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This article is taken from a talk given by David and Linda Harris.
Structures have been found lately that are larger than anything ever
imagined by scientists.  Many astronomers are finding it difficult to
cope with such findings.

                 THE LARGEST STRUCTURES IN THE UNIVERSE
                       by David and Linda Harris

Some very large structures were found in 1989, and in 1990, but large
does not convey the actual size of these objects.  First we should look
at what large really means.  We talk about the size of things in the
universe, but do we really know how big they are?  I don't mean the
numbers but can we relate these large objects to things that we know.
Let us look at some larger and larger things in this universe to get
some idea of how big we are talking about.

                    'Home' - The Inner Solar System

We will start with the inner Solar System.  (Figure 1)  This is
something that we have some idea about.  It consists of the four planets
Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.  The diameter of the Earth's orbit is
300,000,000 km.  Just to put this into perspective, most new cars will
travel about 150,000 km before they wear out.  The distance we are
talking about is 2,000 times larger.  Kilometers are too small for these
measurements so we often call the diameter of the Earth's orbit 2
Astronomical Units.  One Astronomical Unit or A.U. is the average
distance between the Earth and the Sun.

                  'Next Door' - The Outer Solar System

Now we move to the outer Solar System.  (Figure 2) This consists of
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Pluto and Neptune.  The average distance from
Pluto to the Sun is 39 Astronomical Units.  Pluto's orbit overlaps with
the orbit of Neptune.  Neptune is the furthest planet from the Sun at
the moment.  The diameter of the known Solar System
is about 80 Astronomical Units.

                     The Imaginary Oort Cloud

Some scientists believe there is a cloud of comets orbiting the Solar
System. (Figure 3) They call it the 'Oort Cloud' after the Dutch
astronomer Jan Oort who thought it up.  No-one has seen  them, and
there is no evidence for them, but if they did exist, this is where they
would be.  They are about 100,000 Astronomical Units from the Solar
System, just over one light year away.  A light year is the distance
that light will travel in one year.  The nearest star, Proxima Centurai
(part of the Alpha Centurai group) is just over four light years away.
The diameter of the orbit of this comet cloud would be about 200,000
Astronomical Units, or 2.5 light years.

                 'The Neighbourhood' - Local Stars

Let us look at the local stars. (Figure 4) Within about 10 light years
there are about 30 stars.  You can see Alpha Centauri which is really
three stars.  Also Barnard's Star, Procyon, Tau Ceti, Epsilon Eradni
and others.  Here we have called the Sun 'Sol' since all stars are suns.
Sol comes from the word 'Solar' in  Solar System.  This diagram is
about 20 lights years across, or 1.25 million Astronomical Units.  Note
that we are now finding that even Astronomical Units are becoming too
small.  The next step larger is our galaxy.  Do you know its name?

                   'The Local Town' - Our Galaxy

Our galaxy is called the Milky Way.  (Figure 5) Our star - Sol, and the
Solar System are in the Orion Arm.  On each side of the Orion Arm are
the Perseus Arm and the Sagittarius Arm.   You can see that further
along the Sagittarius Arm joins with the Carina Arm to become the
Sagittarius-Carina Arm.  The distance across the Milky Way is about
100,000 light years.


                 Nearby 'Towns' - The Local Group

The Milky Way belongs to a local group of galaxies (Figure 6) that are
near each other, if you can say that a million light years is near.
Here you see a dozen or so galaxies, including the Milky Way and
Andromeda, the two largest galaxies in this group.  The Milky Way is the
second largest.  LMC means Large Magellic Cloud, and SMC means Small
Magellic Cloud.  Some galaxies are spirals, some elliptical, and others
irregular.  The distance across the local group is about 4 million light
years, and that is the LOCAL group.  Larger than the local group is the
Super Cluster of galaxies.  Do you know which Super Cluster the Milky
Way belongs to?

                 Our 'Country' - The Super Cluster

Well the answer is the Virgo Super Cluster, which you see in figure 7.
The Milky Way is on the edge of the Virgo Super Cluster.  Our Super
Cluster is smaller than most, it is ONLY 60 million light years across.
You will see a part marked the avoidance zone.  This area cannot be
seen, since the Milky Way hides that part of our Super Cluster.  Most of
the galaxies of the Virgo Super Cluster are about 30 million light years
from us.


       Other 'Countries' - Our Super Cluster Is Not The Largest!

In 1989 Margaret J.Geller and John P.Huchra of the Harvard-Smithsonian
Center for Astro-physics discovered something much larger than the Virgo
Super Cluster.  It was larger than any other Super Cluster.  It was
North of the Milky Way.  It is 8 times wider than the VirgoSuper
Cluster.  Remember the Virgo Super Cluster is 60 million light years.
They called it the 'Great Wall', and it's 500 million light years
across. (Figure 8)

Each of the thousands of points represent a galaxy NOT A STAR!  They are
in a computer, and by turning up to eight different knobs the wall can
be viewed from any angle.

