The Largest Structures in the Universe: The Great Walls - "Do They Contradict The Big Bang Theory?

Well, as Shakespeare said, "There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than can be dreamt of in your philosophy.”

For starters, here’s a rendition of the Universe….So how big is it? Big! Really BIG! Here’s an incredible simulation of the Universe, but what you are about to see is the OBSERVABLE universe, which is just a miniscule portion of the entire universe!



Though you’re probably slack-jawed, be prepared for what’s coming up! Here’s a Hubble view of galaxies in a tiny part of the observable Universe….

Some physicists such as Max Tegmark believe the universe is actually infinite in size. If the galactic density of our own neighborhood is typical across this entire domain, and according to the data from the satellite COBE, then our bubble-universe should contain at least another 10 to the power 100 galaxies.

This is such a large figure, that it's difficult to explain it. So to give you an idea of how large a number this is, it's far larger the the number of atoms that compose every object in our own visible universe, which as you remember extends out 13.2 billion light years in every direction. This too is very difficult to conceptualize. So we'll have to scale down even further to a grain of sand.

The number of atoms composing a grain of sand is about 10 to the power 23 atoms, or 100 trillion trillion atoms for each grain of sand on a typical beach. And just think how many grains of sand are on your typical beach, let alone something the size of the Sahara. And that's just on the surface of the earth. All the sand in the world composes much less than 0.00001% of the mass of the earth. The number of atoms composing the Earth is about 10 to the power 60. And the Earth in turn is one tiny planet around a small star in an ordinary galaxy, among hundreds of billions of galaxies in our very local neighborhood, which we call the visible universe.

So 10 to the power 100 is a very very big number of galaxies! Adding it all together and you get more galaxies in our universe than there are atoms composing every object in our visible universe!!

The Coma cluster is one of the largest observed structures in the Universe,
containing over 10,000 galaxies and extending more than 1.37 billion light
years in length forming a wall like structure. Some of these elongated
super clusters have formed a series of walls, one after another, spaced
from 500 million to 800 million light years apart, such that in one direction
alone, 13 Great Walls have formed with the inner and outer walls separated
by less than seven billion light years.

According to scientists, our known Hubble length universe contains hundreds of millions of galaxies that have clumped together, forming super clusters and a series of massive walls of galaxies separated by vast voids of empty space.

The Great Wall:

The Great Wall is a massive array of barely visible galaxies, 1.37 billion light years long!

The vastest structure ever is a collection of super clusters a billion light years away extending for 5% the length of the entire observable universe. It is theorized that such structures as the Great Wall form along and follow web-like strings of dark matter that dictates the structure of the Universe on the grandest of scales. Dark matter gravitationally attracts baryonic matter, and it is this normal matter that astronomers see forming long, thin walls of super-galactic clusters.

This isn't the only wall out there - others exist, all with far greater lengths than width or depth, actual sheets of galaxies forming some of the most impressive anythings there are. And these walls are only a special class of galactic filaments, long strings of matter stretched between mind-breaking expanses of emptiness.

And now the bombshell.....

Recently, cosmologists have estimated that some of these galactic walls may have taken from 80 billion to 100 billion, to 150 billion years to form in a direct challenge to current age estimates of the age of the Universe following the Big Bang.

Britain’s Astronomer Royal, Lord Rees, says some of the cosmos’s biggest mysteries, like the Big Bang , might never be resolved and that a correct basic theory of the universe may be just too tough for human beings’ brains to comprehend!

So the million dollar question is: Could all this matter have come out from a singularity? From a Big Bang? These walls of galaxies as scientists say, would have taken at least 100 to 150 billion years to form!

“Just as a fish may be barely aware of the medium in which it lives and swims, so the microstructure of empty space could be far too complex for unaided human brains."
Sir Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal, physicist, Cambridge University

M ore...
www.futurehi.net...

There is no way were are alone in the Universe. IMO.

Second.

I've been hearing theories such as that energy degraded and that sparked the Big Bang to occur...

All that matter is possible to have derived of the Big Bang. It's like a domino effect, a chain reaction.
The universe recipe...very basic:
- 6 quarks and 6 antiquarks
- 6 leptons and antileptons
-The right temperature
-A few force carriers

The leptons, antileptons and quarks, antiquarks can be substituted for STRINGS (depending on your opinion.)

..AND BAM. That caused the 4% of the observable universe..and the 96% of the universe unknown to us.
That has caused black holes, dark matter, your children, the stars, the ice cream that fell down on the pavement, a cricket bat, huskies...and so much more

I love it when science admits "we just don't know".

I once heard Brian Cox say that there is not enough atoms in out entire visible universe to count how many years the universe will be around.

I just think that numbers and equations are irrelevant when it comes to the grand scale of the universe, Lets just say that man is really insignificant.

Dr Manhattan from the Watchmen "Life is a highly over rated phenomenon"

I wonder when people will learn that the numbers will keep going up until they reach infinity. There's no way for us to figure out the whole universe, at least while shackled to this mortal and fleshy existence.

