The densest objects in the universe. Astronomers have discovered the largest object in the universe. The biggest thing in the universe: Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall
The universe is something that our mind cannot comprehend. Some scientists call the universe the entire material world that surrounds us. The human mind is simply not able to understand and analyze its true dimensions.
No one knows whether the universe is finite or not, but it has been scientifically proven that it is constantly expanding. This place combines amazing objects such as nebulae, galaxies, quasars, clusters of stars, black holes, quasars. Let's talk about the largest objects in the universe.
The largest asteroid in the universe
The largest asteroid is called Vesta., and it is recognized as the brightest visible asteroid that can be seen in the starry sky even without a telescope or spyglass. The dimensions of the asteroid are 578x560x478 kilometers. It has a slightly elongated asymmetrical shape and can even be classified as a dwarf planet such as Mercury. The asteroid is located in the belt between Jupiter and Mars. The celestial body was discovered in 2010 using the Dawn apparatus. It's worth saying that the asteroid does not pose a threat to the Earth due to the high gravity acting on it from Jupiter.
largest planet
The championship of the largest planet in the solar system is held by Jupiter, which contains hundreds of such planets as the earth. But in the depths of the visible universe, a real monster lurks.
If we talk about exoplanets on which life can hypothetically be, then one of the largest planets in the Universe is Gliese 581, which was discovered in 2007 at a distance of 20 thousand light years from earth at the Chilean La Silla Observatory using Doppler shift.
The biggest star
Interesting:
Are there stars that do not shine at all in the visible range?
The biggest black hole
The largest supermassive black hole in the visible universe has been discovered in the constellation Perseus, 228 light-years from Earth. This black hole is located in a galaxy: NGC 1277. This black hole contains just a gigantic amount of matter, which is approximately twelve billion times the mass of our Sun.
It turned out that this black hole weighs about 15 percent of the mass of the entire galaxy, although usually black holes weigh no more than one and a half percent. By the way, such a small black hole is located in the center of our milky way. Scientists agreed that a galaxy in which there is a supermassive hole is very strange, since the nature of the formation of such an object is incomprehensible to physicists.
largest galaxy
The largest galaxy in the Universe is called IC 1101. This is a large supergiant, which is located at the center of the Abell 2029 galaxy cluster. The galaxy is located at a distance of one billion light years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. It is a CD class galaxy with a diameter of 7 million light years. The object is considered the largest among the known galaxies that have been discovered during the entire time of cosmological research.
The galaxy IC 1101 contains over one hundred trillion stars. If this galaxy was in place of the Milky Way, then it would have swallowed up not only it, but also the Andromeda Nebula, the Triangulum Galaxy, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds.
Interesting:
Why does the sun shine?
Shapley Supercluster
The Shapley Supercluster is a huge cluster of stars that was discovered in 1989. It has a high density of stars. In total, according to preliminary calculations, the Shapley supercluster contains a concentration of stars for more than 500 million light years. It also contains large galaxies A3560, A3558 and A3559. In total, there are about twenty-five galaxies in the Shapley supercluster.
The largest pulsar
The largest pulsar, which is a bright pulsating star with a superdense mass, was discovered in the region of the Tarantula Nebula. It was discovered using a powerful gamma-ray telescope 165,000 light-years from the Milky Way galaxy. A pulsar was formed after the explosion of a star, and its core became powerful neutron star. With a diameter of a couple of kilometers, the mass of the pulsar is twenty solar masses. Its gamma radiation is five times higher than that of the famous pulsar from the Crab Nebula. The pulsar rotates at a speed of twenty revolutions per second, emitting powerful gamma radiation.
Astronomers have the concept of "the largest object in the universe." This status is periodically assigned to one or another object, but their very presence is already a sensation. What kind of "giants" are we talking about and where are they located? And which one is really "the best"? Here are the results of some of the latest astronomical discoveries.
Scientists figured out the age of the universe
SuperVoid
This largest cold spot in the universe is located in the southern part of the constellation Eridanus. The spot is 1.8 billion light years long. Although "void" means "emptiness" in English, this name for this region of space is not entirely fair. It's just that there are about 30 percent fewer galaxy clusters here than in the space surrounding them.
