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 finds to another almost every year. Some discovered objects are so huge that they baffle even the best scientists on our planet with their fact. Let's talk about the ten largest ones.

Supervoyd

More recently, scientists have discovered the largest cold spot in the universe (at least known to the science of the universe). It is located in the southern part of the constellation Eridanus. With its 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 title (from English "void" means "emptiness"), the space here is not entirely empty. This region of space has about 30 percent fewer galaxy clusters than the surrounding space. According to scientists, voids account for up to 50 percent of the volume of the Universe, and this percentage, in their opinion, will continue to grow due to superstrong gravity, which attracts all the matter around them. Two things make this entrance interesting: its unimaginable size and its relation to the enigmatic cold relic spot WMAP.

Interestingly, the new discovered supervoid is now perceived by scientists as the best explanation for such phenomena as cold spots, or regions of space filled with cosmic relic (background) microwave radiation. Scientists have long debated what these cold spots really are.

One proposed theory, for example, suggests that cold spots are black hole imprints from 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 the protons pass through the entrance, they lose their energy and become weaker.

However, there is a possibility that the location of super voids relatively close to the location of cold spots could be a mere coincidence. Scientists still have to do a lot of research on this subject and in the end find out whether the voids are the cause of the mysterious cold spots or their source is something else.

Superblob

In 2006, the title of the largest object in the Universe was given to the discovered mysterious space "bubble" (or blob, as scientists usually call them). True, he retained this title for a short time. This 200 million light-year bubble is a giant cluster of gas, dust and galaxies. With some reservations, this object looks like a giant green jellyfish. The object was discovered by Japanese astronomers when they studied one of the regions of space, known for the presence of a huge volume of cosmic gas. The blob was found thanks to the use of a special telescopic filter, which unexpectedly indicated the presence of this bubble.

Each of the three "tentacles" of this bubble contains galaxies, which are located four times denser among themselves than usual in the Universe. The cluster of galaxies and gas balls inside this bubble are called the Lyman-Alpha bubbles. It is believed that these objects formed about 2 billion years after the Big Bang and are true relics of the ancient universe. Scientists speculate that the blob itself formed when massive stars that existed in the early days of space suddenly went supernovae and released a gigantic volume of gas. The object is so massive that scientists believe that it is, by and large, one of the first formed space objects 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 believe that our Milky Way galaxy is being pulled through the Universe to the constellation Centaurus at a speed of 2.2 million kilometers per hour. Astronomers theorize that this is due to the Great Attractor, an object with enough gravity to pull entire galaxies toward it. True, scientists for a long time could not find out what kind of object it is, since this object is located behind the so-called "zone of avoidance" (ZOA), an area 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's behind it.

However, over time, X-ray astronomy came to the rescue, which developed quite strongly that it made it possible to look beyond the ZOA and find out what is the cause of such a strong gravitational pool. All that scientists saw turned out to be an ordinary cluster of galaxies, which puzzled 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 the required. However, as soon as scientists decided to look deeper into space, they soon discovered that the "great cosmic magnet" is a much larger object than previously thought. This object is the Shapley supercluster.

The Shapley Supercluster, 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 8000 galaxies with a mass of more than 10 million suns. Every galaxy in our region of space is currently being pulled by this supercluster.

Great Wall CfA2

Like most of the objects on this list, the Great Wall (also known as the Great Wall of CfA2) once boasted the title of the largest known space object in the universe. It was discovered by the American astrophysicist Margaret Joan Geller and John Peter Huchra while studying the redshift effect for the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Scientists estimate that it is 500 million light years long and 16 million light years wide. In its shape, it resembles the Great Wall of China. Hence the nickname he received.

The exact dimensions of the Great Wall are still a mystery to scientists. It could be much larger than it is believed and be 750 million light-years across. The problem with sizing is its location. As with the Shapley supercluster, the Great Wall is partially obscured by a "zone of avoidance."

