This impression illustrates the mysterious alignments between the spin axes of quasars and the large-scale structures they inhabit; these alignments are over billions of light-years and are the largest known in the Universe. Image credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser
As we collectively absorb our Thanksgiving Day feasts and enjoy leftovers, here's something really
meaty for the
mind to digest:
“The first odd thing we noticed was that some of the quasars’ spin axes were aligned with each other – despite the fact that these quasars are separated by billions of light-years,” explained Dr Hutsemekers, who is the first author of the paper published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. ... “When astronomers look at the distribution of galaxies on scales of billions of light-years they find that the galaxies form a cosmic web of filaments and clumps. This intriguing arrangement of material is known as large-scale structure.” Dr Hutsemekers and his colleagues found that the spin axes of the quasars were linked not just to each other, but also tend to be parallel to their host large-scale structures.
Bear in mind, that image is not real, its pure artwork to illustrate the idea. But that idea begs for confirmation and explanation: One suspicion is it would mean there is something awfully important and fundamental going on with the universe at very large scales, something we don't understand, and that something would probably have to have started early on.
What's going on? The cosmos is a beautiful and mysterious place; there's a lot of it to be the thankful for! But just to put some reasonable limits on speculation, let's exercise some healthy skepticism, that these structures aren't Divine neurons, or anything else loosely analogous to biochemical systems, natural or supernatural ...