The ingredients of a cosmological mystery: Big Ring, Giant Arc, Sloan Great Wall, South Pole Wall, Clowes-Campusano Large Quasar Group, Laniakea Supercluster, the dark flow, Sir Roger Penrose's Conformal Cyclic Cosmology, cosmic strings, ... https://www.space.com/big-ring-galactic-superstructure-celestial-anomaly
Great paper by Mirjam Guesgen for @Motherboard@VICENews on the discovery of the Big Ring
On the proximity of this structure with the Giant Arc:
“Identifying two extraordinary ultra-large structures in such close configuration raises the possibility that together they form an even more extraordinary cosmological system.” @morninglopez (co-author of the discovery)
🥳 Today the #GaiaMission celebrates the 10th anniversary of its launch 🛰🚀
In this 10 years, Gaia has been revolutionary, not only mapping #stars in the #MilkyWay with unprecedented accuracy, but also producing exquisite data for objects from solar system #asteroids to distant lensed #quasars!
Congratulations to #GaiaDPAC and all other #ESA people that made and make this mission a success!
Read here about 10 #science topics where Gaia has made its impact:
Was looking through old #astrophotography images and came across this - the furthest, and oldest light I have ever captured in our Universe, from my backyard.
Quasar 3C 232 at redshift ~0.533, which makes these photons about ~7.3 billion years old.
NGC 3067, a mere 67 million light-years away.
cannot begin to tell you how extremely luminous these things must be, for its light to be this bright that a small, 8" backyard telescope in city skies can see its light.
Of course, since this light left this object, the Universe has expanded, and so the light has been stretched or 'redshifted'.
Oh, and a fun fact about quasars, particularly, radio quasars.
Without them, you can't use your Google Maps, have self-driving cars, track natural disasters, or know where your aircraft is.
All of our GNSS needs knowledge of Earth's orientation in space!
Some Galaxies Contain Double Supermassive Black Holes
Astronomers have discovered supermassive black holes at the hearts of most galaxies, but it appears that some of these are binaries. The discovery was made by observing the jets from blazars, actively feeding supermassive black holes that beam directly toward Earth. Some of these jets have been found to wobble slightly, puzzling astronomers. New evidence shows that this wobble, or precession, comes from a binary companion to these supermassive black holes.
How Did Supermassive Black Holes Grow So Quickly, So Early?
Supermassive black holes are a mystery. These monster black holes with millions or even billions of times the mass of the Sun were already present in the first billion years of the age of the Universe. How did they get enough raw material to grow so quickly? A new study suggests that it all comes down to the giant molecular clouds in galaxies that get funneled into the centers of galaxies during mergers, feeding the hungry black holes. The simulations predict they can grow from millions to billions of solar masses within a few hundred million years.