In general, this "zone of avoidance" does not allow discerning about 20 percent of the observable (accessible for current technologies) Universe, because dense accumulations of gas and dust located inside the Milky Way (as well as a high concentration of stars) strongly distort optical wavelengths. In order to see through the "zone of avoidance", astronomers have to use other types of waves, such as, for example, infrared, which allow you to break through another 10 percent of the "zone of avoidance". Through what infrared waves cannot break through, radio waves, as well as near-infrared waves and X-rays, break through. Nevertheless, the virtual lack of the ability to see such a large region of space is somewhat frustrating for scientists. A "zone of avoidance" may contain information that can fill in the gaps in our knowledge of space.

Supercluster Laniakea

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 have mapped these objects by determining their physical location in the Universe, but recently a new way of mapping local space has been invented, shedding light on data previously unknown to astronomy.

The new principle of mapping the local space and the galaxies in it is based not so much on calculating the physical location of an object as on measuring the gravitational effect it exerts. Thanks to the new method, the location of galaxies is determined and, on the basis of 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 it was not possible 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 find even those objects that we cannot directly see.

The first results of studying our local galaxies using the new research method have already been obtained. Scientists, based on the boundaries of the gravitational flow, mark a new supercluster. The importance of this study is that it will allow us to better understand where we belong in the universe. Previously, it was thought that the Milky Way is inside the Virgo supercluster, but the 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 spans 520 million light years, and we are somewhere within it.

Sloan's Great Wall

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 made up of several superclusters that spread out across the universe like the tentacles of a giant octopus. At 1.4 billion light years long, the "wall" was once thought to be the largest object in the universe.

Sloan's Great Wall itself is not as well-researched as the superfunctions that reside within it. Some of these superclusters are interesting in their own right and deserve special mention. One, for example, has a nucleus of galaxies, which together look like giant tendrils from the side. Another supercluster has a very high level of interaction between galaxies, many of which are currently undergoing a merger period.

The presence of a "wall" and any other larger objects raises new questions about the mysteries of the universe. Their existence is contrary to the cosmological principle, which theoretically limits how large objects in the universe can be. According to this principle, the laws of the universe do not allow objects over 1.2 billion light years in size to exist. However, objects like Sloan's Great Wall completely contradict this opinion.

Quasar group Huge-LQG7

Quasars are high-energy astronomical objects located in the center of galaxies. It is believed that the center of quasars are supermassive black holes, which pull on the surrounding matter. This results in a massive amount of radiation that is 1,000 times more powerful than all the stars in the galaxy. At the moment, the third largest object in the Universe is the Huge-LQG group of quasars, consisting of 73 quasars scattered over 4 billion light years. Scientists believe that such a 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 Sloan Great Wall.

The Huge-LQG group of quasars was discovered after analyzing the same data that led to the discovery of Sloan's Great Wall. Scientists have determined its presence after mapping one of the regions of space using a special algorithm that measures the density of the location of quasars in a certain area.

It should be noted that the very existence of the Huge-LQG is still a matter of controversy. While some scientists believe that this region of space does indeed represent 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

Spreading 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 bursts of gamma rays (huge bursts of energy that form as a result of the death of massive stars), found a series of nine bursts, the sources of which were located at the same distance to the Earth. These bursts formed a ring in the sky, 70 times the diameter of the full moon. Considering that gamma ray bursts themselves are quite rare, 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.

By itself, "ring" is just a term describing the visual representation of this phenomenon as viewed from Earth. There are theories that the giant gamma-ray ring could be a projection of a sphere around which all gamma-ray bursts occurred in a relatively short period of time, about 250 million years. True, here the question arises as to what kind of source could create such a sphere. One explanation revolves around the possibility that galaxies could cluster around a huge concentration of dark matter. However, this is only a theory. Scientists still don't know how these structures are formed.

