Godzilla's Foe Has a Real Twin: A Supercluster 1.3 Billion Light-Years Wide

As Godzilla Minus Zero reaches theaters, astronomy has its own King Ghidorah. According to Space.com, a huge collection of galaxies called the King Ghidorah Supercluster was named after the three-headed golden monster. Space.com describes it as the largest supercluster ever discovered.

The film opened in U.S. and U.K. theaters on Friday, Nov. 6. In it, Godzilla faces a foe that, in most versions of the story, comes from outer space.

The King Ghidorah Supercluster by the numbers

• Around 6.7 billion light-years: the supercluster's distance from Earth, according to Space.com.
• 1.3 billion light-years: how far the structure stretches.
• At least 19: the number of individual galaxy clusters associated with it.
• 19 full moons: the area it covers in our sky, as seen from Earth.
• Around 12,300 times: how often the Milky Way could fit across its length.
• 10,000,000,000,000,000 suns: its mass, which Space.com says is 10 times that of Laniakea, the supercluster that contains the Milky Way.

How the supercluster was found

Space.com reported that Japanese astronomers discovered the structure in late 2022. They used data from the Subaru Telescope. The article does not detail the method or say how the name was chosen beyond noting it honors the movie monster.

A supercluster is a grouping of galaxy clusters. Space.com says this one is made up of at least 19 of them. The "at least" suggests the count could change, though the article does not say so directly.

The monster that inspired the name

King Ghidorah first appeared in the 1964 film Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster. In that story the creature arrived on Earth inside a highly magnetic meteorite after wiping out the population of Venus, according to Space.com. Godzilla, Rodan and Mothra defeated it.

Later films changed its backstory. In the early Japanese films it was often controlled by alien races, including the Xiliens and the Nebulans. In 1991's Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah it had no cosmic origin and began as three genetically engineered creatures called Dorats. In 2001's Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack it had a spiritual origin and acted as a protagonist. In the 2019 film Godzilla: King of the Monsters it was again an extraterrestrial that had "fallen from the stars."

Space.com says Godzilla Minus Zero keeps the alien origin.

Why it matters: what the name tells readers

The King Ghidorah Supercluster is a case of pop culture reaching into scientific naming. Space.com argues that the monster became so established in popular culture that astronomers took note.

The numbers also give a sense of scale. A structure that spans 1.3 billion light-years, and whose mass equals 10,000,000,000,000,000 suns, dwarfs the Milky Way. It also exceeds Laniakea, the supercluster that holds our galaxy, by a factor of 10 in mass. The film's monster is fiction, but the supercluster is a measured feature of the real universe.

For readers who want to see the fictional version, Space.com notes that Godzilla Minus Zero is in theaters in the U.S. and U.K. The preceding film, Godzilla Minus One, is on Netflix.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by Space.com