Ho'oleilana

alternative Hoʻoleilana

1. astronomyHo'oleilana A structure in local Universe; An assembly of superclusters and voids, forming a spherical assemblage of matter with a central peak, roughly 1-billion-lightyears across, located next to, but not containing, Laniakea, our local supercluster where the Earth is contained within. Thought to be a baryon acoustic oscillation (“BAO”), the first such discovered, and the nearest such found.

   While one should not read too much into an individual association of galaxies, Ho’oleilana is one of several BAO observations at low z that are more in line with the considered void models.

   2025 June, Indranil Banik, Vasileios Kalaitzidis, “Testing the local void hypothesis using baryon acoustic oscillation measurements over the last 20 yr”, in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, volume 540, number 1, →DOI

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   In any event, this apparent ring structure at a distance of ∼250 Mpc from us is one of the largest structures observed in the nearby Universe to date and links together a number of hitherto disconnected components of our cosmic neighborhood. We name this remarkable structure "Ho'oleilana." fn: "Sent murmurs of awakening" from the Hawaiian Kumulipo creation chant: Ho'oleilei ka lana a ka Po uliuli, "From deep darkness came murmurs of awakening."

   2023, R. Brent Tully, Cullan Howlett, Daniel Pomarède, “Ho'oleilana: An Individual Baryon Acoustic Oscillation?”, in The Astrophysical Journal, volume 954, number 2

   Psychologically, Ho’oleilana challenges our cognitive biases. The perfect sphere seems comforting, but it forces us to confront the limitations of our mental models, much like businesses resist disruptive innovation.

   2024 September 4, Ine Velaers, “The Ho’oleilana Enigma: A Cosmic Revelation with Business, Psychological, and Economic Consequences”, in Mexit News, archived from the original on 05 Feb 2025