Great Wall of Hercules - Northern Crown

The largest object in the universe was also discovered by astronomers as part of observing gamma rays. Dubbed the Great Wall of Hercules - the Northern Crown, this object spans 10 billion light years, making it twice the size of the Giant Galactic Gamma Ring. Since the brightest bursts of gamma rays are produced by larger stars, usually located in areas of space that contain more matter, astronomers each time metaphorically treat each burst as a needle prick into something larger. When scientists discovered that gamma-ray bursts too often occur in the area of ​​space in the direction of the constellations Hercules and the Northern Corona, they determined that there was an astronomical object, which was most likely a dense concentration of galactic clusters and other matter.

Interesting fact: the name "Great Wall Hercules - Northern Crown" was invented by a Filipino teenager who wrote it down on Wikipedia (anyone who does not know can edit this electronic encyclopedia). Shortly after the news that astronomers had discovered a huge structure in the cosmic sky, 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, 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 is not random. There are theories according to which all galaxies in space are organized into one incredible structure, reminiscent of thread-like connections that unite dense regions. These threads are scattered between the less dense voids. Scientists call this structure the Cosmic Web.

According to scientists, the web was formed at a very early stage in 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 has accelerated. Galaxies inside these filaments have a significantly higher star formation rate. In addition, these filaments are a kind of bridge for the gravitational interaction between galaxies. After forming in these filaments, galaxies travel to galaxy clusters, where they eventually die.

Only recently have scientists begun to understand what this Cosmic Web really is. Moreover, they even discovered its presence in the radiation of the distant quasar they were studying. 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 the cosmos."

1 light second ≈ 300,000 km;

1 light minute ≈ 18,000,000 km;

1 light hour ≈ 1,080,000,000 km;

1 light day ≈ 26,000,000,000 km;

1 light week ≈ 181,000,000,000 km;

1 light month ≈ 790,000,000,000 km.

R136a1 is the most massive star in the universe known to date. Credit & Copyright: Joannie Dennis / flickr, CC BY-SA.

Looking at the night sky, you understand that you are just a grain of sand in the endless space of space.

But, many of us may also wonder: what is the most massive object in the Universe known to date?

In a sense, the answer to this question depends on what we mean by the word “object”. Astronomers observe structures such as the Great Wall of Hercules-Northern Crown, a colossal string of gas, dust, and dark matter that contains billions of galaxies. Its length is about 10 billion light-years, so this structure may be called the largest object. But it's not that simple. The classification of this cluster as a unique object is problematic due to the fact that it is difficult to determine exactly where it begins and where it ends.

In fact, in physics and astrophysics, “object” has a clear definition, said Scott Chapman, an astrophysicist at Dalhousie University in Halifax:

“It is something tied together by its own gravitational forces, such as a planet, star, or stars revolving around a common center of mass.

Using this definition, it becomes a little easier to understand what is the most massive object in the universe. In addition, this definition can be applied to various objects depending on the scale in question.

Photo of Jupiter's north pole, taken by the Pioneer 11 spacecraft in 1974. Credit & Copyright: NASA Ames.

For our relatively tiny species, planet Earth, at 6 septillion kilograms, appears enormous. But it is not even the largest planet in the solar system. Gas giants: Neptune, Uranus, Saturn and Jupiter are much larger. The mass of Jupiter, for example, is 1.9 octillion kilograms. Researchers have discovered thousands of planets orbiting other stars, including many that make our gas giants look small. Discovered in 2016, HR2562 b is the most massive exoplanet, approximately 30 times more massive than Jupiter. At this size, astronomers are not sure if it should be considered a planet or classified as a dwarf star.

In this case, the stars can grow to enormous sizes. The most massive known star is R136a1, its mass is between 265 and 315 times the mass of our Sun (2 nonillion kilograms). Located 130,000 light-years from the Large Magellanic Cloud, our satellite galaxy, this star is so bright that the light it emits actually rips it apart. According to a 2010 study, the electromagnetic radiation emanating from the star is so powerful that it can carry material away from its surface, causing the star to lose about 16 Earth masses each year. Astronomers do not know exactly how such a star could have formed, or how long it will exist.

