quasars
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Newly discovered quasar cluster may be the largest structure in the universe
The Large Quasar Group isn't just a psychedelic cover band, but also an enormous cluster of quasars forming what an international team of astronomers led by University of Central Lancashire are calling "the largest known structure in the universe." When the name isn't being reappropriated for British laser tag, its being used to describe the distant (and therefore aged) nuclei of galaxies which often group together in clusters; this cluster just happens to also be the largest such structure ever discovered, making it the de facto largest in the known universe. Resultantly, it also may challenge an Einstein-derived supposition that, "the universe, when viewed at a sufficiently large scale, looks the same no matter where you are observing it from." Of course, you'd have to be incredibly huge to determine conclusively whether or not that's the case, but that Einstein guy was pretty good at making educated guesses. [Photo credit: M. Kornmesser, ESO]
Giant body of water found in space, black hole claims it was just hydrating
Is that an intergalactic wave pool, or just a hungry, hungry quasar? Turns out it's a bit of both -- well, not the wave pool bit, but it's watery. A NASA-funded peep into the farthest reaches of the cosmos has uncovered this "feeding black hole" 12 billion light years away. APM 08279+5255, as this compacted mass of inescapable doom is affectionately known, has been gorging on water vapor and spewing out energy. How much H2O exactly? It's only the "largest and farthest reservoir of water ever detected in the universe," and it weighs in at 140 trillion times the amount in our oceans. Located via the cooperation of two teams of astronomers and their star-gazing equipment -- the Z-Space instrument at California Institute of Technology's Submillimeter Observatory in Hawaii and the Plateau de Bure Interferometer in the French Alps -- this aqueous discovery proves the wet stuff is more universally omnipresent than we once thought. Also, surfing aliens, right?
