The results of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey – one of the most impressive cosmic surveys of galaxies ever conducted – show that the large-scale Universe is in fact dominated by hyperclusters. These are massive accumulations of galaxies, which look like overgrown superclusters. The main implication of the fact that they exist is that dark energy or gravity are behaving in unexpected ways.
It could be however that an entirely new force is at work, determining the overall structure of the Universe while leaving behind no discernible signs of its presence. At this point, astronomers simply don't know what's causing hyperclusters to develop.
The SDSS has thus far created a map that covers about 25 percent of the sky, featuring the 2D arrangements of al galaxies the Apache Point, New Mexico-based telescope could detect.
Astrophysicists have known about the clumping effect of gravity for decades. This is the effect that took hold on baryonic matter shortly after the Big Bang. When analyzing the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), small variations are observable even today,
Daily Galaxy reports.
Experts are suggesting that gravity amplified these differences, starting some 370,000 years after the Big Bang. This is the time that marks the appearance of the CMB. From that point on, gravity has been forcing the Universe to produce clumps.
But theories hold that these effects should have long since been accounted for by the ever-accelerating expansion of the Universe. Yet, such a tendency cannot be observed. In fact, the exact opposite can be distinguished from the SDSS data.
Experts at the University College London (UCL), led by expert astronomer Shaun Thomas, say that the largest hyperclusters can reach up to 3 billion light-years in length. In theory, behemoths such as the Sloan Great Wall, which makes up for 1/60th of the universal diameter, should not exist.
“It could be that we need an even more general theory to explain how gravity works on very large scales,” says Thomas, adding that even Einstein's theories, themselves a clear progress from Newton's, appear to be insufficiently capable of explaining what's going on.
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