Unveiling the largest structures in the nearby Universe: Discovery of the Quipu superstructure
2025/01/31 by H. Böhringer, Hans Boehringer, Gayoung Chon +7 · 13 voices · 4 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #History and Developments in Astronomy #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202453582
Abstract
For a precise determination of cosmological parameters we need to understand the effects of the local large-scale structure of the Universe on the measurements. They include modifications of the cosmic microwave background, distortions of sky images by large-scale gravitational lensing, and the influence of large-scale streaming motions on measurements of the Hubble constant. The streaming motions, for example, originate from mass concentrations with distances up to 250 Mpc. In this paper we provide the first all-sky assessment of the largest structures at distances between 130 and 250 Mpc and discuss their observational consequences, using X-ray galaxy clusters to map the matter density distribution. Among the five most prominent superstructures found, the largest has a length longer than 400 Mpc with an estimated mass of about 2 × 10 17 M ⊙ . This entity, which we named Quipu, is the largest cosmic structure discovered to date. These superstructures contain about 45% of the galaxy clusters, 30% of the galaxies, 25% of the matter, and occupy a volume fraction of 13%, thus constituting a major part of the Universe. The galaxy density is enhanced in the environment of superstructures out to larger distances from the nearest member clusters compared to the outskirts of clusters in the field. We find superstructures with similar properties in simulations based on ΛCDM cosmology models. We show that the superstructures should produce a modification on the cosmic microwave background through the integrated Sachs-Wolf effect. Searching for this effect in the Planck data we found a signal of the expected strength, however, with low significance. Characterising these superstructures is also important for astrophysical research, for example the study of the environmental dependence of galaxy evolution as well as for precision tests of cosmological models.
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Discussions
- QUIPU Así se llama la estructura más grande del universo conocido: un grupo de cúmulos de galaxias y cúmulos de cúmulos de galaxias que se extiende por aproximadamente 1.300 millones de años luz de d [bsky, 34 points, 2 comments]
- What is the largest thing in the universe? We're still trying to figure it out. But Quipu, a 400 Megaparsec* (!) superstructure consisting of multiple galaxy clusters, is definitely a prime contender. [bsky, 19 points, 2 comments]
- Astronomen finden größte Superstruktur des Kosmos [lemmy, 3 points, 0 comments]
- I think it is a consolation that there are things bigger than us, that will persist regardless of what we do to wreck our little planet! Quipu - arxiv.org/abs/2501.19236 [bsky, 2 points, 0 comments]
- et dans la prépublication de l'article, à paraître dans Astronomy & Astrophysics, la même précision (nearby Universe) est donnée, dès le titre. arxiv.org/pdf/2501.19236 [bsky, 1 points, 0 comments]
- A propósito del hallazgo reportado por Boehringer, H. et al. (2025). Unveiling the largest structures in the nearby Universe: Discovery of the Quipu superstructure arxiv.org/abs/2501.19236 vía #arxiv, [bsky, 0 points, 1 comments]
- Unveiling the largest structures in the nearby Universe: Discovery of the Quipu superstructure arxiv.org/abs/2501.19236 [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
- arxiv.org/abs/2501.19236 [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
- A propósito del hallazgo reportado por Boehringer, H. et al. (2025). Unveiling the largest structures in the nearby Universe: Discovery of the Quipu superstructure https:// arxiv.org/abs/2501.19236 ví [mastodon, 0 points, 1 comments]
- Unveiling the largest structures in the nearby Universe - discovery of the Quipu superstructure: arxiv.org/abs/2501.19236 -> Largest #superstructure in the nearby #universe discovered: www.mpg.de/2419 [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
- arxiv.org/abs/2501.19236 [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
- arxiv.org/abs/2501.19236 [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
- 'Quipu and the Cosmological Principle' They provide an assessment of the largest five structures at distances between 130 and 250 Mpc. The largest has a length longer than 400 Mpc, named Quipu, i [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
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