Aims. We examined the velocity, density, and temperature structure of Taurus molecular cloud-1 (TMC-1), a filamentary cloud in a nearby quiescent star forming area, to understand its morphology and evolution.Methods. We observed high signal-to-noise (S/N), high velocity resolution NH3(1,1), and (2, 2) emission on an extended map. By fitting multiple hyperfine-split line profiles to the NH3(1, 1) spectra, we derived the velocity distribution of the line components and calculated gas parameters on several positions. Herschel SPIRE far-infrared continuum observations were reduced and used to calculate the physical parameters of the Planck Galactic Cold Clumps (PGCCs) in the region, including the two in TMC-1. The morphology of TMC-1 was investigated with several types of clustering methods in the parameter space consisting of position, velocity, and column density.Results. Our Herschel-based column density map shows a main ridge with two local maxima and a separated peak to the south-west. The H2 column densities and dust colour temperatures are in the range of 0.5−3.3 × 1022 cm-2 and 10.5−12 K, respectively. The NH3 column densities and H2 volume densities are in the range of 2.8−14.2 × 1014 cm-2 and 0.4−2.8 × 104 cm-3. Kinetic temperatures are typically very low with a minimum of 9 K at the maximum NH3 and H2 column density region. The kinetic temperature maximum was found at the protostar IRAS 04381+2540 with a value of 13.7 K. The kinetic temperatures vary similarly to the colour temperatures in spite of the fact that densities are lower than the critical density for coupling between the gas and dust phase. The k-means clustering method separated four sub-filaments in TMC-1 with masses of 32.5, 19.6, 28.9, and 45.9 M ⊙ and low turbulent velocity dispersion in the range of 0.13−0.2 km s-1.Conclusions. The main ridge of TMC-1 is composed of four sub-filaments that are close to gravitational equilibrium. We label these TMC-1F1 through F4. The sub-filaments TMC-1F1, TMC-1F2, and TMC-1F4 are very elongated, dense, and cold. TMC-1F3 is a little less elongated and somewhat warmer, and probably heated by the Class I protostar, IRAS 04381+2540, which is embedded in it. TMC-1F3 is approximately 0.1 pc behind TMC1-F1. Because of its structure, TMC-1 is a good target to test filament evolution scenarios.

The Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall is a statistically significant clustering of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) around redshift 2. Motivated by recent theoretical results indicating that a maximal Universal structure size may indeed coincide with its estimated size (2–3 Gpc), we reexamine the question of this Great Wall’s existence from both observational and theoretical perspectives. Our statistical analyses confirm the clustering’s presence in the most reliable data set currently available, and we present a video showing what this data set looks like in 3D. Cosmological explanations (i.e. having to do with the distribution of gravitating matter) and astrophysical explanations (i.e. having to do with the rate of star formation over cosmic time and space) regarding the origin of such a structure are presented and briefly discussed and the role of observational bias is also discussed at length. This, together with the scientific importance of using GRBs as unique cosmological probes, emphasises the need for future missions such as the THESEUS satellite, which will provide us with unprecedentedly homogeneous data of GRBs with measured redshifts. We conclude from all this that the Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall may indeed be the largest structure in the Universe – but to be able to decide conclusively whether it actually exists, we need THESEUS.

Several hundred gamma-ray burst (GRB) redshifts have been determined to date. One of the other important properties—besides the distance—of the GRBs is the duration of the burst. In this paper, we analyse these two important quantities of the phenomena. In this paper, we map the two-dimensional distribution and explore some suspicious areas. As it is well known that the short GRBs are closer than the others, we search for parts in the Universe where the GRB duration is different from the others. We also analyse whether there are any ranges in the duration where the redshifts differ. We find some suspicious areas, however, no other significant region was found than the short GRB region.

We explore large-scale cosmic structure using the spatial distribution of 542 gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) having accurately-measured positions and spectroscopic redshifts. Prominent cosmological clusters are identified in both the northern and southern galactic hemispheres (avoiding extinction effects in the plane of the Milky Way) using the Bootstrap Point-Radius method. The Northern Galactic hemisphere contains a significant group of four GRBs in the redshift range 0.59 ≤ z ≤ 0.62 (with a Bootstrap probability of p = 0.012) along with the previously-identified Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall (in the revised redshift range 0.9 ≤ z ≤ 2.1; p = 0.017). The Southern Galactic hemisphere contains the previously-identified Giant GRB Ring (p = 0.022) along with another possible cluster of 7 − 9 GRBs at 1.17 ≤ z ≤ 1.444 (p = 0.031). Additionally, both the Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall and the Giant GRB Ring have become more prominent as the GRB sample size has grown. The approach used here underscores the potential value of GRB clustering as a probe of large-scale cosmic structure, complementary to galaxy and quasar clustering. Because of the vast scale on which GRB clustering provides valuable insights, it is important that optical GRB monitoring continue so that additional spectroscopic redshift measurements should be obtained.