Large Scale Structure. The seventies & Forty years later: From Clusters to Clusters

TL;DR

This paper reviews the historical development of large-scale structure studies in the universe, from early galaxy surveys to modern deep cluster observations, highlighting how our understanding of cosmic structures has evolved over four decades.

Contribution

It provides a historical overview of large-scale structure research, emphasizing the transition from initial galaxy distributions to detailed filamentary and cluster structures over forty years.

Findings

Discovery of filamentary structures and voids in galaxy distribution.

Progress in measuring large-scale mass distribution.

Proposal for future deep cluster surveys to enhance cosmological insights.

Abstract

I describe the beginning, ~ 1970, of the spectroscopic redshift surveys and the discovery of the superclusters filamentary structures and voids. This changed the view of the distribution of luminous light from the way we knew it at the end of the sixties, a uniform distribution of galaxies with clusters superimposed, and the way we understood it during the seventies, clusters imbedded in filamentary structures. We planned in brief to understand the distribution of galaxies and the effect of their environment since to learn about the formation and evolution of the Universe, we need to know first how it is now. The very large surveys, first among these the CfA, started in the eighties thanks also to dedicated telescopes; during that period, the distribution of mass on large scales was also measured. A next step, in addition to the many and deep galaxies survey that are going on, could be a deep cluster survey to detect distant clusters, improve the accuracy of the clusters physical parameters as a function of redshift and have a more robust probe for Cosmology.