Pillars of Creation
Is there any other life in the universe besides life on Earth?
This question has been bothering people for many years, but there is still no clear answer, and a large number of scientific studies have shown that the possibility of other life in the universe is very high.
The reason for this conjecture is not only that astronomers have discovered Kepler-452b, Griser 581g, etc., and many other planets that may be suitable for human habitation, but also that this conjecture is related to "probability".
With the continuous exploration of the universe, human beings have gradually realized the vastness of the universe, and for the entire universe, not to mention the earth, even the "solar system" or even the "Milky Way" is just a drop in the ocean.
Therefore, some people believe that in the face of such a vast universe, even from the perspective of probability, there should be life elsewhere in the universe.
So how big is the universe? We can intuitively understand this question from the largest structure of the universe known to mankind, the "Great Wall of Wuxian-Beimian Block".
Wuxian - the Great Wall of the North Crown
The Great Wall of the Hercules-Corona can be seen as a version of the Pro Max Plus supercluster, with the longest section of the Great Wall spanning 10 billion light-years and the other end reaching 7.2 billion light-years.
You must know that the diameter of the solar system is 1.9 light years, and even the diameter of the Milky Way is only 180,000 light years.
In fact, it is indeed the largest single structure in the universe currently known to man.
After a series of studies, the "redshift method" measured the position of the Great Wall of Wuxian-Bei Mian at a distance of about 10 billion light years from the Earth.
Because its projection on the earth is in the position of the constellation Hercules and the Northern Corona, it is named - the Great Wall of the Northern Corona.
As an "enhanced" supercluster, we need to briefly understand the concept of supercluster before we understand it.
A supercluster is a structure in the universe that is larger than clusters of galaxies and groups of galaxies, and is a system of celestial bodies formed by the aggregation of many clusters of galaxies.
Above the Milky Way galaxy where humans live is the Local Group of Galaxies, above which is the Virgo Supercluster, and above the Virgo Supercluster there is an "enhanced" version of the Laniakea Supercluster.
Also an "enhanced" supercluster, the Laniakea Supercluster is only about 520 million light-years in diameter, although this is much larger than the Milky Way.
But in front of the Great Wall of Martial Immortals, which is as long as 10 billion light years, it is only a "small thing".
You must know that the Laniakea Supercluster, which is the "little witch", already contains about 100,000 galaxies (a member of a galaxy in the Milky Way).
The Great Wall of Wuxian-Corona Constellation, which is many times larger than the Laniakea supercluster, can imagine how many galaxies it contains, which is the main reason why some people believe that there is still unknown life in the universe.
Seeing this, some people may ask how astronomers discovered the Great Wall of Wuxian-Northern Corona since it is about 10 billion light-years away from the Earth, which is a distance of 10 billion years for even light?
How was the "Great Wall of Wuxian-Northern Crown" discovered?
To understand how the Great Wall of Martial Immortals-Northern Corona was discovered, you need to first understand a very rare astronomical event - gamma-ray bursts.
One of the most energetic astronomical events in the universe known to mankind, gamma-ray bursts are extremely bright gamma-ray bursts produced by catastrophic explosions of giant stars at the end of their lives.
This phenomenon is very rare, and in galaxies similar to the Milky Way, it has a chance of occurring once every millions of years.
Through this phenomenon, astronomers use gamma-ray space telescopes to observe the location of gamma-ray bursts in the universe, so as to determine the distribution of galaxies in the corresponding locations.
In the past, people have discovered many superclusters that are very far away from the Earth, such as the Virgo Supercluster and the Phoenix Supercluster.
In November 2013, astronomers used the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope to observe gamma-ray bursts in the universe and decided to map the locations of multiple gamma-ray bursts in the distant universe.
After the distribution map was drawn, astronomers found that gamma-ray bursts frequently occurred in the constellations Hercules and Corona, which is a very rare astronomical phenomenon.
From this, astronomers deduced that there must be a very large supercluster of galaxies in the depths of the universe in that direction, and only then can this phenomenon be explained.
Later, after systematic analysis, people finally determined the existence of the Great Wall of Wuxian-Beilian, and calculated that it is the largest known structure about 10 billion light-years from Earth.
It is said that the Great Wall of Wuxian-Northern Corona is the largest structure known to mankind, but how big is it?
In addition to those "cold" data, what else can help us intuitively feel its enormity?
How big is the "Martial Immortal-Northern Corona Great Wall"?
Generally speaking, "contrast" is the most intuitive way to reflect the difference between two objects.
Today, we will compare the most familiar "Milky Way" with the "Martial Immortals-Northern Corona Great Wall" to help you understand the gap between the two.
Human beings live on the earth, and the earth is a part of the solar system, and the solar system with a diameter of 1.9 light years is just a "hair" on one of the five "arms" of the Milky Way.
The Milky Way has five main spiral arms, of which the Solar System is located on the Orion Arm, which is 20,000 light-years long.
The solar system is about 264,000 light years away from the "galactic center" at the center of the Milky Way, and it takes about 220 million years to circle the galactic galaxy, which means that since the birth of the sun, it has only circled the galactic center 20~25 times.
And the diameter of the Milky Way (counting only the silver disk) is about 180,000 light-years, which is 90,000 times the size of the solar system.
From these data, you should be able to intuitively understand the size of the Milky Way, so how does it compare to the Great Wall of Wuxian-Beimian Constellation?
In fact, the universe is far bigger than we imagined, if all the desert sand on the earth is compared to the universe, then the incomparably huge galaxy in our eyes is just a grain of sand.
There is also a "local galaxy group" above the Milky Way, such as the Andromeda galaxy and the Leo A galaxy, which are all in the local galaxy group, and its diameter is as high as 10 million light years.
There is also the "Virgo Supercluster" above the Local Group, and the "enhanced" Laniakea Supercluster on top of the Virgo Supercluster.
As mentioned earlier, in front of the "Wuxian-Corona Great Wall" with a length of up to 10 billion light years, the "Laniakea Supercluster" with a diameter of 520 million light years is a small existence.
And at present, the diameter of the universe known to mankind is about 93 billion light years, and the Great Wall of Wuxian-Northern Corona has reached 10 billion light years, which means that its scale accounts for one-ninth of the diameter of the known universe!
After this series of comparisons, everyone has a more intuitive understanding of how big the "Martial Immortal-Northern Crown Great Wall" is.
At this time, some people may ask, what is the significance of human beings knowing how big the "Martial Immortals-Northern Corona Great Wall" is?
This brings us back to the question we mentioned at the beginning: Is there any other life in the universe besides terrestrial life?
The solar system is an "insignificant" existence in the universe, and with "only" eight planets, there is a habitable planet like the earth, which has given birth to countless lives, including intelligent creatures such as humans.
Then, after a series of explorations of the universe, we found that there is a Milky Way outside the solar system, many superclusters outside the Milky Way, and even an "enhanced" version of the Great Wall of Wuxian-Corona Constellation.
Then when we think about whether there are other life forms in the universe, we will have more considerations and bases.
As Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, once said, "If there were only humans in the universe, it would be a terrible thing." ”
What are your unique opinions on this?