Huge stars located in the stellar nursery RMC 136a, located in the Tarantula Nebula, in one of our neighboring galaxies, the Large Magellanic Cloud, 165,000 light years away. Credit & Copyright: ESO / VLT.

The next massive objects are galaxies. Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is about 100,000 light-years in diameter and contains roughly 200 billion stars, with a combined weight of about 1.7 trillion solar masses. However, the Milky Way cannot compete with the central galaxy of the Phoenix cluster, located 2.2 million light years away and containing about 3 trillion stars. At the center of this galaxy is a supermassive black hole - the largest ever discovered - with an estimated mass of 20 billion suns. The Phoenix cluster itself is a huge cluster of approximately 1000 galaxies with a total mass of about 2 quadrillion Suns.

But even this cluster cannot compete with what is arguably the most massive object ever discovered: a galactic proto-cluster known as SPT2349.

“We won the jackpot by discovering this structure,” said Chapman, leader of the team that discovered the new record holder. "More than 14 very massive individual galaxies in space not much larger than our own Milky Way."

Artist's illustration showing 14 galaxies in the process of merging and eventually forming the core of a massive galaxy cluster. Credit & Copyright: NRAO / AUI / NSF; S. Dagnello.

This cluster began to form when the universe was less than one and a half billion years old. The individual galaxies in this cluster will eventually merge into one giant galaxy, the most massive in the universe. And that's just the tip of the iceberg, Chapman said. Further observations showed that the overall structure contains about 50 satellite galaxies, which in the future will be absorbed by the central galaxy. The previous record holder, known as the El Gordo Cluster, has a mass of 3 quadrillion Suns, but the SPT2349 probably outweighs it by at least four to five times.

That such a huge object could have formed when the universe was only 1.4 billion years old surprised astronomers, as computer models suggested that such large objects would take much longer to form.

Given that humans have only explored a small portion of the sky, it is likely that even more massive objects may be lurking far into the universe.

The distant ancestors of the modern inhabitants of the planet Earth believed that it was she who was the largest object in the universe, and the small-sized Sun and Moon revolve around her in the sky day after day. The smallest formations in space seemed to them stars, which were compared to tiny points of light attached to the firmament. Centuries have passed, and man's views on the structure of the Universe have changed dramatically. So what will modern scientists now answer the question of what is the largest space object?

The age and structure of the universe

According to the latest scientific data, our Universe has existed for about 14 billion years, and it is this period that its age is calculated. Having begun its existence at the point of cosmic singularity, where the density of matter was incredibly high, it, constantly expanding, reached its present state. Today it is believed that the Universe is built from ordinary and familiar to us substance, of which all visible and perceived astronomical objects are composed, by only 4.9%.

Earlier, exploring space and the movement of celestial bodies, ancient astronomers had the opportunity to base only on their own observations, using only simple measuring instruments. Modern scientists, in order to understand the structure and size of various formations in the Universe, have artificial satellites, observatories, lasers and radio telescopes, the most cunning sensors in terms of design. At first glance, it seems that with the help of the achievements of science, it is not at all difficult to answer the question of what is the largest space object. However, this is not at all as easy as it seems.

Where is there a lot of water?

By what parameters to judge: by size, weight or quantity? For example, the largest cloud of water in space is found at a distance that light travels in 12 billion years. The total amount of this substance in the form of vapor in this area of ​​the Universe exceeds all reserves of the Earth's oceans by 140 trillion times. Water vapor there is 4 thousand times more than is contained in our entire galaxy, called the Milky Way. Scientists believe that this is the oldest cluster, formed long before the time when our Earth as a planet appeared to the world from the solar nebula. This object, rightfully attributed to the giants of the Universe, appeared almost immediately after its birth, only after a lapse of a billion years, or maybe a little more.

Where is the largest mass concentrated?

