Giant Arc

The Giant Arc is a large-scale structure discovered in June 2021 that spans 3.3 billion light years. The structure of galaxies exceeds the 1.2 billion light year threshold, challenging the cosmological principle that at large enough scales the universe is considered to be the same in every place (homogeneous) and in every direction (isotropic). The Giant Arc consists of galaxies, galactic clusters, as well as gas and dust. It is located 9.2 billion light-years away and stretches across roughly a 15th of the radius of the observable universe. It was discovered using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey by the team of Alexia M. Lopez, a doctoral candidate in cosmology at the University of Central Lancashire.

It and the Big Ring may form part of a connected cosmological system.

If the Giant Arc were visible in the night sky it would form an arc occupying as much space as 20 full moons, or 10 degrees on the sky.