Astronomers have discovered the largest known structure in the universe, a clump of active galactic cores that stretches 4 billion light-years from end to end.
The structure is a large quasar group (LQG), a collection of extremely luminous galactic nuclei powered by supermassive central black holes. This particular group is so large that it challenges modern cosmological theory, researchers said.
The Galactic Center is the rotational center of the Milky Way galaxy. It is located at a distance of 8.33±0.35 kpc (~27,000±1,000 ly) from the Earth in the direction of the constellations Sagittarius, Ophiuchus, and Scorpius where the Milky Way appears brightest. There is strong evidence that supports the existence of a supermassive black hole at the Galactic Center of the Milky Way.
Essentially the article says they have determined the location of a lot of Galactic Cores that look like they are close.
Reading stuff like this makes me feel quite insignificant. However this is quite fascinating.
As per Neil deGrasse Tyson:
Quote:
There are people who say. "This makes me feel small, because I need to see the immensity of the cosmos." But I say "No, you are not thinking about it the right way." By the way, when we opened our facility, I got a letter from a psychologist from the University of Pennsylvania. He had seen our show which was a zoom out from Earth and it shrinks to nothingness as you go to the edge of the universe. He wrote me a letter that said, "I specialize in the psychological effects of things that make people feel insignificant." I thought, bummer of a job. Is that what you do for a living? He said, "Needless to say, your show was the greatest eliciter of smallness that I have ever seen. Will you allow me to conduct a survey on the people who visit your show?"
I thought to myself - there is something wrong here. Why does he feel small? When I look up in the universe, I feel large. Then I realized his ego was too large to begin with. He came to the problem thinking too highly of who and what he was to begin with. Everything that happened in the show destabilized his self image. Where as I know that the molecules in my body are traceable to phenomena in the cosmos - and it is our 15 lbs of gray matter and figured this out. There is a kinship with the cosmos... Not only are we in the universe, the universie is in us.
