Scientists have discovered a primitive "Supercluster" of galaxies forming in the early universe, 2.3 billion years after the Big Bang.

The structure, nicknamed Hyperion, is the largest and most massive to be found so early in the formation of the Universe, which sprang into existence around 13.7 billion years ago.

Its titanic mass is one million billion times that of the Sun.

Olga Cucciati, a researcher at the Astrophysics and Space Sciences Observatory in Bologna said that it is the first time that such a large structure has been identified at such a high redshift.

Redshift is a measure of the changing wavelength of light travelling away from an observer.

The findings were published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.