Water is believed to be the oldest and most abundant element not only on planet Earth, but also in the depths of space. So what is the largest space object? Where is the most water and other substances? But it is not so. The mentioned cloud of vapor exists only because it is concentrated around the black hole endowed with a huge mass and is held by the force of its attraction. The gravitational field next to such bodies turns out to be so strong that no objects are able to leave their limits, even if they are moving at the speed of light. Such "holes" of the Universe are called black precisely because quanta of light are not able to overcome a hypothetical line called the event horizon. Therefore, it is impossible to see them, but a huge mass of these formations constantly makes itself felt. The dimensions of black holes, purely theoretically, may not be very large due to their fantastic density. At the same time, an incredible mass is concentrated in a small point in space, hence, according to the laws of physics, gravity also arises.

The closest black holes to us

Our hometown Milky Way belongs to spiral galaxies by scientists. Even the ancient Romans called it the "milk road", since from our planet it has the corresponding form of a white nebula, spread across the sky in the blackness of the night. And the Greeks invented a whole legend about the appearance of this cluster of stars, where it represents milk splashed from the breasts of the goddess Hera.

Like many other galaxies, the black hole in the center of the Milky Way is a supermassive formation. They call her "Sagittarius A-Star". This is a real monster that literally devours everything around itself with its own gravitational field, accumulating within its limits huge masses of matter, the amount of which is constantly increasing. However, the nearby region, precisely because of the existence of the indicated drawing-in funnel, turns out to be a very favorable place for the appearance of new stellar formations.

The local group, along with ours, includes the Andromeda galaxy, which is the closest to the Milky Way. It also refers to spiral, but several times larger and includes about a trillion stars. For the first time in the written sources of ancient astronomers, it was mentioned in the works of the Persian scientist As-Sufi, who lived more than a millennium ago. This enormous formation appeared to the aforementioned astronomer as a small cloud. It is for its view from Earth that the galaxy is also often referred to as the Andromeda Nebula.

Even much later, scientists could not imagine the scale and magnitude of this cluster of stars. For a long time they endowed this space formation with a relatively small size. The distance to the Andromeda galaxy was also significantly underestimated, although in fact, the distance to it is, according to modern science, the distance that even light travels over a period of more than two thousand years.

Supergalaxy and galaxy clusters

The largest object in space could be considered a hypothetical supergalaxy. Theories have been put forward about its existence, but the physical cosmology of our time considers the formation of such an astronomical cluster improbable due to the impossibility of gravitational and other forces to hold it as a whole. However, a supercluster of galaxies exists, and today such objects are considered quite real.

A bright point in the sky, but not a star

Continuing the search for the remarkable in space, let us now ask the question in a different way: what is the largest star in the sky? Again, we will not immediately find a suitable answer. There are many noticeable objects that can be distinguished with the naked eye on a beautiful weather night. One is Venus. This point in the firmament is perhaps the brightest of all the others. In terms of glow intensity, it is several times greater than the planets Mars and Jupiter, which are close to us. It is second in brightness only to the Moon.

However, Venus is not a star at all. But it was very difficult for the ancients to notice such a difference. It is difficult to distinguish between the stars burning by themselves and the planets glowing by the reflected rays with the naked eye. But even in ancient times, for example, Greek astronomers understood the difference between these objects. They called the planets "wandering stars", as they moved over time along loop-like trajectories, unlike most of the night celestial beauties.

It is not surprising that Venus stands out among other objects, because it is the second planet from the Sun, and the closest to the Earth. Now scientists have found that the sky of Venus itself is completely covered with thick clouds and has an aggressive atmosphere. All this perfectly reflects the sun's rays, which explains the brightness of this object.

Star giant

The largest star discovered by astronomers to date is 2,100 times the size of the Sun. It emits a crimson glow and is located in This object is located at a distance of four thousand light years from us. Experts call her VY Big Dog.

But the big star is only in size. Studies show that its density is actually negligible, and its mass is only 17 times the weight of our star. But the properties of this object cause fierce controversy in scientific circles. It is assumed that the star is expanding but loses brightness over time. Many of the experts also express the opinion that the enormous size of the object in fact, in some way only only seems to be so. The optical illusion is created by the nebula that envelops the true shape of the star.