Cold spots are filled with cosmic relic microwave radiation. But so far, scientists are not entirely clear how they arise. One version says that these are traces of black holes of parallel universes. But another hypothesis claims that this is the result of the passage of protons through voids: passing through empty space, particles lose their energy ... True, it is possible that there is no connection at all between cold spots and voids.
superblob
In 2006, the title of the largest object in the universe was awarded to the cosmic "bubble" (blob) with a length of 200 million light years, which is a giant accumulation of gas, dust and galaxies. Curiously, the galaxies in this jellyfish-shaped cluster are four times denser than usual in the universe.
Clusters of galaxies and gas balls inside a giant bubble are called Liman-Alpha bubbles. According to scientists, they formed about 2 billion years after the Big Bang.
As for the superblob itself, it probably formed when massive stars that existed at the dawn of space went supernova, releasing a gigantic amount of gas in the process.
Perhaps the superblob is one of the most ancient space objects. It accumulates so much gas that over time more and more galaxies will form from it.
Great Wall CfA2
It was discovered by American astrophysicist Margaret Joan Geller and John Peter Huchra while studying the redshift effect for the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. CfA2 is 500 million light years long and 16 million light years wide. The name "Great Wall" is given to this space region, as it resembles the Great Wall of China in shape.
It is possible that the extent of CfA2 may be even greater - 750 million light years. But the exact parameters cannot yet be named, since the "wall" is partially located in the "zone of avoidance" - it is covered with dense accumulations of gas and dust, which contributes to the distortion of optical wavelengths.
Great Wall of Sloan
It was discovered in 2003 as part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey project, which involves the scientific mapping of galaxies in order to determine the presence of the largest objects in the universe. This object consists of several superclusters, the total length of which is 1.4 billion light years.
Although, according to the cosmological principle, objects larger than 1.2 billion light-years cannot exist in the Universe, the presence of the Great Wall of Sloan completely refutes this theory.
By the way, some of the clusters that make up the Great Wall of Sloan have very interesting characteristics. So, one of them has a core of galaxies, from the side looking like a giant antennae. Inside the other, a process of close interaction and merging of galaxies takes place.
Giant gamma ring
The giant galactic gamma-ray ring (Giant GRB Ring) is currently considered the second largest object in the universe. Its length is 5 billion light years.
The object was found like this. While studying bursts of gamma-rays produced by the death of massive stars, astronomers noticed a series of nine bursts, the sources of which were located at the same distance from the Earth. They formed a ring in the sky, which is 70 times the diameter of the full moon.
It was hypothesized that the gamma ring may be a projection of a certain sphere around which all bursts of gamma radiation occurred in a relatively short period of time - about 250 million years.
But what could create such a sphere? One theory says that galaxies cluster around regions with a high concentration of dark matter. But in fact, the exact reason for the formation of such structures remains unknown.
Space is not just great nothing, an endless space without oxygen and sounds. Unusual and amazing objects are hidden in its depths, about which nothing is known to mankind yet.
However, scientists manage to discover something, and among the finds there are truly impossible ones: what about a whole huge cloud of alcohol or a foam planet?
He collected the most amazing planets, nebulae, and other cosmic finds that will surprise anyone simply by the very fact of their existence. Just look:
1. "Pan" - a real space dumpling
This is a satellite of Saturn, which with "rings" from our star system. A couple of years ago it was believed that it was spherical, but in reality everything turned out differently.
When Pana photographed the Cassini 7 probe from a distance of 24.5 km, the photo showed that it was flattened and with a belt. It looks like a real dumpling or, if you like, ravioli.
2. Sombrero galaxy with a black hole at the very center
This galaxy is 28 million light-years away. It seems like it is far away, but from the Earth it is quite visible. And in general - this is not one galaxy, but two. So this is the form.
And this space object is also cool in that there is a supermassive black hole inside it, which, by mass, is 1 billion of our suns.
3 Huge Styrofoam Planet
An exoplanet called Kepler-7 b was discovered using the Kepler telescope. It has an abnormally low density: 30 times lower than that of water on Earth.
