What scale defines the threshold above which the universe settles into its smooth, uniform appearance?
Answer
Several hundred million light-years.
The appearance of the universe shifts dramatically depending on the observational scale used. On smaller scales, such as those involving local galaxy clusters (like the Virgo Supercluster at roughly 50 million light-years), the distribution is highly non-uniform, appearing lumpy. However, as the observation zooms out past several hundred million light-years, these local clumps—the filaments and voids—effectively average out. When the scale exceeds this threshold, the universe begins to exhibit the smooth, isotropic appearance consistent with the Cosmological Principle.
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