Mysterious objects of space

What is a quasar in space? Such astronomical objects turned out to be a big puzzle for scientists of the last century. These are very bright sources of light and radio emission with relatively small angular dimensions. But, despite this, they eclipse entire galaxies with their glow. But what is the reason? These objects are thought to contain supermassive black holes surrounded by immense clouds of gas. Giant funnels absorb matter from space, due to which they constantly increase their mass. Such a retraction leads to a powerful glow and, as a consequence, to an enormous brightness resulting from the deceleration and subsequent heating of the gas cloud. It is believed that the mass of such objects exceeds the solar mass by billions of times.

There are many hypotheses about these amazing objects. Some believe that these are the nuclei of young galaxies. But the most intriguing assumption seems to be that quasars no longer exist in the Universe. The fact is that the glow that earthly astronomers can observe today has reached our planet for too long a period. It is believed that the closest quasar to us is located at a distance that light had to cover in a thousand million years. And this means that on Earth it is possible to see only the "ghosts" of those objects that existed in deep space in incredibly distant times. And then our universe was much younger.

Dark matter

But this is not all of the secrets that the immense space keeps. Even more mysterious is its "dark" side. There is very little common substance called baryonic matter, as already mentioned, in the Universe. Most of its mass is, as it has been hypothesized today, dark energy. And 26.8% is occupied by dark matter. Such particles are not subject to physical laws, so it is too difficult to detect them.

This hypothesis has not yet been fully confirmed by rigorous scientific data, but arose when trying to explain the extremely strange astronomical phenomena associated with stellar gravity and the evolution of the Universe. All this remains to be clarified only in the future.

Thanks to the constant advancement of technology, astronomers are finding more and more diverse objects in the universe. The title of "the largest object in the Universe" moves from one structure to another almost every year. Here are some examples of the largest objects that have been discovered so far.

1. Supervoid

In 2004, astronomers discovered the largest void (called a void) in the known universe. It is located at a distance of 3 billion light years from Earth in the southern part of the constellation Eridani. Despite the name "void," the 1.8 billion light-year void is not actually a completely empty region in space. It differs from other parts of the Universe in that the density of matter in it is 30 percent less (in other words, there are fewer stars and clusters in the void).

Also, the Eridani Supervoid is notable for the fact that in this region of the Universe, the temperature of microwave radiation is 70 microkelvin less than in the surrounding space (where it is approximately 2.7 kelvin).

2. Space blot

In 2006, a team of astronomers from the University of Toulouse found a mysterious green blob in space that became the largest structure in the universe at the time. Dubbed the Lyman-Alpha Drop, this droplet is a gigantic mass of gas, dust and galaxies that has spread out over 200 million light-years across (7 times the size of our galaxy, the Milky Way). The light from it reaches the Earth for 11.5 billion years. Considering that the age of the universe is most often estimated at 13.7 billion years, the giant green droplet is considered one of the oldest structures in the universe.

3. Shapley Supercluster

Scientists have long known that our galaxy is moving in the direction of the constellation Centaurus at a speed of 2.2 million kilometers per hour, but the reason for the movement remained a mystery. About 30 years ago, a theory emerged according to which the Milky Way attracts the "Great Attractor" - an object whose gravity is strong enough to pull our galaxy over a huge distance. As a result, it was discovered that our Milky Way and the entire Local Group of galaxies are attracted to the so-called Shapley Supercluster, consisting of more than 8000 galaxies with a total mass of 10,000 times the Milky Way.

4. Great Wall CfA2

Like many of the structures on this list, the Great Wall of CfA2 was recognized as the largest known object in the universe when discovered. The object is located about 200 million light years from Earth, and its approximate dimensions are 500 million light years long, 300 million light years wide and 15 million light years thick. The exact dimensions are impossible to establish, since the clouds of dust and gas from the Milky Way block part of the Great Wall from us.

