The universe is said to have been alive for billions of years, and that would mean that
there's a lot of records to be had in that time!
But some of them might be more grand than you realize.
Join me as I show you 9 of the most extreme records in the universe!
9.
Largest Thing In The Observable Universe: Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall
I want you to think about the scale and scope of the universe at large.
The universe is a very big place, and to our credit, Earth is able to see a lot of it via
very powerful telescopes, probes and satellites.
But even then, we sometimes find something so big, so massive, that it truly boggles
our minds.
And in terms of what is the biggest thing we've ever seen in the universe, that would
be the Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall.
So, just how big is the Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall?
10 billion light years across.
No, you didn't hear that wrong, and if you're curious how that compares to the observable
universe at large, the known universe is 93 billion light years across.
Which means that the Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall is basically 1/10 the size of the
known universe.
That's huge.
But what exactly is it?
To keep it basic for you, the wall is a massive collection of Gamma-Ray Bursts.
These "GRBs" are very common across the universe, and scientists have actually used them in
the past to try and help map the universe at large because of how they move and leave
a signature.
But even by the scientists who found it back in 2013, they have a hard time figuring out
how such a massive structure could exist: "Although large superclusters are known in
the universe such as our own 520 million-light-year Laniakea Supercluster, a supercluster would
have to be exceptionally immense to explain the clustering, perhaps 30 to 50 times larger
and 200 times the volume of expected typical superclusters.
It would be 10 billion light-years away and about 10 to 18 billion light-years across,
and would perhaps be even more improbable to form in the universal large-scale structure
than the GRB clustering would be on the gamma-ray sky."
And you thought the universe was weird before?
8.
Fastest Non-Light Entity In the Universe: Blazar Jets and Cosmic Rays
Let's talk speed for a bit, ok?
At present, the fastest thing in the universe is...what?
This is not a trick question, you honestly should know this.
That's right, it's light.
Einstein theorized that nothing in the universe should be able to move faster than light,
because doing so would break the laws of physics (and his ego).
And throughout history, we have indeed not found anything that moves as fast as light.
But..., we have found something that moves about 99.9% as fast as light, and it's making
a lot of people question what really is possible in the universe.
But to be clear, it's not something like a meteor, or a shooting star, it's actually
balls of gas known as Blazars.
More accurately, blazars are gases that are trapped in material that is ejected from galaxies
at literal blazing speeds.
Which is MUCH faster than anything anyone ever thought was possible before.
"This tells us that the physical processes at the cores of these galaxies ... are extremely
energetic and are capable of propelling matter very close to the absolute cosmic speed limit,"
said Glenn Piner of Whittier College in Whittier, California.
Ponder the power of the fast moving superheated gas, known as plasma:
"To accelerate a bowling ball to the speed newly measured in these blazars would require
all the energy produced in the world for an entire week," Piner said.
"And the blobs of plasma in these jets are at least as massive as a large planet."
Scared yet?
We're not done, scientists have also found that certain cosmic rays that are created
when galaxies collide are also emitting speeds that are 99.9% the speed of light...but with
even more 9's at the end of it.
It's still not 100% the speed of light, but it's darn close.
Many are baffled by how these speeds are even possible, but they're looking into it.
And shoudl they be able to push them even farther past that speed?
Or even go BEYOND the speed of light?
That would cause all sorts of interesting questions.
7.
The Biggest Exoplanet in the universe DENIS-P J082303.1-491201 b
Without a doubt, one of the most important things that humanity is looking for in the
universe is planets.
Mainly because we're looking for places for us to live one day if we're lucky.
But, while we are looking for planets that we can live on, we more often than not find
planets that are too different from our own to even hope to live on.
And that brings us to DENIS-P J082303.1-491201 b. yes, that's a long name, and it's a typical
one for planets that have no true name and are just among the stars.
But this one is special because it's the biggest exoplanet we've ever seen before.
Just how big is it?
Well...you know our planet Jupiter?
DENIS-P J082303.1-491201 b is 28.5 times the mass of Jupiter.
Think about that, think about how massive Jupiter is, and then think of one that is
28.5 times that.
That's a BIG planet.
While we have been able to determine the mass of the planet, we haven't gotten all the other
details that we would like about it.
For example, we don't know what kind of sun it orbits around.
Though we do know it takes about 246 days to go around said star.
Granted, this isn't a planet we'd remotely want to habitate, especially since it's a
gas giant.
But it is good to know just how big these planets can get, it helps us with our estimations
about the universe at large.
Before we continue with these extreme records set amongst the stars, be sure to like the
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6.
The Largest Star In The Universe: VY Canis Majoris
Located 3900 light years away from Earth, and within the constellation known as Canis
Majoris (the Big Dipper for those of you who know astronomy), the star known as VY Canis
Majoris is the biggest star in the universe that we know of so far.
One of the reasons we know it's a big star is because of its type, it's a Red Supergiant,
also known as a Red Hypergiant.
These are among the biggest types of stars, and are so big that they can burn incredibly
brightly.
In fact, VY Canis Majoris is one of the most brightly lit stars in the Milky Way galaxy,
if not the universe itself depending on who you talk to.
So, just how big is VY Canis Majoris compared to our sun?
How about...3 billion times bigger.
That's right, 3 BILLION times.
If you want to put that into an even scarier context, if you had a ship that could fly
around the sun AND go the speed of light?
It would take you 6 hours to get to the other side via its circumference.
That's a really big star.
