• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
  • About
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
methodshop

methodshop

tech news, reviews & how to's

  • Trending
  • Latest
  • Tech
    • Apps
    • Internet
    • Software
    • Security
    • Games
    • Advertising
  • Life
    • Entertainment
    • TV & Film
    • Music
    • Health & Science
    • Family
    • Social Media
    • Food
    • Style
  • Learn
    • Tutorials
    • Reviews
    • News
      • Business
      • Crime
      • Politics
  • Fun
    • Featured
    • Humor
    • Holiday

Home : Learn : Top 5 Biggest Things In The Universe

Top Biggest Things In The Universe
Top Biggest Things In The Universe

Top 5 Biggest Things In The Universe

What's the largest object in the Universe? Is it a nebula, a supergiant star, or something else? Keep reading to learn more about the top 5 biggest things in the Universe.

March 6, 2022 by jayfrankwilson
FacebookTweetPinLinkedIn
Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
  • Have You Heard Of These Giant Superclusters Before?
  • Other Big Things In The Universe (Besides Galactic Superclusters)
  • Will Humanity Ever Be Able To Visit The Biggest Things In The Universe?

From The Great Barrier Reef (Earth’s largest structure) to the blue whale (our largest mammal), we are surrounded by giant things right here on Earth. But what about space? Our solar system, the Milky Way Galaxy and beyond? Are there supermassive terrestrial planets, massive black holes, supergiant massive stars or other large celestial objects out there?

Here’s a list of the biggest things in the Universe. Spoiler alert, they are all massive galactic superclusters.

If someone were to ask you “What’s the largest object in the Universe?”, could you give them a *real* answer? … #spacetravel #space #spaceforce #astronaut #astronomy #astrophotography #cosmos #galaxy #universe #stars #nasa
Click To Tweet

Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall

Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall - The Biggest Things In The Universe
Pablo Carlos Budassi

What is the single biggest thing in the universe? It is by far, the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall. Officially known as a galactic filament, this group of multiple gravitationally linked galaxy superclusters, was first discovered in November 2013. Astronomers estimate that the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall is about 10 billion light-years away from Earth and 10 billion light-years across. It’s so big that astronomers were only able to estimate the celestial object’s massive size by mapping gamma-ray bursts.

NERD NOTE: A light-year is a measure of distance, not time. One light year is the total distance that a beam of light, moving in a straight line, travels in one year. To obtain an idea of the size of a light-year, take the circumference of the earth (24,900 miles), lay it out in a straight line, multiply the length of the line by 7.5 (the corresponding distance is one light-second), then place 31.6 million similar lines end to end. The resulting distance is almost 6 trillion miles (6,000,000,000,000).

The Giant GRB Ring

Artist'S Conception Of The Expected Superstructure Underlying The Giant Grb Ring - Biggest Things In The Universe
Pablo Carlos Budassi

Consisting of 9 gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) the Giant GRB Ring was first discovered in 2015 by a research team using the telescopes aboard the Swift Spacecraft observatory. Located about 9.1 billion light years from Earth, the giant celestial object is about 5.6 billion light years wide.

The Huge-LQG

Map Of The Huge-Lqg - Biggest Things In The Universe
ESA/Hubble

Although it’s over 4 billion years wide, the Huge-LGQ (Huge Large Quasar Group) is currently only the third-largest thing in the observable Universe. First discovered in 2012, the Huge-LQG is a pseudo-structure consisting of 73 distant quasars.

The Giant Arc

The Giant Arc - Biggest Things In The Universe
Alexia Lopez/UCLan

Located 9.2 billion light years away from Earth, The Giant Arc is 3.3 billion light years wide and was just recently discovered in 2021. It consists of galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and plenty of gas and cosmic dust. We can’t see The Giant Arc with the naked eye, but if we could, it would be the width of approximately 20 full moons.