Now try to imagine that this may be going on in countless universes (multiverse theory). Do you still think it all happened by mistake?

Thank you for sharing this.

I can appreciate that they are making an attempt to simplify this so that it may be understandable, but honestly, this confused me even more. I consider numbers and math to be one of my better subjects of understanding, but the atom/sand equations didn't even come close to creating an accurate image in my little brain.

It seems like as each day passes, I feel smaller and smaller.

Originally posted by boncho
There is no way were are alone in the Universe. IMO.

Second.

unless of course we are in a computer simulation where we are supposed to be the only planet with life!

But I agree with you, I think there's even other life in our solar system, even if it's bacteria

reply to post by OrionHunterX
I love this stuff. The universe IS beyond human comprehension. The sheer vastness of the universe reflects how insignificant we really are.

I believe that our universe is just a particle of another universe which is but a small particle of another universe and so on and so on.........

It's real simple, the answer is "infinity", there is no begining and there is no end. Once people accept that as fact the world will be a better place.

reply to post by Darkmask




Fun to think about how big it is, isn't it?

Originally posted by LeaderOfProgress
It's real simple, the answer is "infinity", there is no begining and there is no end. Once people accept that as fact the world will be a better place.

How would this happen?

In what ways would accepting that our universe is infinite, make our little spinning rock a better place?

What could that change?

So it's back to the drawing boards. Maybe we shouldn't have given up on Fred Hoyle and "Steady State" quite so readily.

Fifty years ago my uncle, who lived next door showed me a book. I was 14. In this book were twenty illustrations of a boy holding a marble. Ten pictures moved out in size by magnitudes of ten while the other ten pictures moved in in magnitudes of ten. In 1960 this just completely blew my mind and has stayed with me ever since.

Through the years I have continued to read up on cosmology. I followed the Big Bang, Steady State feud and at the time cheered for the looser. I watched the BB develop and develop and develop. And then along came Hubble, and my mind was blown again. Dark matter. Mind blown. Dark Energy. Mind blown. And now this, explode-a-mundo.

Fortunate teenager that I was to have such an uncle, who would take me out at night and scope in on Saturn and its rings, I have always lived with the hope that I might be able to keep expanding myself along with the ever expanding scope of human knowledge. What with the ins, and the outs and all of the in betweens which we have going on on this planet alone, the fodder for this quest keeps me full.

Back then I could not have guessed. Ah what a joy . Thanks for this post Hunter X. Now I need to go and rest. Explode-a-mundo you know.

The fact is, there are some parts of the universe we won't EVER be able to see.
There's a cosmic "horizon."

We can only assume...and that my friends, is just theories.

reply to post by OrionHunterX


Wow just to add to my feelings of insignificance.



You know we are going to have to think of a new word to encapsulate the vastness.

Cosmic...

It has always amazed me at how arrogant scientists have become to assume that they have "figured out" the universe. The scientific culture has seemed to have forgotten that theories (like the big bang, string, and gravity) are meant to be improved upon, adapted, revised, or possibly even thrown out in the face of new data. Copernicus, galileo, kepler, and newton among others, all had groundbreaking theories that changed the game forever (and some suffered viscious persecution for it), yet their theories were a work in progress and were adapted as new data came along.

But now it seems that the culture treats theory as law and you never question it. If the data doesn't fit the theory, the data must be wrong....

For example, dark matter and dark energy are terms invented due to anomalous data that completely contradicts our understanding of gravity and the big bang. It's a clever way of saying "we have no idea what is going on out there", and what's so wrong with admitting that?

Only the most miniscule changes to a theory are allowed. Its a good thing galileo isn't around today, if he thought the catholic church was bad....wait til he got an eyeful of the scientific community of today. He probably wouldn't be under house arrest for his radical ideas, but he would be so ostracized that he would probably end up teaching a 4th grade science class in wisconsin! (no offense to any 4th grade science teachers, this is galileo after all)

Science has become, ironically, a religion itself. With differing theories polarizing groups like christians and muslims.

I'm not saying science is wrong, I'm just saying that it tends to act a little childish when things don't go as expected.

Although, it would see like more potential tends to unfold of our universe and bigger, larger scientific research seems to find more than less in space. and yet the complete potential of the universe is not found, nor is the potential of anyone to believe in God.

Check the sig

p.s.

what is outside of the universe?

reply to post by satron


Who actually knows? At least 'science' follows the scientific process of discovery, being something isn't 'proven' until it can be observed as a repeatable phenomenon through experimentation or observation.

You got something better than that?

Oh please tell...

Originally posted by satron
I love it when science admits "we just don't know".

At least science has the fortitude to say so, unlike certain groups of individuals who make believe it was all blinked into creation.

reply to post by Jordan River


There simply is no outside of the universe, that notion fails in logic on so many levels. You have yet to describe what is in the universe, yet alone venture outside of space and time, which doesn't exist. No time or space, nothing, – it doesn't exist in our detection of matter or time.

There is always something, and it doesn't stop moving. What keeps things in motion is the real mystery, not the space its in.