The Sloan Great Wall is a cosmic structure formed by a giant wall of galaxies (a galactic filament), and to the present day it is the largest known structure in the universe

Universe

The Universe is commonly defined as the totality of everything that exists, including all matter and energy, the planets, stars, galaxies, and the contents of intergalactic space. Definitions and usage vary and similar terms include the cosmos, the world and nature...

. Its discovery was announced on October 20, 2003 by J. Richard Gott III

J. Richard Gott

John Richard Gott III is a professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University. He is known for developing and advocating two cosmological theories with the flavor of science fiction: Time travel and the Doomsday argument.- Exotic matter time travel theories :Paul Davies's bestseller How...

 of Princeton University

Princeton University

Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

 and Mario Jurić

Mario Juric

Mario Jurić is a Croatian astronomer.Jurić was born in Zagreb. He graduated from the University of Zagreb Faculty of Science, and received a doctorate at Princeton University in 2007....

 and their colleagues, based on data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

Sloan Digital Sky Survey

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey or SDSS is a major multi-filter imaging and spectroscopic redshift survey using a dedicated 2.5-m wide-angle optical telescope at Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico, United States. The project was named after the Alfred P...

. The wall measures 1.37 billion light years

Light Years

Light Years is the seventh studio album by Australian recording artist Kylie Minogue. It was released on 25 September 2000 by Parlophone and Mushroom Records. The album's style was indicative of her return to "mainstream pop dance tunes"....

 ( m)
in length, which is approximately 1/60 of the diameter of the observable universe

Observable universe

In Big Bang cosmology, the observable universe consists of the galaxies and other matter that we can in principle observe from Earth in the present day, because light from those objects has had time to reach us since the beginning of the cosmological expansion...

, and is located approximately one billion light-years from Earth.

The Sloan Great Wall, classified as the supercluster SCl 126 in SIMBAD

SIMBAD

SIMBAD is an astronomical database of objects beyond the Solar System...

., is nearly three times longer than the CfA2 Great Wall

Great Wall (astronomy)

The Great Wall , sometimes specifically referred to as the CfA2 Great Wall, is one of the largest known super-structures in the Universe...

 of galaxies , the previous record-holder , which was discovered by Margaret Geller

Margaret Geller

Margaret Joan Geller is an American astronomer and professor. She is a Senior Astronomer at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, and has written numerous articles and produced several award-winning scientific short films....

 and John Huchra

John Huchra

John Peter Huchra [pronounced HUCK-rah] was an American astronomer and professor. He was the Vice Provost for Research Policy at Harvard University and a Professor of Astronomy at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. He was also a former chair of the United States National Committee...

 of Harvard

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 in 1989.

See also

• Pisces-Cetus Supercluster Complex
  Pisces-Cetus Supercluster Complex
  The Pisces-Cetus Supercluster Complex is a complex of galaxy superclusters or galaxy filament that includes the Virgo Supercluster .-Discovery:...
  
  
• CfA2 Great Wall
• WMAP Cold Spot
  WMAP cold spot
  The CMB Cold Spot or WMAP Cold Spot is a region of the sky seen in microwaves which analysis found to be unusually large and cold relative to the expected properties of the cosmic microwave background radiation...
  
  
• Large-scale structure of the cosmos
• Steady State theory
  Steady State theory
  In cosmology, the Steady State theory is a model developed in 1948 by Fred Hoyle, Thomas Gold, Hermann Bondi and others as an alternative to the Big Bang theory...
  
  

External links

• The Sloan Great Wall: Largest Known Structure? on Astronomy Picture of the Day
  Astronomy Picture of the Day
  Astronomy Picture of the Day is a website provided by NASA and Michigan Technological University . According to the website, "Each day a different image or photograph of our universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer."The photograph is not necessarily...