CfA Redshift Survey

The Center for Astrophysics (CfA) Redshift Survey was the first attempt to map the large-scale structure of the universe. It began in 1977 with the initial data collection completed in 1982. Data from the second CfA survey (1985–95) made possible the 1989 discovery of the Great Wall, a supercluster of galaxies surrounded by voids that surprised astronomers because its size was larger than what could be produced by gravitational collapse since the beginning of the universe. Since then, superclusters have been described as artifacts of quantum fluctuations in the inflationary epoch of the universe.