Skip to main content

Super Void




As mysterious as it can get, Universe has always been a place for strange and weird things. Now, scientists have a “Super-Void” in space which is missing galaxies!

So before we get in to the topic, first let’s discuss what is “Void”

According to Wikipedia, Voids or Cosmic Voids, as they are called, are vast spaces between galaxy filaments in the universe, which has few or 0 galaxies. Galaxy filaments are largest know structures in the universe, which have thread-like structures. They form boundaries between voids in space. These voids have very less density of matter that is considered for typical observable universe.

Voids are believed to be formed in Big Bang, followed by massive collapse its mass and compressed by Baryonic matter. After Big Bang, there were lots of areas with high and low densities, which were changing rapidly. The regions with high density collapsed rapidly under gravity eventually causing foam-like structure of cosmic web of voids. Voids located in high-density environment are smaller than regions in low density environment.

Now that you have enough idea about what is super void, let’s get into its discovery.
Scientists have discovered a mysterious empty section in space, which is almost 1.8 billion light years across and just 3 billion light years away from Earth. It has baffled the scientists as it is the largest known structure discovered which is missing almost 10,000 galaxies. It is located in space which is colder than other parts of the space and although it is not vacuum, it has density less than other parts of the space.

Even more confusing is why this place is so barren. Although Big Bang allows hotter and colder sections in the universe, this structure is quite large to be discovered. István Szapudi, of University of Hawaii at Manoa, described the object as possibly “the largest individual structure ever identified by humanity”.

It was picked up using Hawaii’s Pan-STARRS1 (PS1) telescope located on Haleakala, Maui, and Nasa’s Wide Field Survey Explorer (WISE) satellite.

The latest study suggests that the ‘super void’ may be draining energy from light travelling through, which is why the area around it is so cold. Getting through such a big hole takes hundreds of millions of years, even at the speed of light, and photons of light slow down as they cross because the universe – and therefore the void - is continually expanding. However, the scientists claim that the void can only account for around 10 per cent the temperature drop in the cold spot.

“It just pushed the explanation one layer deeper,” said Dr Roberto Trotta, a cosmologist at Imperial College London.

This is the greatest super void ever discovered. Given the combination of size and emptiness, our super void is still a very rare event. We can only expect a few super voids this big in the observable universe



 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pluto-The controversial planet

Pluto has been our favorite planet since 2006. The reason why I wrote this blog is because NASA is ready to explore the planet and study it closely through its mission New Horizons. So before we get to know about this mission, let’s first get to know about Pluto. HISTORY: Pluto was discovered on February 18, 1930 in the Kuiper Belt. Kuiper belt is a ring of bodies beyond Neptune. Originally Pluto was considered as the ninth planet in solar system. But studying its size, mass, density etc. the International Astronomical Unit (IAU) defined the term “planet”. The definition goes as- “ planet  is a body that orbits the Sun, is massive enough for its own gravity to make it round, and has cleared its neighbourhood" of smaller objects around its orbit.”   According to this definition, Pluto could not be classified as a planet and hence was reclassified as a “dwarf planet” in 2006. Although it is a dwarf planet compared to other eight planets, it is the second m...
2 comments
Read more

RETROGRADE AND PROGRADE

Since childhood we have learnt that all the planets go around the Sun. Meaning, the planets and other celestial objects rotate around the Sun in specific directions. But did you know that not all follow the same directions? Some follow the Sun’s rotation while some go in the opposite direction. After observing these motions of certain planets and comets, astronomers termed these rotations as “ Prograde ” and “ Retrograde ”. Before we get into these terms, let’s first understand how the direction of the motion is determined. The direction is determined by the primary object in system that forms the system’s hub. In our case, it is the Sun. So rotation of all the planets and celestial bodies is decided by the Sun’s direction of rotation. Now that we know how the motion is determined, let’s get into the above mentioned terms. Prograde:   It is the motion in the direction of that of the Sun. Meaning, most of the planets and some comets move in the direction of the ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Binary Black Hole

In early 2016, a group of scientists at LIGO observatory made an incredible announcement-detection of gravitational waves.   Gravitational waves are ripples in curvature of space-time. Till then, gravitational waves were considered as a theoretical concept.   This discovery is not momentous just because gravitational waves were discovered but also because nobody had ever seen two supermassive black holes orbiting so close to each other. This system is called Binary Black Hole (BBH). BINARY BLACK HOLE:- Binary black hole is a system which consists of two super massive black holes orbiting close to each other. Like ordinary black holes, BBH is also divided into stellar (black holes formed by gravitationalcollapse of a massive star) black holes. For many years, proving the existence of binary black hole was difficult because of nature of black holes itself and limited detection methods. When two black holes orbit close to each other, they give out immense amoun...
1 comment
Read more