It seems the Cosmological Principle first asserted by Sir Isaac Newton is in jeopardy, as a team of Hungarian-US scientists led by Prof Lajos Balazs have found the largest regular formation in the universe which is a ring of nine galaxies. The Cosmological Principle was developed on the basis of observations of the cosmic microwave background radiation and the structure of the early universe in the past century.
It states that at the largest scale, the structure of the universe is uniform so no matter where you are it looks essentially the same. And even recent works indicate that the largest structures can’t be more than 1.2 billion light years across. But the new discovery contradicts this concept too as this ring of galaxies is seven billion light years away and five billion light years wide and it covers third of our sky.
The team was able to spot the rings by nine Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRB), that originated from those nine galaxies. GRBs are actually most energetic events in the entire universe that produce as much energy in seconds as the sun produces in a lifetime. They are caused by very massive stars collapsing into neutron stars or black holes in times ranging from milliseconds to a few hours. These bursts also help the astronomers to estimate the distance of other galaxies from Mother Earth. The GRBs from these galaxies indicate that the nine galaxies are positioned in a ring shaped like a shell and are all at a similar distance from the earth.
Though one can’t see the rings from earth but if one could, it would cover 36 percent of the sky making it 70 times bigger than the full moon. The next important step for the team of astronomer’s is to see if the processes controlling galaxy formation and large scale structure could have produced the ring without violating the Cosmological Principle. If not, it could require rethinking how the Universe evolved. Prof Lajos Balazs commented: “If we are right, this structure contradicts the current models of the universe.”
[adinserter block=”7″]
Author:Technology Blog
