Beyond Imagination - Exploring the Giants of our Known Universe
Category News
Space is vast, seemingly unending, and in so many ways, beyond our comprehension. As we look up to the night sky, we see an almost eternal image. A time capsule reflecting early man's desire to stretch out his hand and reach towards the heavens.
In this universe where we represent a minute fraction, the sheer scope of some of space's most enormous objects causes us to question: What is the size? And is there an end to it? While theoretically there should be, scientific discoveries made every day seem to challenge this preconception.
From physical bodies to structures to galaxies and clusters, the universe pays no heed to size rules as we know them. Gravity is the extraordinary observable force that seems to tie this all together-binding these bodies into larger and larger phenomena. The question remains, what are the largest "things" in our universe? And how large are they in comparison to more comprehensible objects? We take a closer look.
Stephenson 2-18
Image Source: Youtube.co.za
A star is a luminous celestial object composed of hot, glowing gases held together by gravity. The "pull" of a star's gravity attracts heavier objects, while lighter gasy objects skirt along the perimeter of its mass influence. This, more accurately, is referred to as a solar system. Our sun, Sol, measures 1,391,000 kilometres across-about 109 times the diameter of Earth.
But Sol, referred to as a main sequence star, is dwarfed by a cosmological giant known as Stephenson 2-18. The largest star in our observable universe (tied with UY Scuti), Stephenson 2-18, is a red supergiant star approximately 2150 times larger than Sol and located 20,000 light-years away in the Scutum Constellation.
Its unimaginable size is attributed to its age. As stars begin to die, they use up all their core's hydrogen and start burning heavier elements in the superstructure, enlarging their size, and ballooning outwards in gargantuan leaps-the fate of all stars, including our own. Stephenson, in particular, is an anomaly of the skies and a giant, even among the reds.
While the image above depicts a rough size estimate, what Stephenson looks like is far more abstract. Unlike most stars, its immense size changes how gravity maintains its structure. Some astronomers agree that Stephenson's shape is dynamic, changing and shifting like wax in a lava lamp.
Take a look at SEA's incredible video on the topic - View more here
Object TON 618 (Supermassive Black Hole)
Image Source: Autoevolution.com
TON 618 is an incredibly massive and exceptionally luminous black hole located in the constellation Canes Venatici, approximately 10.4 billion light-years away from Earth. It is considered one of the most massive black holes known to exist, with a mass estimated to be around 66 billion times that of our Sun.
The gravitational pull of a black hole is so extreme that even light cannot escape it. In fact, the light we see includes both what is in front and behind the accretion disk (point of no return) due to the light waves being bent around this cosmic monster.
When a sun dies, a black hole may be born if the star's mass is significant enough to implode upon its core. Rather than exploding into a supernova like most stars, the mass cascades into a central gravitational point. Imagine the sun's mass compressed to the size of a pinhead with the same gravitational strength.
Sagittarius A, one of the brightest stars in our sky, is, in fact, a supermassive black hole located at the centre of our Milky Way galaxy, and yet even then, it is diminutive compared to TON 618.
NASA compares the size of TON 618 to our solar system - Watch more here
Object OJ287 (Quasar)
Image Source: Scitechdaily.com
Quasars are incredibly rare stellar objects comprising one or more black holes and are usually found at the centre of large galaxies. Quasars are monstrous in size and continually feed upon gases and heavier materials like extrasolar captures, dispersing them in massive 1000s of light-year-long jet plumes from the poles.
If Hades were a place, it would be the erratic Lagrange point (point of equilibrium) of Object OJ287. This immense Quasar was discovered in 1891 when light fluctuations were first picked up from the area. At the centre of this Quasar exists a binary system of two orbiting black holes. The light produced is brighter than the collective light of more than a trillion stars. This emphasises the sheer dominance of this beast and the hellish existence it has created within its galaxy.
Laniakea Galaxy Super Cluster (Our Home)
(Each pixel in this composite image represents a galaxy. The red dot indicates where the Milky Way is located)
Image Source: Forbes.com
To understand superclusters, one needs to expand their size scope by order of magnitudes. Blackholes, quasars, and stars, as large as they are, are pixels compared to the picture of galaxies containing them.
Our home, the Milky Way, is a single bead in the chain of millions upon billions of galaxies interconnected by gravity and Dark Energy. This tapestry of galaxies is referred to as a supercluster. And the supercluster we call our home is known as Laniakea-an ethereal cosmic object bound by the central gravitational pull of an entity known as The Great Attractor.
Our planet hurtles around our sun at 17000 miles per hour. The sun and all its planets jet around the centre of our galaxy, and our galaxy is pulled towards the central fulcrum of Laniakea. The saddest realisation is humanity will never reach beyond our local group of galaxies. As the universe expands, our supercluster will stretch further faster than we could ever hope to travel. But before constructing an intergalactic empire, let's at least focus on landing on Mars!
Laniakea is just one of the thousands of observable superclusters literally weaving the fabric of our known universe.
This size comparison video may put things in perspective - Watch here
Bootes Void - The Inverse of Existence
Image Source: Theplanet.org
If the universe could indeed be described as an interwoven series of superclusters and filaments, voids could be described as gaps within the stitching. While space is mostly empty, on a grander scale, it is populated by trillions of stars, galaxies, and clusters.
A void is a vast stretch of unpopulated space colloquially called the Great Nothing. Imagine an area stretching millions of light-years with no stars, points of reference or light. From the very centre of a void, the universe would appear entirely different and a much darker place.
At nearly 330 million light-years in diameter, Bootes Void is one of the most extensive voids in the known universe. Referred to as a supervoid, Bootes can be described as a giant hole in the universe. A cosmological dead zone where galaxies have never formed. Voids defy our very understanding of the universe. They are strange, unnerving abysses of sheer nothingness with no apparent answer as to why they exist.
Size Never Ends
The size of the universe is perhaps one of the only things you can be sure of in this life. It never ends, and we are always on the verge of discovering the next biggest thing. Who knows what future galactic surveys may uncover as we expand our knowledge of what exists beyond our tiny home?
Over the next few decades, we are sure to uncover some of the greatest cosmic mysteries. Discovering stars, voids, and black holes larger than we thought possible. So, the next time you take life too seriously, think about Bootes Void and think again.
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Author: Bryce Anderson
