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South Pole Wall

space Maturity 11-13 Next article →

The South Pole Wall is a huge cosmic structure.

SDvision CF3 Recons RG 128v 600Mpc 3isos SouthPoleWall allskymap dust zoom-v001
SDvision CF3 Recons RG 128v 600Mpc 3isos SouthPoleWall allskymap dust zoom-v001

It is a galaxy filament. This means it is a long chain of galaxies. This wall is one of the biggest things in our local area. It is a very important part of the universe. Scientists study it to learn about space. This structure is a massive part of the cosmic map.

Finding this wall was a hard job for scientists.

SDvision CF3 Recons RG 128v 600Mpc 3isos SouthPoleWall allskymap dust zoom-v001
SDvision CF3 Recons RG 128v 600Mpc 3isos SouthPoleWall allskymap dust zoom-v001

It sits behind a place called the Zone of Avoidance. This area has patches of galactic dust and clouds. These clouds block our view of the stars. The team found the wall using gravitational influence. This is the pull that galaxies have on each other. They saw this pull in the speeds of galaxies.

An international team found the wall in July 2020.

SDvision CF3 Recons RG 128v 600Mpc 3isos SouthPoleWall allskymap dust zoom-v001
SDvision CF3 Recons RG 128v 600Mpc 3isos SouthPoleWall allskymap dust zoom-v001

Daniel Pomarède from Paris-Saclay University led the work. He worked with R. Brent Tully from the University of Hawaiʻi. They worked with other colleagues to make the discovery. This news was shared with the world in 2020. They are like early explorers of the deep cosmos. They are mapping new parts of the sky.

This wall is incredibly large in size.

SDvision CF3 Recons RG 128v 600Mpc 3isos SouthPoleWall allskymap dust zoom-v001
SDvision CF3 Recons RG 128v 600Mpc 3isos SouthPoleWall allskymap dust zoom-v001

It is at least 1.37 billion light-years long. It also spans 500 million light-years in width. The nearest part is about half a billion light-years away. The wall curves from the Perseus constellation. It reaches all the way to Telescopium in the south. It even passes near the south celestial pole.

Think of the wall like a giant cosmic road.

SDvision CF3 Recons RG 128v 600Mpc 3isos SouthPoleWall allskymap dust zoom-v001
SDvision CF3 Recons RG 128v 600Mpc 3isos SouthPoleWall allskymap dust zoom-v001

It is similar to the Sloan Great Wall. However, the South Pole Wall is at half the distance. This huge structure affects how the universe expands nearby. It is a dense feature in five known places. We do not know its full size yet. We need even bigger maps to be sure.

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