A cubic meter of the substance from which this celestial body is made weighs only 30 kg. Approximately the same amount weighs foam plastic, which is used to insulate houses. Hence the name.
4The Soap Bubble Gas Nebula
A beautiful symmetrical nebula floats in the field of the constellation Cygnus. It was discovered only a few years ago, so it is not in many astronomical atlases.
Most surprising is the shape and appearance nebulae. It resembles a real soap bubble, and this is the nickname given to it by scientists.
5. "Tethys" - a huge eye in outer space
Another satellite of Saturn, and it resembles a huge eye that watches us from the distant expanses of space. Meet Tefia.
The iris and pupil on the satellite is a huge crater in the middle of it. It was taken by the Cassini probe just two years ago, in 2017.
6. Most expensive real diamond planet
The planet is called 55 Cancri e. It revolves around a star that resembles the Sun in the constellation Cancer. A year on it is equal to our 18 hours.
The temperature at the surface of the planet reaches 1,648 degrees Celsius. She doubled more earth and a third is diamond. Imagine how much it could cost.
7. Ancient space cloud "Himiko"
One of the oldest objects in space
This is one of the most interesting phenomena in space, which is known to our scientists. The cloud, which consists of three young galaxies, formed 800 million years after the Big Bang.
It seems like a huge amount of time. But by space standards, this is not much. By observing Himiko, scientists can give big number answers to the questions of the universe.
Source 8The Witch's Head Nebula
The real name of the nebula is IC 2118. It is located in the southern constellation of Eridani at a distance of 1,000 light years from the Sun. Most of all, it is her outline that surprises.
We see the nebula because of the star Rigel. Due to its radiation, the outlines of the "Witch's Head" are reflected and visible in telescopes from the Earth.
9. Rum and Raspberry Flavored Dust Cloud
We can't try it.
It is located in a region of space called Sagittarius B2. It was discovered about ten years ago, and the thematic media immediately began to repeat that this object should have a raspberry flavor.
Scientists assure that the molecules that were found in the cloud are indeed similar in structure to the molecules of rum. But trying all this will not work, at least because of other dangerous chemical compounds.
10. Incredibly large space ocean
An ocean made up of steam
At a distance of 12 billion light-years from Earth, there is a quasar called APM 08279 + 5255. Its brightness exceeds the solar one by 100 billion times. But that's not what we're interested in.
A few years ago, huge reserves of water were discovered around it. They are 140 trillion times the volume of the earth's oceans. Surprisingly, it is still too far for us to fly there.
11. "Prometheus" - a real space potato
Potato potatoes
This satellite of the same Saturn has an irregular and uneven shape, dotted with craters. Therefore, it resembles a real potato.
"Prometheus" is called the shepherd satellite. It attracts cosmic dust and other objects that form one of the planet's rings.
12. The loneliest planet known to man
A planet that walks on its own
The planet is called PSO J318.5-22 and lies 80 light-years from Earth. It is six times larger than Jupiter and does not obey any star.
Yes, usually the planets are tied to the heavenly body, but this one likes to walk on her own more. This is a unique phenomenon, but it proves that such a thing is even possible.
13. Huge "Great Wall of Hercules - Northern Crown"
Our scientists have not yet found anything larger in space
When scientists observed gamma radiation in the universe, they discovered the largest cosmic object known to our science at all.
Its size is 10 billion light years, and the name for it came up with a Filipino teenager. He described the object on Wikipedia before the scientists, and they did not change his name.
14. This is the largest star that is known to science.
Just huge!
It is called VY Canis Major and is 1,500 times larger than the Sun in diameter. Compared to this star, our planet is nothing at all. Our science does not yet know more than a star.
However, to claim that this is the most big star in the Universe is impossible, because a couple of hundred years ago a big star considered our Sun.
15. The most famous red dwarf "Proxima Centauri"
Someday we'll move here
Its ecosystem hosts the exoplanet Proxima b. It is located at such a distance from the star that life could theoretically be on it.
Moreover, scientists generally believe that it is in the ecosystem of a red dwarf, to which 4.22 light years fly from us, that in the future may run over humanity.
