Scientists Just Discovered ‘Quipu,’ the New Largest Structure in Our Cosmos
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Scientists Just Discovered 'Quipu,' the New Largest Structure in Our Cosmos:
Humanity's growing understanding of the universe can be best described as a "Copernican journey"-the centuries-long discovery that we are far from the center of all things. Earth, for example, orbits around the Sun (thanks for that one, Copernicus). But it's also just one Solar System among billions in the Milky Way, which is turn a part of the Virgo Supercluster and the even largerLaniakea supercluster-one of the largest objects in the universe, at around 520 million light-years across.
However, even Laniakea isn't the largest structure in the known universe. In 2003, scientists discovered the Sloan Great Wall (SGW), believed to stretch beyond 1 billion light-years. But now, in a study published on the preprint server arXiv (and accepted for publication in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics), scientists assert their belief that there's a structure even larger than this celestial behemoth.
Its name is Quipu, and astronomers estimate that its massive bulk stretches some 1.39 billion light-years across. According to Princeton astronomer J. Richard Gott III, who helped discover the SGW and who spoke with New Scientist, Quipu "end to end, is slightly longer" than SGW. The researchers also estimate that Quipu contains the equivalent mass of 200 quadrillion Suns.
"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," the authors wrote. "Characterizing these superstructures is also important for astrophysical research, for example the study of the environmental dependence of galaxy evolution as well as for precision tests of cosmological models."
The name Quipu-a reference to the textile-based recording devices used by several ancient cultures in the central Andes-is both catchy and descriptive. The authors note that one particular view gives "the best impression of the superstructure as a long filament with small side filaments, which initiated the naming of Quipu."
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