The biggest object in the Universe is glimpsed, and everyone is surprised:
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 filaments were recently seen using the Subaru and Keck telescopes on Mauna Kea.
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.
Biggest things in the Universe: Lyman alpha blobs
Second biggest things in the Universe: Lyman's cahones cojones for naming the biggest things in the Universe after himself
"Yeah Baby, you know some of the biggest things in the Universe. Named after moi. [points at self]...But none of them can compare to our love..."
UPDATE: Thank you Seed for highlighting my rather limited abilities in both spelling and Spanish.
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I'd assume the name comes from the Lyman alpha transition of the neutral hydrogen in the spectra of distant galaxies and quasars, and that Lyman died in 1954.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyman-alpha_forest
Biggest things in the Universe: Lyman alpha blobs
Second biggest things in the Universe: Lyman's cahones for naming the biggest things in the Universe after himself
While it's a lovely imgae, I believe Lyman is long dead. "Lyman Alpha" in spectroscopy refers to a particular atomic transition in hydrogen, and the blobs are most likely named that because of some signature emission at that wavelength.
Well shoot. I guess a man can dream that someone would actually do that.
I know that it's not comparable, but who do you think tried to introduce the von Klitzing constant?