The Big Ring and Giant Arc have presented a new path in cosmological studies. Alexia López, from the University of Central Lancashire, discovered these two enormous structures that transcend the Cosmological Principle. Along the same lines, the discovery goes beyond the frameworks postulated by Maryon Acoustic Oscillation. In addtion, it is raising new questions about the observable universe. On the other hand, Roger Penrose, proponent of cyclic cosmology and cosmic string hypotheses after the Big Bang, are once again being considered. Read on to learn more.
What is defying the understanding of the Universe
A huge structure in the distant Universe is defying our knowledge of how the Universe evolved. In light that has traveled for 6.9 billion years to get to us. Some astronomers have found a giant, almost perfect ring of galaxies, some 1.3 billion light-years in diameter. It doesn’t match any familiar structure or formation mechanism. The Big Ring, named in this way, might need to amend the standard model of cosmology.
“Neither of these two ultra-large structures is easy to explain in our current understanding of the universe,” Lopez says. “And their ultra-large sizes, distinctive shapes, and cosmological proximity must surely be telling us something important – but what exactly?”
What is the most immediate link to the question
The most immediate link is likelt to be something whose name is Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO). About its shape, these are giant, circular arrangements of galaxies found all throughout space. It must be underline that they’re actually spheres. This because the fossils of acoustic waves that propagated through the Universe long time ago, and then froze when space turned so diffuse acoustic waves could no longer travel.
The Big Ring is not a BAO. This is based on the fact that BAOs are all a fixed size of around 1 billion light-years in diameter. On the other hand, thorough inspection of the Big Ring shows that it is more probable to get a corkscrew shape that used to alilng in such mmaner that it looks like a ring.
The answer that the investigators are missing
Which leaves the very question with no asnwers: What the heck is it? And what does it mean for the Cosmological Principle, which states that, in all directions, any given patch of space should look like the same as all other patches of space?
“We expect matter to be evenly distributed everywhere in space when we view the universe on a large scale, so there should be no noticeable irregularities above a certain size,” Lopez explains.
In addition, the cosmologists calculate that the current theoretical size limit of structures to be 1.2 billion light-years. Yet both of these structures are much larger. the Giant Arc is almost three times bigger and the Big Ring’s circumference is comparable to the Giant Arc’s length.
But the size is just one of the main issue. The other is what it means for cosmology, the investigation of the evolution of the Universe. The current model is the one that now fits the best with what we observe. However, it must be said that there are several characteristics that are having problems to explain under its framework.
The models are putting forward, to address these features. Behind one such model, Roger Penrose’s conformal cyclic cosmology, in which the Universe goes through endless Big Bang expansion cycles, ring structures are expected. Even though it’s worth recognizing that conformal cyclic cosmology has significant issue of its own.
Another possibilty based on structures: type of topological defect
Another theory is that the structures are a kind of topological defect in the fabric of space-time whose name is cosmic strings. These are thought to be like proton-wide wrinkles that came out in the early Universe as space-time stretched, then froze into place. There are no physical evidence of cosmic strings, but the theoretical evidence is pretty promising.
Right now, nobody knows for sure what the Big Ring and the Giant Arc imply. They could just be chance arrangements of galaxies twirling across the sky, although the likelihood of that seems pretty small. The best idea would be to find more such arrangements of galaxies, scattered throughout the Universe, hiding in plain sight.
The researches presented the investigation at the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society