5. Laniakeya

Galaxies are usually grouped into clusters. Those regions where clusters are more densely packed and connected to each other by gravitational forces are called superclusters. It was once thought that the Milky Way, along with the Local Group of Galaxies, is part of the Virgo Supercluster (110 million light years across), but new studies have shown that our region is just an arm of a much larger supercluster called Laniakea, which is 520 million light-years across. years.

6. Sloan's Great Wall

Sloan's Great Wall was first discovered in 2003. The giant group of galaxies spanning 1.4 billion light years held the title of the largest structure in the universe until 2013. It is located approximately 1.2 billion light years from Earth.

7. Huge-LQG

Quasars are the nuclei of active galaxies, in the center of which (as modern scientists suggest) is a supermassive black hole, which throws out a part of the captured matter in the form of a bright jet of matter, which leads to super-powerful radiation. Currently, the third largest structure in the Universe is the Huge-LQG - a cluster of 73 quasars (and, accordingly, galaxies), located at a distance of 8.73 billion light years from Earth. Huge-LQG is 4 billion light years across.

8. A giant ring of gamma-ray bursts

Hungarian astronomers have discovered at a distance of 7 billion light years from Earth one of the largest structures in the Universe - a giant ring formed by bursts of gamma rays. Gamma-ray bursts are the brightest objects in the Universe because they release in just a few seconds as much energy as the Sun does in 10 billion years. The discovered ring is 5 billion light years in diameter.

9. Great Wall of Hercules - Northern Crown

Currently, the largest structure in the Universe is a superstructure of galaxies called the Great Wall of Hercules-Northern Crown. Its dimensions are 10 billion, or 10 percent of the diameter of the observable universe. The structure was discovered by observing gamma-ray bursts in the constellations of Hercules and the Northern Crown, in a region 10 billion light-years distant from Earth.

10. Cosmic web

Scientists believe that the distribution of matter in the universe is not random. It has been suggested that galaxies are organized into a huge universal structure in the form of filamentary filaments or clusters of "partitions" between huge voids. Geometrically, the structure of the Universe most resembles a bubble mass or honeycomb. Inside the honeycomb, which is about 100 million light-years across, there are virtually no stars or matter of any kind. This structure has been called the "Space Web".

It may seem incredible, but cosmic discoveries directly affect the everyday life of people. Confirmation of this.

An overview of the largest space objects and phenomena.

We know from school years that the largest planet is Jupiter. It is he who is the leader in terms of the size of the planets of the solar system. In this article we will tell you what is the largest planet and space object that exists in the Universe.

What is the name of the largest planet in the universe?

TrES-4- is a gas giant and the largest planet in the universe. Oddly enough, this object was discovered only in 2006. It is a huge planet that is many times the size of Jupiter. It revolves around a star, just like the Earth revolves around the Sun. The planet is colored orange-brown, because the temperature on its surface is more than 1200 degrees. Therefore, there is no solid surface on it, basically it is a boiling mass, consisting mainly of helium and hydrogen.

Due to the constant occurrence of chemical reactions, the planet is very hot and radiates heat. The strangest thing is the density of the planet, it is very high for such a mass. Therefore, scientists are not sure that it consists only of gas.

What is the name of the largest planet in the solar system?

One of the largest planets in the universe is Jupiter. It is one of the giant planets that are predominantly gaseous. The composition is also very similar to the Sun, mainly composed of hydrogen. The planet's rotation speed is very high. Because of this, strong winds are formed around it, which provoke the appearance of colored clouds. Due to the huge size of the planet and the speed of its movement, it has a strong magnetic field that attracts many celestial bodies.

This is due to the large number of satellites of the planet. One of the largest is Ganymede. Despite this, recently scientists have become very interested in Jupiter's satellite, Europa. They believe that the planet, which is covered with a crust of ice, has an ocean inside, with the possible simplest life. Which makes it possible to assume the existence of living beings.

