Galaxy Filament
In physical cosmology, galaxy filaments, also called supercluster complexes or great walls, are the largest known cosmic structures in the universe. They are massive, thread-like structures with a typical length of 50 to 80 megaparsecs h-1 that form the boundaries between large voids in the universe. Filaments consist of gravitationally bound galaxies; parts where a large number of galaxies are very close to each other (in cosmic terms) are called superclusters.
Discoveries of structures larger than superclusters started in the 1980s. In 1987 astronomer R. Brent Tully of the University of Hawaii’s Institute of Astronomy identified what he called the Pisces-Cetus Supercluster Complex. In 1989 the CfA2 Great Wall was discovered, followed by the Sloan Great Wall in 2003.
In 2006, scientists announced the discovery of three filaments aligned to form one of the largest structure known to humanity, composed of densely packed galaxies and enormous blobs of gas known as Lyman-alpha blobs.
Read more about Galaxy Filament: Maps of Large-scale Distribution
Famous quotes containing the word galaxy:
“for it is not so much to know the self
as to know it as it is known
by galaxy and cedar cone,
as if birth had never found it
and death could never end it:”
—Archie Randolph Ammons (b. 1926)