Until we develop a better theory, it's fun to imagine there's a terrifyingly advanced intelligent species that moved or "grew" those galaxies in that configuration for some reason.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago

"It goes somewhere, right?"
"Of course."
"Can you tell me where?"
"Sure. All this stuff winds up in Cygnus A."
"You're making Cygnus A?"
"Oh, it's not just us. This is a...cooperative project of many galaxies. That's what we mainly do--engineering. Only a...few of us are involved with emerging civilizations."
"There are cooperative projects between galaxies? Lots of galaxies, each with a kind of Central Administration? With hundreds of billions of stars in each galaxy. And then those administrations cooperate. To pour millions of suns into Centaurus...sorry, Cygnus A? The...forgive me, I'm just staggered by the scale. Why would you do all this? Whatever for?"
"You mustn't think of the universe as a wilderness. It hasn't been that for billions of years. Think of it more as...cultivated."

Carl Sagan, Contact

[–] Num10ck 5 points 4 months ago

or maybe imperfect instrumentation.

[–] ooli 5 points 4 months ago

impossible, they were too busy building the pyramids