Debate went on during the 1960s and 1970s as to whether the Local Supercluster (LS) was actually a structure or a chance alignment of galaxies.

On the other hand, some archaeologists dismiss all leys as merely chance alignments without proper statistical investigation.

The results remain speculative because the chance alignment that led to its discovery will never happen again.

Several independent studies since 1998 have now determined that this object is not a true cluster at all, but rather just a chance alignment of stars.

In 2011, it was suggested that the SGW is a chance alignment of three structures, and not a structure in itself.

The rest of the community regards these as chance alignments and Arp's hypothesis has very few supporters.

They have long been known to be a physically related group of stars rather than any chance alignment.

It could be a chance alignment, a statistical fluke, Dr. Tegmark said, or contamination from radio noise from the galaxy.

A notable disadvantage of the method is that the lensing cannot be repeated because the chance alignment never occurs again.

"It is unlikely to be a chance alignment," she said.