This is not surprising except to maybe to the scientist..
"he universe, vast and intricate, holds mysteries that continuously challenge our understanding. A recent study led by the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy has uncovered findings that could potentially redefine the boundaries of our cosmic neighborhood.
By studying the movement of thousands of galaxies, researchers are suggesting that our corner of the universe might be far more expansive than previously thought.
An international team, known as the Cosmicflows group, has been analyzing the movements of over 56,000 galaxies. Their work points toward the possibility that the galactic basin containing our Milky Way, named Laniākea, may be part of an even more enormous cosmic structure.
Laniākea, a basin of attraction spanning 500 million light-years, was previously believed to encompass our galactic neighborhood. However, new evidence suggests that this basin may extend into something ten times larger, potentially centered around a region known as the Shapley concentration.
This area is known for its immense mass and gravitational pull, which affects surrounding galaxies. The recent findings, published in Nature Astronomy, indicate a 60% probability that our cosmic basin stretches into this much larger structure.
According to R. Brent Tully, a leading researcher from the University of Hawaiʻi, the universe can be visualized like a giant web, with galaxies spread along filaments and clustering at intersections where gravity pulls them together. "Just as water flows within watersheds, galaxies flow within cosmic basins of attraction," Tully explained.
This idea of larger basins suggests that our understanding of the universe's architecture might need significant revision. Such a shift in perspective would mean that the initial seeds of cosmic structures could be far larger than the current models suggest, reflecting a more expansive interconnected universe.
?This discovery presents a challenge: our cosmic surveys may not yet be large enough to map the full extent of these immense basins,? stated Ehsan Kourkchi, a co-author of the study.
Although modern astronomical tools provide impressive views of the cosmos, there is still a possibility that their reach may be insufficient for capturing the complete picture. Researchers, like Kourkchi, believe we are still seeing the universe with eyes that may not be big enough to grasp its entirety, pushing us to explore even further."
https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2024/09/27/cosmic-neighborhood-may-be-10x-larger/#:~:text=A%20team%20of%20international%20researchers%20guided%20by%20astronomers%20at%20University
