In my last post I discussed the Pillars of Creation – one of my favorite cosmic structures of all time.  In that post, I mentioned the incredible magnitude of the Pillars, being more than 5 light-years across in some locations.  While this is still an immense distance, it is nothing compared to many of the other cosmic structures in the universe.  What if there was something so large, that it defied the fundamental laws of physics?  That structure would be the Huge Large Quasar Group.

Artistic interpretation of heat and light emitting from friction of particles as they circle a black hole

The Huge Large Quasar Group (Huge LQG), or sometimes referred to as just the Large Quasar Group, is a massive cluster of 73 quasars.  Being discovered in 2013 by English astronomer Roger G. Clowes, the LQG is a very recent discovery in the scientific world.

What is a quasar, exactly?  A quasar is one of the brightest objects in the entire universe.  They are giant celestial bodies that usually contain super black holes at their center.  These black holes can be billions of times larger and more dense than our Sun!  Since light itself cannot escape from black holes, the light we perceive from quasars is actually heat and friction from many small particles rubbing together while being packed closer and closer into the black hole.

With that in mind, the Large Quasar Group is close group of 73 quasar systems.  The LQG spans a mind-boggling distance of 4 billion light-years across!  At one point in time, the LQG was the largest object discovered in the entire universe.  In fact,  the LQG is so large, it defies the laws of physics.

Something called the Cosmological Principle was a theory that tried to capture the magnitude of the universe and place it into a uniform rule.  The rule stated that if you zoomed out enough, the universe would look relatively uniform in size and in distribution of celestial objects.  After calculations, the theory formulated a limit of 1.2 billion lights years.  This mean that objects larger than 1.2 billion light years simply should not exist.  Yet the LQG exists at a staggering 4 billion light years in diameter!

While not much is currently known about the Huge Large Quasar Group, scientists think it provides us with opportunities to see into the birth of the universe.  I think it is fascinating how we keep finding new things in outer space.  To even imagine that there is something that large just floating out in the middle of nothingness continues to fill me wonder and curiosity.  Considering how our solar system is just a speck in a much larger Milky Way galaxy, which is just a speck in something even larger, puts so many things in perspective.

I have discussed a few celestial objects out in the great unknown so far: the Moon, black holes, anti-matter, and more.  But I have yet to discuss one of my personal favorite structures in outer space: The Pillars of Creation.  This discovery constantly makes me wonder about all the possibilities that could exist in our own solar system and beyond.

Close up of one of the Pillars

The Pillars of Creation are plumes of dust and gases organized into column-like shapes, or ‘pillars’.  These pillars are located in a nebula, namely the Eagle Nebula.  A nebula is a large collection of dust, gas, and small particles floating together in outer space like a large cloud.  The Eagle Nebula, discovered in 1745, is located about 7,000 light years away from Earth.  To put magnitude into perspective, the Eagle Nebula is massive.  The nebula itself spans the area of 3,850 square light years!  The Pillars of Creation, meanwhile, are a tiny subsection of the Eagle Nebula, only spanning a distance of 5 light years.  Regardless, these are massive distances.  Even the smallest tips of the fingers on one of the columns are numerous times larger than our solar system.

These Pillars were originally captured in 1995 by the Hubble Space telescope, and was recaptured again by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2014.  In order to capture the entire image, the Hubble needed to take 32 images, each of the different sections of the pillars.  Once these images were stitched together, we have the breath-taking image that we know today.

The stitched final image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope

I used to think the Pillars of Creation were called the Pillars of Creation because they were somehow a symbol of creation and birth.  After doing a little research, however, I realized this isn’t entirely true.  I discovered they are named the Pillars of Creation because the gases and particles composing them are in the stage of forming new stars!  Unfortunately, however, these newly forming stars may already be gone.  The Spitzer Space Telescope, launched in 2003, detected an immense heat wave coming from the Eagle Nebula.  Scientists theorize this heat wave could have been the result of a supernova from a nearby star that exploded nearly 6,000 years ago.  This explosion would surely destroy the delicate pillars of gas and particles.  The interesting part is that since the Pillars of Creation are 7,000 light years away, we won’t be able to observe this supernova explosion until another 1,000 years.

I still find it amazing that up in the black, night sky, there are these extremely colorful, vibrant phenomena existing everywhere.  This being said, it confuses me slightly why the night sky is black in the first place, and not a colorful rainbow like what is observed with The Pillars of Creation.  Perhaps an investigation for another time.

My friend Peri says they look like Abbott and Costello from the movie “Arrival”