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Boötes Void
Enormous, approximately-spherical region of space containing very few galaxies From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Boötes Void (/boʊˈoʊtiːz/ boh-OH-teez) (colloquially referred to as the Great Nothing)[1] is a roughly spherical region of space in the vicinity of the constellation Boötes. It contains just 60 galaxies, which is significantly lower than the approximately 2,000 galaxies expected for an area of comparable size. With a radius of 62 megaparsecs (nearly 330 million light-years), it is one of the largest known voids in the visible universe, and is often referred to as a "supervoid".[2]
It was discovered in 1981 by astronomer Robert Kirshner as part of a survey of galactic redshift.[3] Its centre is located 700 million light-years from Earth,[2] at right ascension 14h 50m and declination 46°.
The Hercules Superclusters are part of the near edge of the void.[3]
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Formation
The existence of the Boötes Void does not appear to conflict with the Lambda-cold dark matter (ΛCDM) model of cosmological evolution.[4] It is hypothesized that the Boötes Void formed through the coalescence of smaller voids.[5] This process may explain the presence of a limited number of galaxies within a roughly cylindrical region extending through the center of the void.[6]
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Sources
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