Home › Universe › Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall
perhaps the largest structure in the universe
Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall
It was found not through galaxies but through gamma-ray bursts – enormous explosions of dying giant stars that cluster conspicuously in this region of the sky.
Key figures
- Length
- about 10 billion light-years (estimated)
- Light travel time
- about 10 billion years
- Discovered
- 2013 from the distribution of gamma-ray bursts
Interesting facts
- Whether it really exists is disputed. On such large scales the universe ought to be fairly uniform. That is why it is only hinted at in the picture.
Where is it?
Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall belongs to the “The observable universe” level of the Cosmic Zoom (field of view about 93 billion light-years). As far as we can see at all. Light needs time – looking into the distance means looking into the past. At the edge glows the oldest light, from 380,000 years after the Big Bang. Right in the middle, invisibly small, is where we are.
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