Largest Structure in Universe Discovered; Defies Scientific Theory, Say Astronomers

The impossible is now possible. Even expert astronomers and scientists were blown away recently when a team discovered the largest known structure in the universe, defying all of scientific theory with its very existence.

"This discovery was very much a surprise, since it does break the cosmological record as the largest structure in the known universe," said study leader Roger Clowes, an astronomer at University of Central Lancashire in England.

The record-breaking celestial structure is an incredibly large quasar group (LQG), a collection of blindingly bright galactic nuclei fueled by "supermassive" central black holes, according to Space.com. The newly discovered group is so big it spits in the face of all accepted modern cosmological theory, said researchers.

"While it is difficult to fathom the scale of this LQG, we can say quite definitely it is the largest structure ever seen in the entire universe," Clowes said in a statement, Space.com reported. "This is hugely exciting, not least because it runs counter to our current understanding of the scale of the universe."

Quasars are the brightest objects ever found in the universe. Astronomers discovered that quasars had a tendency of assembling themselves into large groups decades ago, with some measuring more than 600 million light-years wide. But this new group changes everything; it's composed of 73 quasars, stretching about 1.6 billion light-years in most directions, and its roughly 4 billion light-years at its widest point.

Sure, that sounds big enough. But, to put things in perspective, just compare that to our own galaxy. The Milky Way, home to our planet's solar system, is just 100,000 light-years wide, and the next nearest galaxy, Andromeda, is still another 2.5 million light-years away.

The recently discovered LQG is so large it shouldn't theoretically exist. The structure violates a widely accepted assumption known as the "cosmological principle," which says the universe is essentially homogeneous when viewed at a large enough scale. Scientists thought the existence of any structure larger than 1.2 billion light-years was impossible.

"Our team has been looking at similar cases which add further weight to this challenge, and we will be continuing to investigate these fascinating phenomena," Clowes said.