An impossibly huge ring of galaxies might lead us to new physics. Here's how

A view of the sky with one dotted blue circle toward the top center and a dotted red art to the middle left.

An intergalactic ring-shaped superstructure of galaxies and galaxy clusters —  so large it defies explanation — has been discovered. This is a structure that lives so deep in the universe that we see it as it was some 9.2 billion years ago.

The huge superstructure, nicknamed the "Big Ring," spans 1.3 billion light-years in diameter and has a circumference of about 4 billion light-years. It is also close to another immense superstructure, the "Giant Arc in the Sky," which is actually even larger with a diameter of 3.3 billion light-years. The Giant Arc sits at a similar distance to us in the constellation of Boötes, the Herdsman. Alas, these superstructures are far too faint to be seen with a backyard telescope.