clipped from: www.cnn.com   

Scientists: Cosmic blob biggest thing in universe

Friday, July 28, 2006; Posted: 1:06 p.m. EDT (17:06 GMT)
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(SPACE.com) -- An enormous amoeba-like structure 200 million light-years wide and made up of galaxies and large bubbles of gas is the largest known object in the universe, scientists say.

The galaxies and gas bubbles, called Lyman alpha blobs, are aligned along three curvy filaments that formed about 2 billion years after the universe exploded into existence after the theoretical Big Bang.

The galaxies within the newly found structure are packed together four times closer than the universe's average.

Some of the gas bubbles are up to 400,000 light years across, nearly twice the diameter of our neighboring Andromeda Galaxy.