If you did that for our sun?
It'd be about 14.5 seconds.
If you put VY Canis Majoris in our solar system, estimates say that it would be able to reach
beyond Jupiter.
Maybe even reach Saturn, it's hard to say based on what we've seen.
This is one star that we should be glad is far away from us, because the light and radiation
it would emit would be much more than our planet could handle.
5.
The Smallest Star In the Universe: OGLE-TR-122b Moving over to the other side of the spectrum,
let's talk about the smallest known star in the universe.
There are many small stars out there believe it or not, usually of the "red dwarf" class
of star.
But in terms of which one is the actual smallest, that would be OGLE-TR-122b.
Now, what might immediately surprise you about this star is that while it's small...it's
not exactly small in comparison to other things in the universe.
For example, OGLE-TR-122b is measured in at about 167,000 kilometers.
Which means that it's actually 20% BIGGER than Jupiter.
So the smallest star in our universe that we know of is still bigger than the biggest
planet in our solar system.
Our sun (which is a yellow dwarf for the record) is about 10 times wider than Jupiter.
Further putting OGLE-TR-122b in context.
But, what it "lacks" in size, it makes up for in mass, because while it's only 20% bigger
than Jupiter in raw size, in terms of mass it's over 100 times more.
Now, technically speaking, there are more than likely smaller stars than OGLE-TR-122b,
and that's because scientists have determined the minimum size it would take to make a star
via nuclear fusion, and it's smaller than OGLE-TR-122b.
It's just that we haven't found this kind of star...yet.
4.
Biggest Black Hole: The Holm 15A Black Hole I'm pretty sure we've mentioned this on our
channel before, but Black Holes...suck!
Literally.
They are one of the few entities in the entire universe that everyone should fear.
They're so powerful they can unravel planets, stars, and so much more.
What's even more terrifying though is that they can be quite large, and when that happens,
whole galaxies are in danger.
These are known as Supermassive Black Holes, and there are some in the universe that boggle
the mind.
In the Milky Way Galaxy, there's one known as the M87 Supermassive Black Hole that's
53 million light years long.
Yet that pales in comparison to The Holm 15A Black Hole.
Holm 15A is a massive galaxy out in space, and it's size towers over the Milky Way and
other galaxies, mainly because it's an elliptical galaxy, and that happens when many galaxies
collide with one another.
Which is ironic here because that's how the black hole in question formed.
How big is it exactly?
We don't really know, but, we do know that it has the mass of about 40 BILLION of our
suns.
That's a lot of star power, and in fact, that black hole could absorb about 2/3's of ALL
the stars in the Milky Way Galaxy.
3.
Hottest Planet In The Universe: Kelt-9B Kelt 9B is a planet that is well and truly
burning the life out of it, and is in fact the hottest exoplanet ever discovered in our
universe.
Thankfully, this planet is about 950 light years away from Earth, so humanity won't have
to worry about it.
But the planet itself is dying in many ways.
One of which is that it's tidally locked with the sun in its system.
That means half the planet is always facing the star, making the surface of the planet
hot on one side, but freezing on the other.
The kicker in this situation though is that the planet is three times the size of Jupiter,
and it burns with an intensity of 7800 degrees Fahrenheit.
Which is close to what the Earth's core burns at, or what our own star burns at.
Because of this heat, and its own stars influence, the planet will die as it's burning up the
gasses that comprise it.
Granted, it's going to take a few million years to get to that part, but it's going
to get there.
And nothing can stop it.
2.
Coldest Planet In The Universe: OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb Yes, this is yet another planet that has a
name that is near infinite, but you'll like its nickname I promise you.
Because while OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb is the official labeling of the planet, it is known by a much
simpler name to NASA...Hoth.
Yeah, like from Star Wars, pretty cool, huh?
The reason for that is that like the legendary ice planet from Empire Strikes Back, this
planet is cold.
Like REALLY cold, it is indeed the coldest planet in the known universe.
So how cold is OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb?
That is hard to pinpoint, however, based on what we know of the planet from our observations
we can calculate that it's about -370 Fahrenheit.
Which is freezing cold, and that's saying something.
For the record, Hoth was NOT known to be that cold, otherwise the Rebel Alliance wouldn't
have gone there as a hiding spot, I'm just saying.
What's interesting about this planet though is that the size of it is about 5 times larger
than Earth, but because of its composition, it's actually very Earthlike.
Including having a thin atmosphere which could be a potential boom for the planet.
But, because of its distance for the sun, and the distance from the Earth, it's hard
to know exactly what the surface is like.
We honestly don't know if it's a rocky planet or a gas one.
1.
Oldest Planet In The Universe: PSR B1620−26 b
To wrap this up, let's talk age.
No, not the age of the universe, but rather, the oldest planet that is said to be within
the universe: PSR B1620−26 b.
This planet is said to be so old that it dates back to apparently 12.7 billion years in total
age.
That's incredible, as it's believed that the universe isn't too much older than that (give
or take a few billion years).
Because of this, PSR B1620−26 b is known as the "Genesis Planet", or even called Methuselah
after the oldest man ever to live.
You almost have to wonder what it would say if it could talk....
Thanks for watching everyone!
What did you think of these extremely powerful and weird records set by the universe at large?
Can you believe that there are entities out there in space that are capable of such things?
Which of these records was the most insane or extreme to you?
Let me know in the comments below, be sure to subscribe, and I'll see you next time on
the channel!