News: Gigantic void is biggest structure ever found in universe

RihsusChrist(ATG)

http://www.vox.com/2015/4/21/8461329...void-cold-spot

In SPACE news for the day!

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Around 3 billion light years away from Earth, there's a strange patch of the universe that baffles scientists.
The mystery is a "cold spot," a gigantic void that has surprisingly few galaxies present. At 1.8 billion light years across, it's the largest structure we've ever discovered.

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As reported by the Guardian, astronomers from the University of Hawaii and elsewhere just published a new survey of this area, which was first noticed in 2004. Previously, all scientists knew was that the cold spot was an area of space from which relatively little energy emanated.

The new study confirmed that roughly 10,000 fewer galaxies than expected are present across the vast area — which means it has about 20 percent less matter, in total, than other areas of the visible universe.

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n 2004, the cold spot was detected in scientists' measurements of a form of energy called the cosmic microwave background (CMB).

The CMB is heat energy that constantly careens throughout the entire universe and is left over from the Big Bang. The violent event generated high-energy waves of radiation — which were subsequently stretched out as the universe cooled and expanded over billions of years — and now persist as a low level of microwave energy everywhere we look.

But as scientists mapped the CMB, they saw a huge area in the direction of the constellation Eridanus with surprisingly little energy: it's about 2.7°K colder than average temperature of the universe. Elsewhere, areas that large only vary by about a degree or so.

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Some scientists suggested the cold spot was the result of errors made by analyzing the CMB data, and others even controversially claimed it might be evidence of a parallel universe.

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To figure things out, scientists led by István Szapudi of the University of Hawaii at Manoa used data collected by a pair of telescopes to create a 3D map of galaxies in the direction of the cold spot. Instead of mapping distant galaxies like before, though, they mapped relatively nearby ones — galaxies that are 3 billion light years away (which isn't much distance in terms of the scale of the visible universe).

This survey found a gigantic void with about 10,000 fewer galaxies than you'd expect, based on the overall density of galaxies in the universe. Other voids exist, but this is by far the largest one we've spotted so far — and is also the largest structure we've seen in the universe to date.

The Milky Way is part of a threaded cluster of galaxies called Laniakea.

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It was already known that due to the uneven distribution of matter just after the Big Bang, the universe has lots of filaments and voids: threads of clustered galaxies, surrounded by emptier areas with relatively few of them. But this new supervoid completely dwarfs the scale of all known threads or filaments we've seen anywhere, and challenges scientists' understanding of the formation of the universe.

RihsusChrist(ATG)

This is really cool and interesting stuff...

The poor sis Paris Hilton!

*runs to go tell her she done lost her title*

alexanderao

Interesting.

This makes sense though- the formation and expansion of the universe was never going to be perfectly uniform. What's amazing here is the size of the cold spot (1.8 billion light years across).

Remember that 1 ly = 5.88 * 10^12 miles (9.46 * 10^12 km). And we're talking about 1.8 billion of those.

Erik

What about the group of quasars that was 4 billion light years across, discovered a few years ago? Or the other structure that was 10 billion light years across, discovered not longer after the aforementioned?

RihsusChrist(ATG)

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Originally posted by alexanderao

Interesting.

This makes sense though- the formation and expansion of the universe was never going to be perfectly uniform. What's amazing here is the size of the cold spot (1.8 billion light years across).

Remember that 1 ly = 5.88 * 10^12 miles (9.46 * 10^12 km). And we're talking about 1.8 billion of those.

I wonder if you got to the center of that void would you be so far away from anything that they would be hardly any stars...it would be nothing but almost total utter darkness?

duybeeGAshantiGA

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Originally posted by RihsusChrist(ATG)

I wonder if you got to the center of that void would you be so far away from anything that they would be hardly any stars...it would be nothing but almost total utter darkness?

It's not like we actually can see stars if they are actually there... I mean there would be no light at all for us to see anything.. also the lights we see from stars are actually from the sun. If there's no 'sun' there, nothing can be visible I guess. I may be not even making sense here since we are talking about something so far and different from here...

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I may sound dumb but I dont know how scientists can know so much about the universe and space.. Like they are too far away how can they know about them.

Chucko

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Originally posted by RihsusChrist(ATG)

I wonder if you got to the center of that void would you be so far away from anything that they would be hardly any stars...it would be nothing but almost total utter darkness?

It's not a black hole, light from all around the universe is entering that region of space you could enter 'the void' turn around and see stars. Plus there are some galaxies in there just not many.

Pokistic

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This survey found a gigantic void with about 10,000 fewer galaxies than you'd expect, based on the overall density of galaxies in the universe. Other voids exist, but this is by far the largest one we've spotted so far — and is also the largest structure we've seen in the universe to date.

Interesting!

QueenBLadyG

So interesting.

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Parallel universe

Rascal

An empty void ... The largest structure?

cloudinthesky

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Originally posted by Rascal

An empty void ... The largest structure?

mte

I get what they mean, but I was confused at them calling it a "structure" when there is hardly anything physical or structure-like there at all.

This is interesting though. I really wish I could live long enough to see intergalactic travel. Future generations are so lucky

Harry

and how will this info affect the human race again? Not that we can go there and start a new life. This article isn't worth posting

Badger

All about that space, bout that space, no galaxies

Sanctuary

The universe is just so....

I've been watching Cosmos on Netflix and it's all so interesting but at the same time rather unsettling. It's just so impossibly big and complex. I don't think we'll ever know the full extent of what's out there.

MusicTalker

At last we found the DWUW video.

Could we also find Monster's single release here?

BTrisc

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Originally posted by Harry

and how will this info affect the human race again? Not that we can go there and start a new life. This article isn't worth posting

The Onion teas.

I'm not the best with space stuff, but how is this a "structure" when it's just an area in space where fewer galaxies are present? Quasars are distinct structures whereas this is kinda just open space.

cloudinthesky

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Originally posted by BTrisc

The Onion teas.

I'm not the best with space stuff, but how is this a "structure" when it's just an area in space where fewer galaxies are present? Quasars are distinct structures whereas this is kinda just open space.

It's like if we went and found a big open field in Russia or something and called it the "biggest structure on earth". Only that would make more sense because at least that's a physical, tangible thing.

Shaliydah88

Hi, God!

HotHeaven

And religion makes us believe that we are the only ones in the universe. What kind of selfish thing to say when the universe is so fking large. It's cringe-worthy.

Retro

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Originally posted by Harry

and how will this info affect the human race again? Not that we can go there and start a new life. This article isn't worth posting