What is the largest galaxy universe solar system?

Cosmic Giants: Seriously, How Big is Big in Space?

Galaxies: Size Does Matter (Apparently)

Figuring out the “biggest” galaxy isn’t as simple as grabbing a cosmic ruler. Do you measure the spread of its stars? Its total mass? Or maybe how far its radio waves reach? Because of this, the title of “Largest Galaxy” is constantly up for grabs.

Right now, one of the top contenders is a beast called IC 1101. Imagine a super-sized elliptical galaxy chilling in the Abell 2029 galaxy cluster. This thing is roughly 5.5 to 6 million light-years across. Seriously! Our Milky Way? A measly 100,000 light-years. IC 1101 is packed with over 100 trillion stars and, of course, a supermassive black hole at its heart. Standard galaxy stuff, just, you know, bigger.

But wait! There’s also Alcyoneus, a giant radio galaxy. Now, the galaxy itself isn’t anything special to look at. The kicker? It has massive radio lobes – think of them as plumes of energy blasting out from the central black hole. These lobes stretch out for a bonkers 16.3 million light-years! Some scientists argue that measuring by radio lobes isn’t really measuring the galaxy itself, but more the stuff it’s throwing out into space. Fair point, maybe.

There are other contenders too, like ESO 383-76 and Abell 1413-BCG, but getting accurate measurements is a real challenge. As our telescopes get better and we learn more about these cosmic islands, who knows what other giants we’ll find lurking out there?

Walls of Galaxies? Seriously?

If you think individual galaxies are big, get this: they clump together! We’re talking galaxy clusters, superclusters, and filaments that form a cosmic web stretching across the universe. These are the real heavyweights.

One of the biggest structures we’ve spotted is the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall. It was discovered back in 2013 and stretches for about 10 billion light-years! That’s not a typo. It’s basically a long string of galaxy groups and clusters all linked together. But here’s the thing: some scientists aren’t even sure if it’s a real thing, or just a random lineup of galaxies that happen to look like a wall from our perspective. Space is weird, what can I say?

And just recently, in February 2025, astronomers announced the discovery of Quipu. This thing spans 1.3 billion light-years and is a network of five superclusters containing a significant portion of the galaxy clusters, galaxies, and matter in the observable universe.

Keep in mind, these “walls” aren’t solid objects like, say, a brick wall. They’re just areas where galaxies are packed together more tightly than usual, connected by faint strands of gas and dark matter. It’s like a cosmic foam!

Solar Systems: How Far Can You Go?

So, what about solar systems? What’s the biggest one out there? Well, you could measure by the number of planets. Our solar system, with its eight planets, is tied for the most planets discovered around a single star with Kepler-90. But if you’re talking pure size, then we need to talk about 2MASS J2126-8140.

This is a gas giant that’s orbiting a star called TYC 9486-927-1. Sounds normal, right? Here’s the crazy part: it’s about 7,000 astronomical units (AU) away from its star. That’s one trillion kilometers! For comparison, one AU is the distance between the Earth and the Sun. So, yeah, this planet is really far away. It takes about 900,000 years for it to make one orbit around its star. How this system even formed, and how it stays together, is a complete mystery.

Wrapping Our Heads Around the Immense

The universe is constantly throwing curveballs at us. Just when we think we’ve found the biggest thing, something even bigger pops up. IC 1101 and Alcyoneus are battling it out for the title of largest galaxy, the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall and Quipu are mind-bogglingly huge structures, and 2MASS J2126-8140 shows us just how spread out a solar system can be. As we keep exploring, I can’t wait to see what other cosmic giants we uncover. It’s a humbling reminder of just how small we are, but also how amazing the universe truly is.