This blog will be based on one of the biggest structures in the whole observable universe.
On a way larger scale, the universe is meant to look like a huge cosmic spider web. First, stars, which includes our sun, are grouped into galaxies. And then these galaxies are grouped into galactic groups which are held together to form galaxy clusters. When these types of galaxy clusters merge, they create some large cosmic structures called “superclusters”. They are known to contain masses of as much as billions and trillions of times of the mass of the sun and stretch over tens to hundreds of mega parsecs. Therefore, they trace the most extensive scale containing thousands of galaxies and dozens of galaxy clusters.
The Saraswati, is one of the super clusters that was discovered recently by a group of Indian astronomers. It was discovered in 2017 by IUCAA and IISER. This is named after the Goddess of Music and knowledge of Hindu origin, Saraswati.
The Saraswati is 4 billion light years away from Earth. And btw, one light year is the DISTANCE in which light can travel in one year. This means the light we see from the super cluster right now was initially emitted 4 billion yrs ago.
The discovery of this giant super cluster was made with the help of extensive spectroscopic observations known as Stripe 82. Later on, statistics was used to link galacies which eventually lead up to the reveal of Saraswati super cluster. It is known to contain more than 40 galaxy clusters and is surrounded be vast galactic voids.
A super cluster of this size and of this mass can be used as a kind of a laboratory for testing Albert Einsteins general relativity and structure formation. This makes it one of the largest super clusters to be discovered and also the farthest. Since it is 4 billion light years away, seeing it from Earth would be looking back 4 billion years in time like time travelling and seeing the past. Cosmological simulations tell us that finding such a massive structureas this is not really common. Also, the red shift of 0.3, places Saraswati near the region which is known as the cosmic transition, which means a change from a matter dominated universe to more like a dark energy dominated universe.
So that was all for this blog. I hope you found it enjoyable.
Thank you for reading so far…
AND…..PLEASE CONSIDER FOLLOWING.
