What is the Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall?
Q: What is the Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall?
A: The Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall is the largest known superstructure in the universe. It is a huge group of galaxies forming a giant sheet-like pattern which is about 10 billion light-years long, 7.2 billion light-years wide, and almost 1 billion light-years thick.
Q: How was it discovered?
A: The Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall was discovered in November 2013 by mapping gamma-ray bursts. These are very luminous explosions of distant, massive stars, which release more energy in less than a tenth of a second than the Sun will in its whole life of 10 billion years. Gamma-ray bursts are very rare, but they can be used to track down if there is a galaxy or large group of matter in that direction. Astronomers mapped these bursts between 1997 to 2012 with robotic satellites Swift and Fermi and noticed something interesting; 14 gamma-ray bursts had very similar redshifts and were close together, indicating there was a large group of galaxies and matter in that region.
Q: How does this structure compare to other structures?
A: The Huge Large Quasar Group (the previous largest structure) is 4 billion light-years long while the Milky Way measures only 200,000 light-years and the distance from the Milky Way to Andromeda Galaxy measures only 2.5 million light-years. This structure however measures 10 billion light years long making it 8 times larger than any other known structure.
Q: What theory does this contradict?
A: This discovery contradicts Albert Einstein's cosmological principle which states that two regions in the universe will look similar even if they are far apart as long as those regions have sizes larger than 250 to 300 million light years - maximum sizes for structures must be around 1.2 billion light years based on this meaning - however this structure exceeds that limit by being 8 times larger than expected contradicting Einstein's theory .
Q: Why does its existence still remain a mystery?
A: Its existence remains mysterious because it formed within 3.8 billion year span since its formation would have taken longer given its size - 10 Billion Light Years - compared to when universe began 13.8 Billion Years Ago when its lights just started approaching us .
Q: What idea suggests Big Bang might be proven false due to this incredible cosmic structure?
A: Some suggest that Big Bang might be proven false as result of this incredible cosmic structure because it formed within 3.8 Billion Year Span since its formation would have taken longer given its size compared to when Universe Began 13 .8 Billion Years Ago when its lights just started approaching us .