                           Is It A Joke?

From one angle Margaret Geller exclaimed, "Most noticeable of all was
the shape in the centre of the plot, which many people mistook for a
joke.  The shape represented a stick figure,its torso representing a
prominent group of galaxies called the Coma cluster."  (Figure 9) Can
you see the stick figure in this picture?

                How Big Is The Great Wall - Really?

Figure 10 shows a diagrammatic view of the Great Galactic Wall.  You can
see that it is 500 million light years wide, 300 million light years
high, and 15 million light years thick.  You can also see to scale the
local group, and the Milky Way (which is just a dot).  Actually the
Milky way is exaggerated in size or you would not be able to see it.

According to Science on November 17th the wall is so large, and so
massive, that it could not have been built by gravitational attraction
during the 15 billion year age of the  universe.  Since then some
scientists have said it could possibly have been made in that time if
there were 100 times as much mass in the wall. Stephen Hawking
commented: "Either we have failed to see 99% of the universe, or we are
wrong about how the universe began."  We are asked to put our faith in
something we can't see, and for which there is no evidence.

There is another possibility of course, that it was created the way we
see it now.  Our G-d is so powerful that He could easily make something
of that size.  We also can't see G-d, but we can get to know Him, and
the evidence for His existence is all around us.  Here we have a choice.
We can put our faith in matter that we can't see and have no evidence
for, or in G-d whom we can't see but who will speak with us, and we can
speak with Him.  We can believe in non-intelligent matter, or in a
super-intelligent G-d.  It is a matter of faith which ever way you look
at it!

                           Where Are We?

Just to give you some idea of how the Great Galactic Wall relates to
us, Figure 11 shows it, 400 million light years away from the centre of
the Virgo Super Cluster.  In the Super Cluster is a tiny dot called the
Milky Way.  In this galaxy that is ONLY 100,000 light years across is a
structure called the Orion Arm.  In there is the Solar System, and a
small planet called Earth.

So we have a structure that is so large it cannot be formed in the
lifetime of the universe.  But in 1990 a structure was found that is
over 10 times larger.

                   The Structure Of The Universe

David Koo of the University of California at Santa Cruz, Alexander
Szalay of Johns Hopkins University, and Richard Kron and Jeffrey Munn of
the University of Chicago surveyed the North Galactic Pole from Kitt
Peak National Observatory in Arizona.  Thomas Broadhurst and Richard
Ellis of the University of Durham did a similar survey of the South
Galactic Pole from the Anglo Australian Observatory in Australia.  They
searched further than anyone had done before, about 5 billion light
years.

They found something astonishing.  When they drew the hundreds of
galaxies that had been measured they discovered that they  were
organized in clumps.  (Figure 12) The Super Clusters appear at regular
intervals, 400 million light years apart.  Each clump contains the same
density of galaxies.  There are 7 clumps (including the Great Wall) to
the North, and 7 to the South.  Koo suspects that we may be seeing a
whole series of 'Great  Walls'.  Between these clumps are very few
galaxies.  Koo says astronomers are very disturbed at such regular
spacing.  He suspects that when all directions are mapped that we may be
inside a series of bubbles or shells.  (Figure 13)  He says it will take
a lot of hard work to figure out how the universe could generate these
great bubbles.

The idea that the universe could be structured so well at such vast
distances is difficult for evolutionists to accept, but it's actually
not that difficult.  There is a book that tells us already.  It is
called the Bible.  Another word for structure is 'Design'.   We can see
design at these vast distances.  This means that by all reasonable
understanding of the universe, there must be a designer.


References:

Astronomy  Magazine November 1989 p 44-46 "A Cross Section  of  the
Universe".

Astronomy Magazine January 1990 p 12 "Southern Super Cluster Traced
Across The Sky".

Astronomy  Magazine  June 1990 p10 "Sky  Surveys  Reveal  Regularly
Spaced Galaxies".

Sky and Telescope Magazine January 1990 p 15 "The 'Great Wall'".

Sky  and  Telescope Magazine September 1990 p 239  "A  Universe  of
Bubbles and Voids".


David and Linda Harris are available to give this talk, or supply the
materials, to anyone who wishes to make use of this for encouraging
Christians in the Faith of a G-d who can create the universe as we see
it.
19 Orleans Drive, West Hill, Ontario,
M1K 2C5  (416)286-4282


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Contact David or Linda Harris, 19 Orleans Drive, West Hill,
Ontario, Canada, M1K 2C5  (416)286-4282