The largest stars in the universe

• VY... Until recently, it was considered the largest star, it was discovered back in 1800. The size is about 1420 times the radius of the Sun. But at the same time, the mass is only 40 times greater. This is due to the star's low density. The most interesting thing is that the star has been actively losing its size and mass over the past few centuries. This is due to the passage of thermonuclear reactions on its surface. Thus, as a result, the fastest explosion of this star is possible with the formation of a black hole or neutron star.
• But in 2010, NASA's Shuttle discovered another huge star that lies outside the solar system. She was given a name R136a1... This star is 250 times larger than the Sun and shines much brighter. If we compare how brightly the Sun shines, then the glow of the star was similar to the radiance of the Sun and the Moon. Only in this case, the Sun will shine much less, and is more like the Moon than a huge giant space object. This confirms that almost all stars age and lose their brightness. This is due to the presence on the surface of a huge amount of active gases, which constantly enter into chemical reactions and decompose. Since its discovery, the star has lost a quarter of its mass, thanks to chemical reactions.

The universe is not well understood. This is due to the fact that it is simply impossible physically to arrive at planets that are located at a distance of a huge number of light years. Therefore, scientists are studying these planets using modern equipment, telescopes.

VY Big dog

Top 10 largest space objects and phenomena

There are a huge number of cosmic bodies and objects that are surprising in their size. Below is the TOP-10 of the largest objects and phenomena in space.

List:

1. - the largest planet in the solar system. Its volume is 70% of the total volume of the system itself. Moreover, more than 20% falls on the Sun, and 10% is distributed between other planets and objects. The most interesting thing is that there are many satellites around this celestial body.

   
   

2. ... We believe that the Sun is a huge star. In fact, it is nothing more than a yellow dwarf star. And our planet is only a small part of what revolves around this star. The sun is constantly decreasing. This is due to the fact that hydrogen is synthesized into helium in micro-explosions. The star is brightly colored, and heats our planet through an exothermic reaction with the release of heat.

   
   

3. Our. Its size is 15 x 10 12 degrees of kilometers. Consists of 1 star and 9 planets that move around this bright object along certain trajectories, which are called orbits.

   
   

4. VY Is a star located in the constellation Canis Major. It is a red supergiant, the largest in the universe. In comparison, it is about 2000 times larger in diameter than our Sun and the entire system. The glow intensity is higher.

   
   VY

5. Huge reserves of water. This is nothing more than a giant cloud, inside which there is a huge amount of water vapor. Their number is about 143 times greater than the volume of the earth's ocean. Scientists have nicknamed the object

   
   

6. Huge black hole NGC 4889... This hole is located at a huge distance from our Earth. It is nothing more than a funnel-shaped abyss around which there are stars, as well as planets. This phenomenon is located in the constellation Coma Veronica, its size is 12 times larger than our entire solar system.

   
   

7. it is nothing more than a spiral Galaxy, which consists of a multitude of stars around which planets and satellites can revolve. Accordingly, the Milky Way can contain a huge number of planets on which life is possible. Because on them there is a possibility that conditions exist that are favorable for the birth of life.

   
   

8. El Gordo. This is a huge cluster of galaxies that are distinguished by their bright glow. This is due to the fact that such a cluster consists of only 1% of stars. The rest falls on hot gas. Thanks to this, a glow occurs. It was from this bright light that scientists discovered this cluster. Researchers suggest that this object appeared as a result of the merger of two galaxies. The photo shows the glow of this merge.

   
   El Gordo

9. Superblob... It is something like a huge space bubble that is filled with stars, dust and planets inside. It is a cluster of galaxies. There is a hypothesis that it is from this gas that new galaxies are formed.

   
   

10. ... This is something strange, like a labyrinth. This is precisely the cluster of all galaxies. Scientists believe that it is not formed by chance, but according to a certain pattern.

    
    

The Universe has been studied very little, so over time, it is possible that new record holders will appear and will be called the largest objects.

VIDEO: The largest objects and phenomena in the Universe