Mega Cosmos

While building huge, record-breaking structures and machines on Earth, we are also looking for the greatest things in the universe. However, the cosmic list of the “best” is constantly changing, updated and supplemented, without becoming the final rating.

Largest planet

It is currently at the top of the list of the largest planets. DENIS-P J082303.1-491201 b (alias 2MASS J08230313-4912012 b). However, it is not known for certain whether this is a brown dwarf, and therefore a star-like object. Its mass is 28,5 times that of Jupiter. The object raises similar doubts HD 100546 б., OK. Like its predecessors, it is also the third object on NASA's list. Keplerem-39p, with the mass of eighteen Jupiters.

1. Planet DENIS-P J082303.1-491201 b and its parent star

Because in relation to Kepler-13 Ab, fifth on NASA's current list, there are no reports of doubt as to whether it is a brown dwarf, it should be considered the largest exoplanet at the moment. There is a so-called hot supersupply in the orbit of Kepler-13A. The exoplanet has a radius of about 2,2 Jupiter radii, and its mass is about 9,28 Jupiter masses.

The biggest star

According to current ratings, the biggest star we know is SCOOTY THE COW. It was discovered in 1860 by German astronomers. It is estimated to be 1708 ± 192 times the diameter of the Sun and 21 billion times its volume. He competes with Scuti for the palm. WON G64 (IRAS 04553-6825) is a red hypergiant in the satellite galaxy of the Large Magellanic Cloud in the southern constellation Dorado. According to some estimates, its size can reach 2575 solar diameters. However, since both its position and the way it moves are unusual, it is difficult to verify this accurately.

2. Yu. Yu. Shield, Sun and Earth to scale

The biggest black hole

Supermassive black holes are objects found at the centers of massive galaxies with masses more than 10 billion times that of the sun. It is currently considered the largest supermassive object of this type. TONE 618, is estimated at 6,6 × 10 billion solar masses. This is a very distant and extremely bright quasar, located in the constellation of the Hounds.

3. Comparison of the sizes of the supermassive black hole TON 618 and other cosmic sizes

Second place S5 0014+81, with a mass of 4 × 10 billion solar masses, is located in the constellation Cepheus. Next in line is a series of black holes with a mass estimated at about 3 × 10 billion solar masses.

largest galaxy

So far, the largest galaxy found in the universe (in terms of size, not mass), IS 1101. It is located in the constellation Virgo, 1,07 billion light-years from Earth. He was noticed on June 19, 1890 by Edward Swift. It came about as a result. It belongs to a cluster of galaxies Abel 2029 and is its main ingredient. Its diameter is approximately 4 million light years. It contains about four hundred times more stars than our galaxy, and can be up to two thousand times more massive due to its large amount of gas and dark matter. In fact, it is not an elliptical galaxy, but a lenticular galaxy.

However, data from recent studies may indicate that the largest galaxy in size is an object clustered around a source of radio emission. J1420-0545. This year, an international team of astronomers announced the discovery of a new giant radio galaxy (GRG) associated with a galactic triplet known as YuGK 9555. The results were presented February 6 in an article posted on arXiv.org. At a distance of about 820 million light-years from Earth, UGC 9555 is part of a larger group of galaxies designated as MSPM 02158. The recently discovered GRG, which has not yet received an official name, has a predicted linear size of 8,34 million light years.

The Greatest Cosmic "Walls"

Great Wall (Great Wall CfA2, Great Wall CfA2) is a large-scale structure consisting of. Its central object is Cluster in Varkocha, about 100 Mpc (about 326 million light years) from the solar system, which is part of Superclusters in a coma. It extends to large Superclusters of Hercules. It is located about 200 million light years from Earth. It measures 500 x 300 x 15 million light-years, and possibly larger because the field of view is partially obscured by the material in our galaxy.

The existence of the Great Wall was established in 1989 on the basis of studies of the redshifts of the spectra of galaxies. This discovery was made by Margaret Geller and John Hukra of the CfA Redshift Survey.

5. Great Wall of the Crown of Hercules North

For several years, the Great Wall remained the largest known structure in the universe, but in 2003, John Richard Gott and his team discovered an even larger one based on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Great Sloan Wall. It lies in the constellation Virgo, about a billion light-years away. It is 1,37 billion light years long and 80% longer than the Great Wall.

However, it is currently considered the largest structure in the universe. Great Wall Hercules-Northern Crown (Her-CrB GW). Astronomers estimate that this object is over 10 billion light-years long. Like Sloan's Great Wall, the Her-CrB GW is a filamentous structure made up of clusters of galaxies and groups of quasars. Its length is 10% of the length of the observable universe. The width of the object is much smaller, only 900 million light years. Her-CrB GW is located on the border of the constellation Hercules and the Northern Crown.

Great Void

This gigantic region of empty space, about a billion light-years in diameter (up to 1,8 billion light-years by some estimates), extends 6-10 billion light-years from Earth in the region of the Eridanus River. In regions of this type - by the way, half the volume of the known universe - there is nothing but luminous.

Great Void this is a structure practically devoid of luminous matter (galaxies and their clusters), as well as dark matter. It is estimated that there are 30% fewer galaxies there than in the surrounding regions. It was discovered in 2007 by a group of American astronomers from the University of Minneapolis. Lawrence Rudnick of the University of Minnesota was the first to become interested in this area. He decided to investigate the genesis of the so-called cool spot on the microwave background radiation (CMB) map produced by the WMAP probe (WMAP).

The Greatest Historical Picture of the Universe

Astronomers, using observational data from the Hubble Space Telescope, compiled a sixteen-year observational history, combining the received images (7500) into one mosaic view, named after him. The montage contains about 265 images. galaxies, some of which were "photographed" just 500 million years after the Big Bang. The image shows how galaxies have changed over time, growing larger through mergers and becoming the giants seen in the universe today.

In other words, 13,3 billion years of cosmic evolution are presented here in one image.