U1.11 is a

large quasar group A large quasar group (LQG) is a collection of quasars (a form of supermassive black hole active galactic nuclei) that form what are thought to constitute the largest astronomical structures in the observable universe. LQGs are thought to be prec ...

located in the

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The origins of the e ...

s of Leo and

Virgo Virgo may refer to: *Virgo (astrology), the sixth astrological sign of the zodiac *Virgo (constellation), a constellation *Virgo Cluster, a cluster of galaxies in the constellation Virgo *Virgo Stellar Stream, remains of a dwarf galaxy *Virgo Supe ...

. It is one of the largest LQG's known, with the estimated maximum diameter of 780 Mpc (2.2 billion

light-year A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers (), or 5.88 trillion miles ().One trillion here is taken to be 1012 ...

s) and contains 38

quasar A quasar is an extremely Luminosity, luminous active galactic nucleus (AGN). It is pronounced , and sometimes known as a quasi-stellar object, abbreviated QSO. This emission from a galaxy nucleus is powered by a supermassive black hole with a m ...

s. It was discovered in 2011 during the course of the

Sloan Digital Sky Survey The Sloan Digital Sky Survey or SDSS is a major multi-spectral imaging and spectroscopic redshift survey using a dedicated 2.5-m wide-angle optical telescope at Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico, United States. The project began in 2000 a ...

. Until the discovery of the

Huge-LQG The Huge Large Quasar Group, (Huge-LQG, also called U1.27) is a possible structure or pseudo-structure of 73 quasars, referred to as a large quasar group, that measures about 4 billion light-years across. At its discovery, it was identified as ...

in November 2012, it was the largest known structure in the universe, beating Clowes–Campusano LQG's 20-year record as largest known structure at the time of its discovery.

Characteristics

The structure is located approximately 2° away from the Clowes-Campusano LQG (CCLQG). It is at

redshift In physics, a redshift is an increase in the wavelength, and corresponding decrease in the frequency and photon energy, of electromagnetic radiation (such as light). The opposite change, a decrease in wavelength and simultaneous increase in f ...

z = 1.11, hence its name, corresponding to a distance of approximately 8.8 billion light years away. It is adjacent to the CCLQG, and is relatively close to U1.54, another LQG. It is composed of 38 quasars, and may suggest the evolution of a large galaxy filament.

Cosmological principle

According to the

cosmological principle In modern physical cosmology, the cosmological principle is the notion that the spatial distribution of matter in the universe is homogeneous and isotropic when viewed on a large enough scale, since the forces are expected to act uniformly throu ...

, the random distribution of

matter In classical physics and general chemistry, matter is any substance that has mass and takes up space by having volume. All everyday objects that can be touched are ultimately composed of atoms, which are made up of interacting subatomic partic ...

and

energy In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of heat a ...

within the different parts of the universe must be approximately homogeneous and isotropic, and that random overdensities of these objects must be small if projected on a large enough scale. Yadav ''et al'' projected that the maximum structural sizes was somewhere around 260 h/Mpc, while others gave values of 70-130 h/Mpc. More recent calculations suggest values within 370 Mpc. However, U1.11 was twice as large as the presiding scale, and other structures are found that were larger than the said scale. (Some structures exceed the scale by a factor of 8, such as

Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall The Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall or simply the Great Wall is the largest known structure in the observable universe, measuring approximately 10 billion light-years in length (the observable universe is about 93 billion light-years in di ...

.) Given also its proximity to the Huge-LQG, CCLQG and U1.54, it will be a big contradiction to the modern cosmological model.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:U1.11 Galaxy filaments Quasars Large quasar groups Large-scale structure of the cosmos Leo (constellation) Virgo (constellation) 20110831