Based on the position of supermassive black holes, scientists managed to create the first map of the universe, revealing its scale structure. The map gets to the distance when the space was less than 3 billion years old. It helps to understand the dark energy much better ”- the process responsible for the acceleration of the Universe. The map was created by researchers from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.
For this it was necessary to measure the location of the quasars. These are incredibly bright objects spinning around supermassive black holes. This light comes to us from the time when the Universe reached 3-7 billion years (Earth has not been planned yet).
The map confirms the standard cosmological model that has been created over the past two decades based on the general theory of relativity. But there is a problem: we can measure some effects, but we can not understand the reason for their appearance.
One of those moments is dark energy. And it dominates the ordinary matter and causes the universe to expand.
The largest three-dimensional map of the universe. The Earth is located on the left, and the distances to galaxies and quasars are indicated by the time of the retrospective analysis of objects. The positions of the quasars are marked with red dots, and distant galaxies with yellow. The first edge of the map is the limit of the observable Universe. It is visible due to relic radiation. The main part of the void between the quasars and the edge is created in the “dark ages” - the time when large stars, galaxies and quasars have not yet appeared Cosmology professor Will Percival notes that even if we studied the principles of gravity, dark energy remains a mystery. To create the map, we needed observations of 147,000 quasars. Their location allowed us to present a 3D model. But in order to use it and understand the universal history, it is necessary to measure the imprint of sound waves - baryon acoustic oscillations. They traveled through space at a time when the universe was a red-hot place. But 380000 years have passed since the advent of everything, and the situation has changed. These waves seem to be frozen and remain in a static state.
You can apply the map and the observed wave size as a “ruler” to measure the distance in the Universe. This will help to look into the times when our world was only 3-7 billion years old. Researchers continue to monitor the quasars, expanding the map. Soon it will be possible to use the tools of the new generation, which will increase the accuracy of the card 10 times.
