The Clowes–Campusano LQG (CCLQG; also called LQG 3 and U1.28) 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 ...

, consisting of 34

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 and measuring about 2 billion light-years across. It is one of the largest known superstructures in the

observable universe The observable universe is a ball-shaped region of the universe comprising all matter that can be observed from Earth or its space-based telescopes and exploratory probes at the present time, because the electromagnetic radiation from these obj ...

. It is located near the larger

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 t ...

. It was discovered by the astronomers Roger Clowes and Luis Campusano in 1991.

Characteristics

Lying at a distance of 9.5 billion light years away, the CCLQG is a cosmic decoupling of 34 individual quasars (highly luminous active galactic nuclei powered by supermassive black holes) spanning a region roughly 2 billion light-years in length, and about 1 billion light years wide, making it one of the largest and most exotic cosmic structures known in the observable universe. It was named U1.28 because of its average redshift of 1.28, and is located in the constellation of Leo. It was also notable because it is located in the

ecliptic The ecliptic or ecliptic plane is the orbital plane of the Earth around the Sun. From the perspective of an observer on Earth, the Sun's movement around the celestial sphere over the course of a year traces out a path along the ecliptic again ...

, the line where the

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

seems to travel in the entire year. It was 1.8 billion light-years away from the

, a group of 73 quasars discovered in 2012. Its proximity to the Huge-LQG has attracted the attention of scientists. First, because it was very close to the Huge-LQG, the region where the two LQG's are located are different, or "lumpy", when compared to other regions in the universe with the same size and redshift. Second, because of their close locations, it has been suggested that the two structures are really a single structure in itself, and only connected by hidden intergalactic filament; however, no such evidence has been found.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clowes-Campusano LQG Leo (constellation) Galaxy filaments Quasars Large quasar groups Large-scale structure of the cosmos Astronomical objects discovered in 1991

Characteristics

See also

References