What is the largest structure in the universe? (Intermediate)

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Hi! I have a question regarding the scale of the cosmos. My question: What is the largest structure in the Universe?

The largest structures in the Universe are superclusters and filaments, which are large associations of galaxies that can extend over distances of more than 100 million light-years.

As matter collapses in to structures due to gravitational attraction it tends to form linear structures called filaments that criss-cross to make up the cosmic web. Where these filaments cross clusters and superclusters of galaxies form (depending on the scale of the filaments).

One of the largest known structures in the Universe is the Sloan Great Wall. This is a filamentary structure of galaxies that strecthes over a billion light-years across.

This page was last updated on November 1, 2015.

About the Author

Mike Jones

Mike is a fourth year astronomy graduate student at Cornell, where he works with Professors Martha Haynes and Riccardo Giovanelli on the ALFALFA survey, a blind survey of gas-rich galaxies in the local Universe carried out with the 305m Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico.

Website: http://www.astro.cornell.edu/~jonesmg