U1.11 LQG

Artist'S Conception Of U1.11 Lqg Based On Axonometric Views Of The Superstructure - Biggest Things In The Universe
Pablo Carlos Budassi

Last, but not least, the awkwardly named U1.11 is a large quasar group with an estimated diameter of 2.2 billion light-years. Located about 8.8 million light-years away from Earth, it was discovered in 2011 during the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. U1.11 contains 38 quasars and galactic nuclei with supermassive black holes.

Have You Heard Of These Giant Superclusters Before?

Unless you are actively involved in the space industry or astronomy, the objects on this list probably won’t be all that familiar to you. Thanks to advancements in space astronomy equipment, all the biggest things in the Universe on this list were all discovered after the year 2010. 

What is the largest object in the Universe? Do you know? … #spacetravel #space #astronaut #astronomy #astrophotography #cosmos #galaxy #universe #nasa “outerspace #spacelife
Click To Tweet

Other Big Things In The Universe (Besides Galactic Superclusters)

Beyond these massive galactic superclusters, there are other big things and large objects in the observable universe. What are the biggest stars, black holes and other giant objects out there?

  • Largest Star: UY Scuti is a hypergiant star with an incredibly large radius that’s estimated to be 1,700 times larger than the sun. It is by far the biggest star in the universe and guaranteed to give you a major skin-melting sunburn if you go anywhere near it.
  • Largest Black Hole: TON 618 is believed to be the largest black hole in the universe. Its estimated mass is estimated to be the equivalent of 66 billion of our suns.
  • Largest Exoplanet: First discovered in 2005, GQ Lupi B is a brown dwarf star extrasolar planet outside our solar system. Even though it’s a star (aka sun), it is orbiting another star, GQ Lupi. Imagine that, a star orbiting another star. What if a smaller sun was also orbiting our Sun along with the rest of the planets in our solar system? Would it ever fully get dark at night?
  • Largest Galaxy: IC 1101 is a supergiant elliptical galaxy that contains an estimated 100 trillion stars. At the center of IC 1101 is an ultramassive black hole with an estimated mass range of 40–100 billion times greater than our Sun.
  • Largest Nebula: Spanning more than 1,800 light-years wide in its longest part, The Tarantula Nebula is the largest known nebula in our universe. 
  • Largest Volcano: There are likely much bigger volcanos in the universe, but the biggest one that we know about right now is Olympus Mons on Mars. It is roughly 15 miles high and three times taller than Earth’s Mount Everest. Just imagine trying to hike that!
  • Largest Magellanic Cloud: Located 170,000 light-years away from Earth, the largest magellanic cloud is simply called the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). This small satellite galaxy is currently about 160,000 light-years away from Earth, but not for long. The LMC and The Milky Way are on a collision course. In about 2.4 billion years, they will merge. Yikes!

Will Humanity Ever Be Able To Visit The Biggest Things In The Universe?

So what did we learn here? As much as we might want the biggest things in the Universe to be giant space creatures or super planets, they are all massive galaxy clusters. But hey, that’s still really cool.

Maybe someday we will have the ability to easily explore the universe, like in Star Trek. Sadly, humanity won’t be visiting any of the biggest things in the Universe anytime soon. The Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall is 10 billion light years, or about 60,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 sextillion miles away.

To help put a distance that great in perspective, let’s compare it to one of the longest flights on Earth. The 18-hour-long New York City to Singapore flight travels a total distance of 9,450-miles. Assuming that you took this flight every day of your life, and that you lived to be 80 years old, that’s still only a total of 275,940,000 million lifetime miles traveled.

Based on that assumption, it would take 217,438,573,602,957 trillion lifetimes to travel 10 billion light years to reach the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall. Once there, you might as well travel the entire supercluster from end to end. That’s another 217 trillion lifetimes but just think about all the clusters of galaxies along the way. With the excursion now complete, let’s go home. Unfortunately, it will take another 217 trillion lifetimes to return to Earth. 

