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The large-scale smoothness of the Universe

Nature volume 397, pages 225–230 (1999)Cite this article

Abstract

The Universe is inhomogeneous — and essentially fractal — on the scale of galaxies and clusters of galaxies, but most cosmologists believe that on larger scales it becomes isotropic and homogeneous: this is the ‘cosmological principle’. This principle was first adopted when observational cosmology was in its infancy, and was then little more than a conjecture. The data now available offer a quantitative picture of the gradual transition from small-scale fractal behaviour to large-scale homogeneity.

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Figure 1: The distribution of 2 million galaxies with blue magnitude 17 ⩽ bj ⩽ 20.5 shown in an equal-area projection centred on the south Galactic pole.
Figure 2: The redshift distribution of more than 20,000 galaxies, from the Las Campanas redshift survey11.
Figure 3: A compilation of density fluctuations on different scales from various observations.
Figure 4: The fractal correlation dimension D2 versus length scale R.

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Acknowledgements

We thank A. Baleisis, E. Gawiser, L. Guzzo and M. Treyer for discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge , CB3 0HA, UK

    Kelvin K. S. Wu, Ofer Lahav & Martin J. Rees

  2. Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 91904, Israel

    Kelvin K. S. Wu, Ofer Lahav & Martin J. Rees

  3. Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge , Cambridge, UK

    Kelvin K. S. Wu, Ofer Lahav & Martin J. Rees

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Wu, K., Lahav, O. & Rees, M. The large-scale smoothness of the Universe. Nature 397, 225–230 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/16637

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