Scientists from European Southern Observatory (ESO) have said in a statement on Wednesday, October 17 that they have found the largest cosmic structure known to date.
The team of the astronomers were led by Olga Cucciati of Bologna's National Astrophysics Institute. As per the EFE report, the researchers stated in their study that they have found this galaxy proto-supercluster – Hyperion by following new measurements, made by the visible multi-object spectrograph of ESO's Very Large Telescope, located in the Atacama Desert an also by and pouring over vast arrays of archive data.
The leader of the study, Cucciati said in the paper that "This is the first time that such a large structure has been identified as such a high redshift, just over two billion years after the Big Bang. Normally, these kinds of structures are known at lower redshifts, which means when the universe has had much more time to evolve and construct such huge things. It was a surprise to see something this evolved when the Universe was relatively young!"
The VIsible Multi-Object Spectrograph or VIMOS, which is an instrument that measures objects far outside our own galactic neighbourhood, allows experts to see what the early universe was like in the distant cosmic past.
"Understanding Hyperion and how it compares to similar recent structures can give insights into how the universe developed in the past and will evolve into the future, and allows us the opportunity to challenge some models of supercluster formation. Unearthing this cosmic titan helps uncover the history of these large-scale structures," Cucciati added.
As per Greek mythology, Hyperion was one of the twelve Titan children of Gaia (Earth) and Uranus (Sky) who fathered Helios, the Sun.
