South Pole Wall
The South Pole Wall (SPW or The South Pole Wall) is a massive cosmic structure formed by a giant wall of galaxies (a galaxy filament) that extends across at least 1.37 billion light-years of space, the nearest light (and consequently part)[a] of which is aged about half a billion light-years.[1][2][3][4][5][6] The structure, in its astronomical angle, is dense in five known places including one very near to the celestial South Pole and is, according to the international team of astronomers that discovered the South Pole Wall, "...the largest contiguous feature in the local volume and comparable to the Sloan Great Wall at half the distance ...".[1] Its discovery was announced by Daniel Pomarède of Paris-Saclay University and R. Brent Tully and colleagues of the University of Hawaiʻi in July 2020.[1] Pomarède explained, "One might wonder how such a large and not-so distant structure remained unnoticed. This is due to its location in a region of the sky that has not been completely surveyed, and where direct observations are hindered by foreground patches of galactic dust and clouds. We have found it thanks to its gravitational influence, imprinted in the velocities of a sample of galaxies".[3]
Size
The wall measures over 1.37 billion light-years in length, and spans a large zone 500 million light-years away.[4][5] The massive structure, at least to a very small extent, is behind the Milky Way galaxy's Zone of Avoidance (or Zone of Galactic Obscuration).[6] The filament curves from the Perseus constellation in the Northern Hemisphere to Telescopium in the far south, in between which, skirting – slightly – over the present south celestial pole itself. It is so large that it greatly affects the local expansion of the universe.[4] According to astronomer Tully, "We wonder if the South Pole Wall is much bigger than what we see. What we have mapped stretches across the full domain of the region we have surveyed. We are early explorers of the cosmos, extending our maps into unknown territory."[3] According to the astronomers who discovered it "We will not be certain of its full extent, nor whether it is unusual, until we map the universe on a significantly grander scale."[5]
See also
- BOSS Great Wall
- CMB cold spot
- Giant Void
- Great Attractor
- Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall
- Large-scale structure of the observable universe
- List of largest cosmic structures
- Sloan Great Wall
- The Giant Arc
- Big Ring
References and footnotes
- ^ a b c Pomarède, Daniel; et al. (10 July 2020). "Cosmicflows-3: The South Pole Wall". The Astrophysical Journal. 897 (2): 133. arXiv:2007.04414. Bibcode:2020ApJ...897..133P. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ab9952. S2CID 220425419.
- ^ Pomerede, D.; et al. (January 2020). "The South Pole Wall". Harvard University. Bibcode:2020AAS...23545301P. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
- ^ a b c Staff (10 July 2020). "Astronomers map massive structure beyond Laniakea Supercluster". University of Hawaii. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
- ^ a b c Overbye, Dennis (10 July 2020). "Beyond the Milky Way, a Galactic Wall - Astronomers have discovered a vast assemblage of galaxies hidden behind our own, in the "zone of avoidance."". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
- ^ a b c Mann, Adam (10 July 2020). "Astronomers discover South Pole Wall, a gigantic structure stretching 1.4 billion light-years across". Live Science. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
- ^ a b Starr, Michelle (14 July 2020). "A Giant 'Wall' of Galaxies Has Been Found Stretching Across The Universe". ScienceAlert.com. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
- ^ Currently preferred models of cosmic expansion would place the nearest parts of this superstructure at a few percentage points beyond the extrapolated age of its light based on its redshift, however lower probability models compete in which expansion may currently be proceeding greater, less or more non-uniformly than the central model predicts (rooted in the slighter redshifts and hence average effect on radial velocities of more local objects). Particularly the extent of variability at greatest scales in their subsequent history can never be directly observed. This makes light years distance of the deepest sky objects highly speculative.
External links
- South Pole Wall – Official Site
- South Pole Wall – video (6:50) on YouTube (Daniel Pomarède; 10 July 2020)
- v
- t
- e
- « 20192021 »
launches
- Solar Orbiter (Feb 2020)
- Hope (Jul 2020)
- Tianwen-1 (Jul 2020)
- Mars 2020 (Jul 2020)
- Perseverance rover
- Mars Helicopter Ingenuity
- Chang'e 5 (lunar sample return mission; Nov 2020)
NEOs
- Asteroid close approaches
- 594913 ꞌAylóꞌchaxnim
- 2020 BX12
- 2020 CW
- 2020 CD3 (temporary satellite)
- (52768) 1998 OR2
- 2020 HS7
- 2020 JJ
- 2020 LD
- (163348) 2002 NN4
- 2020 OY4
- 2020 QG
- 2011 ES4
- 2018 VP1
- 2020 SO (space debris)
- 2020 SW
- 2020 SL1
- 2020 UA
- 2020 VV
- 2020 VT4
- (153201) 2000 WO107
- (501647) 2014 SD224
- 2020 XL5
- AU Mic b
- Gliese 229 Ac
- Gliese 414
- Gliese 433
- b
- c
- d
- GJ 1151 b radio emissions
- K2-315b
- Kepler-1649c
- KOI-456.04
- Lacaille 9352
- b
- c
- M51-ULS-1b
- OGLE-2016-BLG-1928 (rogue planet)
- Tau Ceti j (predicted)
- TOI-561
- TOI-700
- b
- c
- d
- TOI-732
- b
- c
- TOI-1338 b
- TOI-1339
- b
- c
- d
- TYC 8998-760-1 c
- WD 1856+534 b
- Betelgeuse dimming
- FRB 180916 location and periodicity
- Radcliffe wave
- Ophiuchus Supercluster explosion
- PSO J03094+27 (distant blazar)
- 2MASS J1047+21 wind speed measurements
- SGR 1935+2154 (soft gamma ray repeater)
- HR 6819 black hole hypothesis
- PHL 293B ending of P Cygni profile hydrogen emission lines
- Swift J1818.0–1607 (young magnetar)
- GW190814 (announced)
- South Pole Wall
- GW190521 (announced)
- Phosphine detection in the atmosphere of Venus
- Water detection on the sunlit surface of the Moon
- C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS)
- C/2017 T2 (PANSTARRS)
- C/2020 F8 (SWAN)
- C/2019 U6 (LEMMON)
- C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE)
- 2P/Encke
- 88P/Howell
- 156P/Russell–LINEAR
exploration
- Spitzer retirement (Jan 2020)
- BepiColombo (Earth gravity assist; Apr 2020, Venus gravity assist; Oct 2020)
- OSIRIS-REx (sample collection from asteroid Bennu; Oct 2020)
- Hayabusa2 (sample return from asteroid Ryugu; Dec 2020)
- Chang'e 5 (lunar sample return; Dec 2020)
- Outer space portal
- Category:2019 in outer space — Category:2020 in outer space — Category:2021 in outer space