A massive structure in the distant universe is challenging our understanding of how the universe evolved. In light that has traveled 6.9 billion years to reach us, astronomers have discovered a giant, nearly perfect ring of galaxies about 1.3 billion light-years in diameter. It does not comply with any known structure or formation mechanism.

The name given to the structure, the Great Ring, may mean that we need to change the Standard Model of cosmology. The discovery, led by astronomer Alexia Lopez of the University of Central Lancashire, was presented at the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in January and published in the Journal. cosmology and astroparticle physics.

This is the second giant structure Lopez and his colleagues have discovered. The first, called the Giant Arc, is actually located in the same part of the sky, at the same distance. The broadcast discovery surprised astronomers when it was announced in 2021. A large ring only deepens the mystery.

“Neither of these two supermassive structures is easy to explain with our current understanding of the universe,” Lopez said in January. “And their enormous size, distinct shapes, and cosmological proximity clearly tell us something important—but what exactly?”

The most direct connection appears to be with something called baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO). These are giant circular galaxy arrays in space. These are actually spheres; They are fossils of sound waves that propagated in the early universe and solidified later when space became so messy that sound waves could no longer propagate.

The big ring is not BAO. All BAOs have a fixed size of about 1 billion light-years in diameter. And close examination of the Great Ring shows that it looks more like a corkscrew shape aligned to resemble a ring.

This leaves the question unanswered: What is this? So what does this mean for the cosmological principle that any part of space should look almost the same as other parts of space in all directions?

“When we look at the universe on a large scale, we expect matter to be evenly distributed everywhere in space, so there shouldn’t be any visible irregularities above a certain size,” Lopez explained. “Cosmologists estimate the current theoretical size of the structures to be 1.2 billion light-years, but both of these structures are much larger – Arc Gigantic is almost three times larger, and the circumference of the Great Ring is comparable to the length of the Universe. Arc Gigantic.”

But size is only one of the problems. Another is its importance for cosmology, the study of the evolution of the universe. The current model best fits what we currently observe, but there are some features that are difficult to explain within its framework.

There are other models proposed to address these functions. According to such a model, according to Roger Penrose’s conformal loop cosmology, where the universe went through endless Big Bang cycles, ring structures would be expected – but it is worth noting that conformal loop cosmology has its own significant problems.

Another possibility is that these structures are a type of topological defect in the fabric of space-time known as cosmic strings. These are thought to be similar to proton wrinkles that formed in the early universe when space-time was stretched and then frozen in place.

We haven’t found much physical evidence for cosmic strings, but the theoretical evidence is very promising.

Currently, no one knows for sure what the Great Ring and the Giant Belt mean. These could be random locations of galaxies orbiting in the sky, but the probability of this seems quite low. The best hope would be to find more such galaxy clusters scattered across the universe, hiding in plain sight.

“We didn’t think structures on this scale were possible based on current cosmological theories,” Lopez said.

“We would expect there to be one extremely massive structure, perhaps, in our entire observable universe. With all that said, the Great Ring and the Giant Arc are two massive structures and even cosmological neighbors, which is extremely exciting.” The results are published at: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics.