'Big Ring' Structure, 9.2 Billion Light-Years Away, Captured In Image

Scientists have found an enormous ring-shaped structure called the Big Ring, positioned an astonishing 9.2 billion light-years away from Earth. This massive cosmic formation is made up of galaxies and clusters of galaxies, with a diameter of approximately 1.3 billion light-years and a total circumference of around 4 billion light-years. To help grasp its size, envision that if you could somehow observe the Big Ring directly, it would stretch across the night sky as much as 15 full moons.

PhD student Alexia Lopez from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) has made this significant discovery, marking her second identification of an ultra-large structure. Two years ago, she found the giant arc in the sky. Interestingly, both the Big Ring and the Giant Arc, spanning 3.3 billion light-years, share the same cosmological neighborhood. They are observed from an equal distance, exist at the same cosmic time, and are just 12 degrees apart in the sky.

"Neither of these two ultra-large structures is easy to explain in our current understanding of the universe. And their ultra-large sizes, distinctive shapes, and cosmological proximity must surely be telling us something important-but what exactly?" Alexia said in a statement released by the university.

"One possibility is that the Big Ring could be related to baryonic acoustic oscillations (BAOs). BAOs arise from oscillations in the early universe and today should appear, statistically at least, as spherical shells in the arrangement of galaxies. However, detailed analysis of the Big Ring revealed it is not really compatible with the BAO explanation: the Big Ring is too large and is not spherical."

"We could expect maybe one exceedingly large structure in all our observable universe. Yet, the Big Ring and the Giant Arc are two huge structures and are even cosmological neighbours, which is extraordinarily fascinating," Alexia Lopez added.