According to the cosmological principle (CP), Universal large-scale structure is homogeneous
and isotropic. The observable Universe, however, shows complex structures even on very
large scales. Recently, there have been reported discoveries of structures significantly
exceeding the transition scale of 370 Mpc pose a challenge to the CP.
We report here the discovery of the largest regular formation in the observable Universe; a
ring with a diameter of 1720 Mpc in a comoving frame, displayed by 9 gamma ray bursts
(GRBs), exceeding by a factor of five the transition scale to the homogeneous and isotropic
distribution. The ring has a diameter of 36o at a distance of 2770 Mpc in the 0.78 < z < 0.86
redshift range.
Evidence suggests that this feature can be the projection of a shell onto the plane of the sky.
Voids and string-like formations are common outcomes of large-scale structure. However,
these structures have maximum sizes of 150 Mpc, which are an order of magnitude smaller
than the observed GRB ring diameter. Evidence in support of the shell interpretation requires
that temporal information of the transient GRBs be included in the analysis.
This ring-shaped feature is large enough to contradict the CP. The physical mechanism
responsible for causing it is unknown.
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