But if you’re looking for a shorter trip, our spiral galaxy, the Milky Way, is only about 100,000 light-years, or 600 quadrillion miles wide.

That’s still one massive road trip!

What is the biggest thing in #space? Do you know what the biggest things in the Universe are? … #spacetravel #spaceforce #astronaut #astronomy #astrophotography #galaxy #stars #nasa
Click To Tweet

NERD NOTE: The prevailing theory behind the creation of the observable universe is the Big Bang Theory. This cosmological model explains our universe from its initial creation through its evolution over billions of years.


FacebookTweetPinLinkedIn
Category: Learn Tag: Galaxy, Space
Previous Post:Anti-Vaxxers Who Died From COVID14 Famous Anti-Vaxxers Who Died Of COVID-19
Next Post:The 11 Best Quotes From The GraduateThe Best Quotes From The Graduate

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Sidebar

Popular Posts

  • Job Automation Using ChatGPT Could Make These Jobs Obsolete - Is Your Job On This List?Job Automation Using ChatGPT Could Make These Jobs Obsolete – Is Your Job On…
  • The Surprising Story Behind The NBC ChimesThe Surprising Story Behind The NBC Chimes
  • 5 Funny Resurrection Jokes To Share On Easter Sunday5 Funny Resurrection Jokes To Share On Easter Sunday
  • 7 Pictures Of Naked People Captured By Google's Cameras7 Pictures Of Naked People Captured By Google’s Cameras
  • Top 200 Nielsen DMA Rankings (2023) – Full ListTop 200 Nielsen DMA Rankings (2023) – Full List
  • 20 Famous People Who Are Members Of The Sleepless Elite20 Famous People Who Are Members Of The Sleepless Elite
  • How To Change The Default LG TV Home Screen To Live TVHow To Change The Default LG TV Home Screen To Live TV
  • The Best Caddyshack Quotes: 30 Famous Caddyshack Quotes That'll Make You LaughThe Best Caddyshack Quotes: 30 Famous Caddyshack Quotes That’ll Make You Laugh
  • Controversial Nimbus 2000 Vibrating Harry Potter Broomstick Has Parents In An UproarControversial Nimbus 2000 Vibrating Harry Potter Broomstick Has Parents In An Uproar
  • Is Your Hatch Restore Already Registered? Here's How To Fix It And Unregister A Hatch Restore.Is Your Hatch Restore Already Registered? Here’s How To Fix It And…

Categories

Everything Everywhere All At Once Quotes

The 40 Best Everything Everywhere All At Once Quotes

Ready to be inspired and challenged? Check out these amazing Everything Everywhere All At Once quotes that will help you see the world in a whole new light!

Easter Bunny Cloudy Sunset

Where Did The Easter Bunny Come From And Why Is It Connected To The Resurrection Of Jesus Christ?

Where did the Easter Bunny come from? Here’s the strange story on why the Easter Bunny was hatched by America’s German immigrants in the 1700s and how this folkloric figure became the international symbol of Easter.

Recent Posts

  • Where Did The Easter Bunny Come From And Why Is It Connected To The Resurrection Of Jesus Christ?
  • The 18 Best Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid Quotes
  • The 40 Best Everything Everywhere All At Once Quotes
  • How To Manually Identify AI-Generated Text Without Using A ChatGPT Detector
  • 10 Clever Tech Gifts That People Actually Want

Jump to comments

About

MethodShop’s mission is to entertain, inform, and sometimes gross you out. MethodShop has affiliate relationships, so we may get a small share of the revenue from your purchases. Items are sold by the retailer, not by us. All prices are subject to change.

Latest

Easter Bunny Cloudy Sunset

Where Did The Easter Bunny Come From And Why Is It Connected To The Resurrection Of Jesus Christ?

Best Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid Quotes

The 18 Best Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid Quotes

Follow

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Pinterest
MethodShop Animated Zoom Icon
  • About
  • Submit
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Store

Copyright © 2023 MethodShop · All Rights Reserved