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There is a famous saying in the field of astronomy: "The universe is a huge collector of celestial bodies" because there are various forms of celestial bodies in the universe.
And among these celestial bodies, the largest is undoubtedly the star, but even much larger than the star exists, so what exactly is the largest celestial body in the universe?
Today we will take a look at what is the largest celestial body in the universe and how big is this largest celestial body?
1. Shield Seat UY.
The largest celestial object discovered by astronomers is UY Shield, also known as UY Shield.
It is a supergiant star, 5 billion times larger than the Sun, which means that the Sun is 1708 times smaller than it, and not even a tenth of the size of UY in the constellation Shield.
We know that the size of the sun is very large, but the Shield constellation UY in front of us can hold 1.8 billion suns, and even so, it is still not worth mentioning in the universe.
UY is located about 9,500 light-years from Earth.
Its volume greatly exceeds that of an ordinary giant celestial body, and if it were used as a substitute for the Sun, its surface would be more than 2,000 degrees cooler than the Sun's surface, but a larger volume would also mean that it would have a greater gravitational pull, so its mass would be much greater than that of the Sun.
If you put UY in the position of the Sun, its gravitational pull will be 1708 times that of the Sun, and even stronger than Jupiter's gravitational pull, which means that its spectral intensity will be 1708 times that of the Sun, and the thermal radiation will bake us to ashes.
In addition, UY is also a pulsar, so it spins very fast, and despite its size, it has a rotation period of less than an hour.
The rotation period of a pulsar is not necessarily about an hour, and some pulsars are even able to rotate once a minute, and in the process, they also release extremely rich radiation.
Under the observation of scientists, they are like a lighthouse, constantly releasing light.
But the fact that the rotation period of the UY is so short also means that it will emit very strong radiation.
Therefore, in the universe, it is also known as a "very short-period pulsar".
Over time, the UY will continue to rotate, and eventually the rotation period will become longer and longer, and when it reaches the rotation period of one day and one night, it will no longer emit strong light and will no longer be a pulsar.
二、TON618。
The Shield constellation UY is already huge, but there is a celestial body in the universe that is thousands of times larger than it - TON618.
It is a quasar with a mass of 66 billion suns, 15,300 times larger than UY in the constellation Shield.
TON618 is not a star, but a black hole, which was discovered by astronomers as early as 1976, so scientists have a lot of data on it.
But because it is in a very distant position, scientists have always had some difficulty observing it.
The mass of this black hole is enormous, making it the largest black hole previously known to scientists.
So how exactly do black holes form?
Similarly, TON618 was formed by the collapse of stars, but the way black holes formed is very different.
There are three possible pathways for supermassive black holes to form, the first being the slow accretion of stars, which is the most common pathway.
In the final stage of the star, it constantly releases strong stellar winds that interact with the material around the star and thus be blown away and eventually fall on other stars, turning another star into a larger star.
The second way is nebula atrophy, a new proposed cause that has not yet been confirmed, but which cannot be ignored.
If two supermassive black holes collide together, a supermassive black hole can also be formed, but the probability of two supermassive black holes colliding is very small, so this approach is relatively rare.
The third pathway, which was formed at the moment of the Big Bang, is also newly proposed and has not yet been proven.
The most common of these three pathways is the slow accretion of stars, but it is impossible to form such a huge black hole by this one alone, so it is likely that it was formed by combining multiple pathways.
TON618 is 140 trillion times brighter than the Sun, but there are not many galaxies around it, which means that it has attracted all the galaxies around it, so there are almost no galaxies around it.
Even so, the black hole's mass is increasing, so it is accretion of other galaxies.
3. Hercules - Northern Lights Great Wall.
In the universe, we are able to discover huge structures in addition to huge celestial bodies.
In the universe, there is a structure called "Hercules-Northern Lights Great Wall", which is the largest structure in the universe.
Astronomers observed it using telescopes and found that the structure resembled a huge Great Wall, hence the name "Hercules-Northern Lights Great Wall".
The shape of the Great Wall is very irregular, it is even 10 billion light-years long and 7.2 billion light-years wide, while the thickness of the Great Wall is 1 billion light-years.
Compared to these astronomical phenomena, human activity in the universe is very small.
But this does not prevent interest in giant objects in the universe, so astronomers have been very productive in their research on these giant objects.
For supermassive black holes, it is not only found in the center of galaxies, it has the potential to form in other regions of the universe.
Therefore, scientists have studied the mechanism of its formation.
The study of supermassive black holes can not only reveal the laws of matter motion and gravity in the universe, but also help to study the formation and evolution mechanism of black holes.
Astronomers can also use the formation mechanism of supermassive black holes to explore the evolution of the universe, which also provides important clues for studying the structure and evolution of the universe.
epilogue
Astronomers' study of super-large objects helps to understand the formation and evolution of the universe, as well as to explore the strange phenomena and laws in the universe.
The existence of huge celestial bodies in the universe reminds human beings of their own insignificance, and also inspires human beings to explore the wider cosmic world and unknown territories.
People's understanding of the universe is also expanding, but people also need to continue to work hard to explore the secrets of the universe more deeply for the unknown phenomena in the universe.
Of course, there are also some scientists who believe that human beings may never be able to explore the mysteries of the universe because its boundaries are beyond the scope of human understanding.
Even artificial intelligence cannot surpass human cognition, so if humans want to explore deeper and wider universes, they need to never stop exploring.