Saraswati Supercluster: Difference between revisions

| constellation = [[Pisces (constellation)|Pisces]]

| ra = {{RA|23|37|40}}{{cn|date=October 2024}}

| dec = {{DEC|00|16|17}}{{cn|date=October 2024}}

| member_no = 43 clusters<ref name=karouzos/>

| major_axis_mpc = {{convert|200|Mpc|Mly|0|abbr=on|lk=on}}<ref name=karouzos/>

| redshift = 0.28<ref name=karouzos/>

| distance = {{convert|1.2|Gpc|Gly|0|abbr=on|lk=on}}<ref name=karouzos/>

| mass = {{val|2.0×10<sup>0|e=16}}<ref name=karouzos/sup>

The '''Saraswati Supercluster''' is a massive [[galaxy supercluster]] about 1.2 [[gigaparsec]]s (4 billion [[light year]]s) away within the [[Stripe 82]] region of [[Sloan Digital Sky Survey|SDSS]], in the direction of the [[constellation]] [[Pisces (constellation)|Pisces]].<ref name="Bagchi2017">{{cite journal |last1=Bagchi |first1=Joydeep |last2=Sankhyayan |first2=Shishir |last3=Sarkar |first3=Prakash |last4=Raychaudhury |first4=Somak |author-link4=Somak Raychaudhury |last5=Jacob |first5=Joe |last6=Dabhade |first6=Pratik |date= |year=2017 |title=Saraswati: An Extremely Massive ~ 200 Megaparsec Scale Supercluster |journal=The Astrophysical Journal |volume=844 |issue=1 |pages=25 |arxiv=1707.03082 |bibcode=2017ApJ...844...25B |doi=10.3847/1538-4357/aa7949 |s2cid=119360128 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Desikan |first=Shubashree |date=14 July 2017 |title=Indian astronomers discover supercluster of galaxies, name it ‘Saraswati’'Saraswati' |language=en-IN |work=The Hindu |url=https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/indian-astronomers-discover-supercluster-of-galaxies-name-it-saraswati/article19276497.ece |access-date=16 December 2023 |issn=0971-751X}}</ref> It is one of the [[List of largest cosmic structures|largest structures]] found in the [[Observable universe|universe]], with a major axis in diameter of about 200 Mpc (652 million light years). It consists of at least 43 [[galaxy cluster]]s, and has the mass of {{Solar mass|link=y|2 × 10¹⁶}}, forming a [[galaxy filament]].'''<ref name=karouzos>{{cite journal |last1=Karouzos |first1=Marios |date=September 2017 |title=Saraswati the wide-reaching |journal=Nature Astronomy |volume=1 |issue=9 |pages=564 |bibcode=2017NatAs...1..564K |doi=10.1038/s41550-017-0227-9 |s2cid=126174348}}</ref>'''

The Saraswati supercluster was discovered by a team of astrophysicists from the [[Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics]] and [[Indian Institute of Science Education and Research]] led by Joydeep Bagchi and colleagues in [[Pune]], [[India]] in 2017.<ref>{{Cite web |last=(IUCAA) |first=Inter University Centre for Astronomy & Astrophysics |date=14 July 2017 |title=Researchers describe one of the most massive large-scale structures in the universe |url=https://phys.org/news/2017-07-massive-large-scale-universe.html |access-date=16 December 2023 |website=phys.org |language=en}}</ref>

Analyzing the data of Stripe 82 of the comprehensive [[Sloan Digital Sky Survey]], particularly the sets of LOWZ data from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey, part of the DR12 catalogue of the SDSS, the team discovered an overdensity of the sampled 625 galaxies from LOWZ and 3,016 from the LEGACY-BOSS-SOUTHERN, a survey of the southern sky that is also a part of SDSS DR12.<ref name="IUCAA">{{cite web |title="Saraswati"- one of the most massive large-scale structures in the Universe discovered |url=http://www.iucaa.in/Saraswati-General.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170729142754/http://www.iucaa.in/Saraswati-General.html |archive-date=29 July 2017 |access-date=14 July 2017 |website=IUCAA}}</ref>'''<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bagchi |first=Joydeep |date=28 May 2019 |title=Saraswati Supercluster |url=https://web.iucaa.in/~joydeep/saraswati.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231211233006/https://web.iucaa.in/~joydeep/saraswati.html |archive-date=11 December 2023 |access-date=16 December 2023 |website=IUCAA}}</ref>'''

The Saraswati Supercluster is one of the [[List of largest cosmic structures|largest and most massive superclusters known]], comparable to the massive [[Shapley Concentration]] in the nearby universe. The supercluster consists of 43 massive galaxy clusters, the most massive being Abell 2631 and ZwCL 2341.1+0000 respectively.<ref name=karouzos/> It is surrounded by a network of galaxy filaments, clusters, and [[Void (astronomy)|voids]].