16. There is a hot ice planet in space.
Such ice is called "Ice X"
It is called "Gliese 436 b" is located at a distance of 33 light years. It belongs to the class of hot Neptunes because of the substances of which it is composed.
Judging by the density, it contains water molecules. Due to the size of the planet, which is 4.5 times larger than the Earth, the liquid remains in a crystallized form even at 300 degrees - it's ice, but hot.
17. The planet with the worst weather in the universe
OMG: it's raining glass here
It is called HD 189733 b. At first glance, it resembles the Earth. The same blue dot in the infinitely black depths of space. But that's where the similarities end.
The wind speed on this planet reaches 8,700 km/h. At the same time, it constantly rains, but not from water, but from molten glass.
18. A huge cloud of alcohol in the middle of outer space
There is no such thing as too much alcohol
A huge cloud of alcohol is located at a distance of 6,500 light years from Earth. It consists of almost nothing but ethanol, and is approximately 482,803,200,000 kilometers long.
Scientists clarify that about 189,270,589,200,000 liters of beer could be made from such a volume of alcohol. But these calculations may not be 100% accurate.
19. An amazing part of the Carina Nebula "God's Finger"
The Carina Nebula, captured by NASA, can take on the most bizarre shapes. Some see in its parts a hand with an outstretched finger - hence the name.
20. The real "Death Star" orbiting Saturn
Tell me, it really looks like!
A few years ago, the Cassini spacecraft was able to photograph another moon of Saturn called Mimas. He was immediately dubbed the "Death Star".
The universe is huge. It is difficult for us to imagine its true dimensions. Scientists say that since the Big Bang it has grown so much that it has. We cannot see the entire Universe, but those places that are open to our gaze also contain many secrets, mysteries and other unusual things. In the past, we have already written about. Today we’ll talk about single ones: starting from the largest asteroid and ending with the largest galaxy in the visible space of space.
Looks creepy, right?
Reference: One light year is a unit of distance in astronomy, equal to the distance that light travels in vacuum in one Earth year.
The largest asteroid in the solar system
Such an asteroid can do a lot of things.
Formerly the largest asteroid solar system was Ceres. The diameter of the object is about 950 kilometers. The second largest was Pallas with a diameter of 512 kilometers. And Vesta occupied the third line of the largest known asteroids in the solar system, inferior in size to Pallas, but overtaking it in mass.
After scientists transferred it to the category of dwarf planets, Pallas began to occupy the top line of the largest (in size) asteroids in the solar system. However, astronomers specified the size of Vesta and it turned out that it is larger than Pallas. The diameter of Vesta is 530 kilometers. Thus, Vesta became not only the largest, but also the most massive asteroid in our solar system.
The largest satellite of the planet in the solar system
Comparative sizes of Ganymede with other satellites of the solar system and the Earth
Jupiter's gas giant moon Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system. Its diameter is 5268 kilometers.
Ganymede is one of the four largest moons of Jupiter, which, along with Io, Europa and Callisto, were first discovered by the Italian mathematician, philosophers and astronomer Galileo Galilei. The name Ganymede was not used until the middle of the 20th century. Galileo called the satellites he discovered "the Medici planets", and Ganymede himself called Jupiter III or "the third satellite of Jupiter."
Scientists believe that under the surface of Ganymede, which contains much more water than on Earth.
The largest satellite of an exoplanet
The star WASP-12, located at a distance of 870 light-years from us, has an exoplanet. Recall that exoplanets are called planets that are outside the solar system.
In 2012, the planet WASP-12b was explored by Russian scientists. They assumed that she had a satellite. This possibility was based on the analysis of the brightness (brilliance) of the star. From the features of brightness changes, it is possible to calculate what fraction of the disk area of the star is covered by the satellite. Scientists believe that the satellite has a radius of 0.57 of the radius of Jupiter (it is 6.4 times the size of the Earth). Such a large size and allowed to assume the existence of a satellite.
The largest planet in the solar system
Size comparison of Jupiter and Earth.
With a diameter of 142,984 kilometers, Jupiter is the most big planet solar system. Along with Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, Jupiter is classified as a gas giant.
The mass of Jupiter is 318 times the mass of the Earth. It is 2.5 times heavier than all the other planets in the solar system combined. The giant is located at a distance of about 770 million kilometers from the Sun and makes a complete revolution around the star in about 11.9 Earth years.
Perhaps the most famous feature of Jupiter is its (BKP) - a hurricane that has been lasting on the planet for more than 300 years. The diameter of the Spot is greater than the diameter of the Earth.
The largest rocky exoplanet
Artistic representation of the planet BD+20594 b
The largest rocky exoplanet was discovered by the Kepler space telescope in 2016 in the constellation Aries, which is 500 light-years away. The object, designated BD+20594b, is about 16 times heavier than Earth and has a radius 2.2 times that of Earth.
Previously, Kepler-10 c. was considered the largest rocky exoplanet. it was said that this planet has a radius that is 2.35 times that of the earth, and its mass is about 17 more than that of the Earth. However, more accurate calculations carried out in 2017 made it possible to establish that the planet Kepler-10c is only 7.4 times heavier than the Earth, and its composition is rather closer to the gas giants.
Largest gas giant outside the solar system
The largest gas giant.
Determining the largest exoplanet of the gas giant class is not an easy task. Scientists need to take into account many things. For example, in space there are objects so huge that they can hardly be called planets. They are more like a star. At the same time, their mass is less than the minimum required to maintain nuclear reactions burning hydrogen and turning into a star. Such objects are called substellar.
Presumably the largest exoplanet of the gas giant class among those discovered on this moment is HD 100546 b, discovered in 2013. It is located 337 light years from Earth. Scientists believe that HD 100546 b is 6.9 times larger and 20 times heavier than Jupiter.
The biggest star in the universe
Deep bottomless space.
Currently, the largest star not only in our Milky Way galaxy, but also in the known Universe is the red hypergiant UY Scuti. It is located approximately 9500 light years from us. According to scientists, the radius of the UY Shield is 1708 solar radii, but it is constantly changing and can reach 2100 solar radii. The diameter of the star is 2.4 billion kilometers.
The size of our Sun and star UY Scutum (with a magnification of 7 times)
For understanding: if the Sun is drawn with a small circle with a diameter of 1 mm, then for the UY Shield you will need a circle with a diameter of 1.7-2.1 meters! If you place UY Scutum in the center of the solar system, then its photosphere (the radiating layer of the stellar atmosphere) will cover the orbit of Jupiter.
By modern estimates astronomers, the star UY Scutum is 340,000 times brighter than our Sun.
The largest planet in the Universe is TrES-4. It was discovered in 2006 and is located in the constellation Hercules. A planet called TrES-4 orbits a star that is about 1,400 light-years away from planet Earth.
The planet TrES-4 itself is a ball that consists mainly of hydrogen. Its size is 20 times the size of the Earth. The researchers claim that the diameter of the discovered planet is almost 2 times (more precisely, 1.7) the diameter of Jupiter (it is the largest planet in the solar system). The temperature of TrES-4 is about 1260 degrees Celsius.
To date, the largest star is UY Scutum in the constellation Scutum, about 9500 light-years away. This is one of the brightest stars - it is 340 thousand times brighter than our Sun. Its diameter is 2.4 billion km, which is 1700 times larger than our sun, with a weight of only 30 times the mass of the sun. It is a pity that it is constantly losing mass, it is also called the fastest burning star. Perhaps that is why some scientists consider the largest star NML Cygnus, and others - VY big dog.
Black holes are not measured in kilometers, the key indicator is their mass. The most gigantic black hole is in the galaxy NGC 1277, which is not the largest. However, the hole in the galaxy NGC 1277 has 17 billion solar masses, which is 17% total weight galaxies. For comparison, the black hole in our Milky Way has a mass of 0.1% of the total mass of the galaxy.
1. The largest galaxy
The mega-monster among the galaxies known in our time is IC1101. The distance to the Earth is about 1 billion light years. Its diameter is about 6 million light years and holds about 100 trillion. stars, for comparison, the diameter of the Milky Way is 100 thousand light years. Compared to the Milky Way, IC 1101 is over 50 times larger and 2,000 times more massive.
