Giant Arc

Large-scale structure · Large-scale structure in the observable universe seen in 2021

About the Giant Arc

The light we see from it set out 7.03 billion years ago, when the universe was 6.76 billion years old (redshift 0.8).

The map lists it as a large-scale structure and shows it at the scale of the large-scale universe, drawn on the supergalactic plane.

Its distance or nature is debated, and the map shows one published value.

A 3.3-billion-light-year arc traced by gas absorption lines (Lopez et al. 2022). Its significance is debated.

Distance (comoving, today)	9.35 billion light-years (2,868 Mpc)
Redshift z	0.8
Light travel time	7.03 billion years
Universe's age when this light left	6.76 billion years
Distance method	redshift (Planck 2018 cosmology)
Supergalactic coordinates	SGL 82.4°, SGB +22.2°
On the map	The dashed circle marks its approximate size around its centre. Structures this large have no sharp edge, and the circle is not drawn to an exact shape.
Size	about 3.3 billion light-years across

Its place in the universe, from the inside out: Observable universe.

Zoom out to see it in context: Observable universe, a view about 100 billion light-years across.

The Giant Arc is a claimed large-scale structure discovered in June 2021 that spans 3.3 billion light years.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Giant Arc, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.