The largest known structure in the universe is the cosmic web, a vast three-dimensional network of galaxies, galaxy clusters, and superclusters connected by dark matter, spanning billions of light-years across the observable universe, with enormous voids of empty space between the filaments; this structure challenges our understanding of cosmic evolution and continues to expand as astronomers discover new, larger formations.
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What is the Largest Structure in the Universe?
Added:Welcome to Astronomy Explained.
What is the largest thing in the universe?
A planet?
A star?
A galaxy?
Not even close. Well, let me explain.
The scale of the universe is difficult to comprehend.
It feels enormous to us.
Yet, more than a million Earths could fit inside the Sun.
>> [music] >> And the Sun itself is only one star among hundreds of billions inside the Milky Way.
But, the galaxies are not isolated.
Gravity >> [music] >> pulls them together, forming larger structures.
>> [music] >> Galaxies gather into groups. Groups form clusters.
Clusters form superclusters.
And superclusters connect together in a vast network that is stretched out across the cosmos.
Scientists call this a structure the cosmic web.
A gigantic [music] network of matter spanning the observable universe.
If we could zoom out far enough, galaxies could not appear randomly scattered.
Instead, they would arrange themselves in a vast [music] three-dimensional web.
Along these filament-like galaxy clusters and superclusters, >> [music] >> between them are enormous voids.
They are regions >> [music] >> of empty space containing very little matter.
>> [music] >> Some of the voids are hundreds of millions of light-years [music] across.
The cosmic web is held together largely by dark matter.
>> [music] >> Although invisible, dark matter provides the gravitational framework up and which [music] galaxies form.
Without it, the universe would likely look very sparse. [music] Over time, astronomers have discovered structures so large that they challenge our understanding of cosmic evolution.
Some are stretched [music] across billions of light-years.
Distances so immense that light inside them would require a significant fraction [music] of the age of the universe to cross them.
Trying to imagine their physical size is almost impossible.
If the Milky Way were reduced to the size of coins, some cosmic structures called [music] strings spanning the state and continents.
And yet, even then, these gigantic formations exist only within the observable universe.
The observable universe is the region from which light at at the known [music] time could reach us since the the Big Bang.
Beyond that limit, there may be far more spaces, far more galaxies, and perhaps other structures even larger than anything we have discovered. [music] The truth is that every generation of astronomers has believed that they understand the size of the universe. And every generation has been proven wrong.
The universe is always larger, always more complex, and [music] always more surprising.
The largest The largest structure we know today might not hold [music] that title correct because with every new telescope and every [music] new discovery, our picture of the reality continues to expand.
And perhaps the most astrophysics [music] of all this.
No matter how large the structure becomes, they [music] are still only part of our universe we have by this and to understand.
Thank you for watching.
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