14/01/2013 05:42 GMT | Updated 15/01/2013 06:47 GMT

Quasar Cluster: Largest Object In The Universe May Disprove Einstein's Cosmological Principle

Astronomers have discovered the largest object in the universe.

In fact it's so big, it might challenge a key principle of cosmology predicted by none other than Einstein himself.

The object is a group of quasars from that four billion light years across.

Together they form the largest structure in the universe, researchers at the University of Central Lancashire reported in the journal of the Royal Astronomical Society.

The quasar structure is more than 1,600 times as big as our galaxy, the Milky Way.

It's also roughly 24 sextillion miles, or the length of 3,240 sextillion London buses.

It has been known for more than 20 years that quasars - the nuclei of galaxies from the early history of the universe - tend to gather together in "clumps".

But this cluster - the Large Quasar Group - is far bigger than any previously discovered.

It is so massive that it might prove tricky for the Cosmological Principle, established by Einstein, that on very large scales the universe looks the same no matter where you observe it from.

The Royal Astronomical Society explains:



The LQG is about 1,200 Mpc across - or four times larger than it should be.

Dr Roger Clowes, who led the study, said:

