more densely located among themselves are called superclusters. Previously, astronomers mapped these objects by determining their physical location in the Universe, but recently a new way of mapping local space was invented, shedding light on data previously unknown to astronomy.
The new principle of mapping local space and the galaxies in it is based not so much on calculating the physical location of an object, but on measuring the gravitational influence it exerts.
The first results of studying our local galaxies using a new research method have already been obtained. Scientists, based on the boundaries of the gravitational flow, note a new supercluster. The importance of this research is that it will allow us to better understand where our place is in the Universe. It was previously thought that the Milky Way was located inside the Virgo Supercluster, but a new research method shows that this region is just an arm of the even larger Laniakea Supercluster - one of the largest objects in the Universe. It extends over 520 million light years, and somewhere within it we are.
Great Wall of Sloan
The Sloan Great Wall was first discovered in 2003 as part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, a scientific mapping of hundreds of millions of galaxies to determine the presence of the largest objects in the Universe. Sloan's Great Wall is a giant galactic filament, consisting of several superclusters spread across the Universe like the tentacles of a giant octopus. With a length of 1.4 billion light years, the "wall" was once considered the largest object in the Universe.
The Great Wall of Sloan itself is not as studied as the superclusters that lie within it. Some of these superclusters are interesting in their own right and deserve special mention. One, for example, has a core of galaxies that together from the outside look like giant tendrils. Another supercluster has a very high level of galaxy interaction, many of which are currently undergoing a merger period.
Huge-LQG7 Quasar Group
Quasars are high-energy astronomical objects located at the center of galaxies. It is believed that the centers of quasars are supermassive black holes that pull surrounding matter towards themselves. This results in enormous radiation, 1000 times more powerful than all the stars within the galaxy. Currently, the third largest object in the Universe is the Huge-LQG group of quasars, consisting of 73 quasars scattered over more than 4 billion light years. Scientists believe that this massive group of quasars, as well as similar ones, are one of the main predecessors and sources of the largest objects in the Universe, such as, for example, the Great Wall of Sloan.
Giant gamma ring
Stretching over 5 billion light years, the Giant GRB Ring is the second largest object in the Universe. In addition to its incredible size, this object attracts attention due to its unusual shape. Astronomers studying gamma-ray bursts (huge bursts of energy that result from the death of massive stars) discovered a series of nine bursts, the sources of which were the same distance from Earth. These bursts formed a ring in the sky 70 times the diameter of the full Moon.
Great Wall of Hercules - Northern Crown
The largest object in the Universe was also discovered by astronomers while observing gamma rays. This object, called the Great Wall of Hercules - Corona Borealis, extends over 10 billion light years, making it twice the size of the Giant Gamma-ray Ring. Because the brightest gamma-ray bursts come from larger stars, usually located in regions of space that contain more matter, astronomers metaphorically view each gamma-ray burst as a needle pricking something larger. When scientists discovered that a region of space in the direction of the constellations Hercules and Corona Borealis was experiencing excessive bursts of gamma rays, they determined that there was an astronomical object there, most likely a dense concentration of galaxy clusters and other matter.
Cosmic web
Scientists believe that the expansion of the Universe does not occur randomly. There are theories according to which all the galaxies of space are organized into one incredibly sized structure, reminiscent of thread-like connections that unite dense regions with each other. These threads are scattered between less dense voids. Scientists call this structure the Cosmic Web.
According to scientists, the web was formed at very early stages of the history of the Universe. The early stage of the formation of the web was unstable and heterogeneous, which subsequently helped the formation of everything that is now in the Universe. It is believed that the “threads” of this web played a large role in the evolution of the Universe, thanks to which this evolution accelerated. Galaxies located inside these filaments have a significantly higher rate of star formation. In addition, these filaments are a kind of bridge for gravitational interaction between galaxies. After their formation in these filaments, galaxies move towards galaxy clusters, where they eventually die over time.
Only recently have scientists begun to understand what this Cosmic Web actually is. Moreover, they even discovered its presence in the radiation of the distant quasar they studied. Quasars are known to be the brightest objects in the Universe. The light from one of them went straight to one of the filaments, which heated the gases in it and made them glow. Based on these observations, scientists drew threads between other galaxies, thereby creating a picture of the “skeleton of space.”
