Voids are mainly empty regions of space. Boötes Void is the suspected proof that the universe was not created from the Big Bang...

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The Boötes Void

The Laniakea Supercluster (Google ©)

Voids are mainly empty regions of space. We can find the term 'void' in programming languages where it means 'null' or no value. However, voids in space might have a galaxy or more in them.

One typical void is the Boötes Void, located in the Boötes constellation as viewed from Earth. As we can see in the given image, the Boötes Void is the largest void located in the Laniakea Supercluster, a massive cluster of clusters that contains hundreds of galaxies. It is centered on the Great Attractor (A mysterious space region that pulls all the clusters toward it). 

Where do we live here? We dwell in the Virgo Supercluster marked in Red colour.

The unit of distance used in the Universe is 'Parsec'.

The distance travelled in one second by Light is 300,000 km/s. 

A Light Minute is 300,000 x 60 sec = 18,000,000 (18 Million) km.

A Light Hour is 18,000,000 x 60 min = 1,080,000,000 (1.08 Billion) km.

A Light Day is 1,080,000,000 x 24 hr = 25,920,000,000 (25.92 Billion) km.

A Light Year is 1,080,000,000 x 365 d = 9,460,800,000,000 (9.46 Trillion) km.

A parsec is 3.26 light-years!

Now the diameter of our Virgo Supercluster is 33 Megaparsec.

'Megaparsec' represents a million parsec.

Boötes Void

The size of The Boötes Void is 101 megaparsecs, bigger than the Virgo Supercluster. In fact, the Boötes Void covers roughly 0.27% of the observable universe, which may seem very small as the observable universe itself is 28.5 Gigaparsec (28500 Megaparsec), but is quite huge compared to us, our galaxy and even our supercluster.

The Boötes Void is probably the loneliest place in the universe, maybe for galaxies. We have found a galaxy at its centre, which looks desolate in an enormous empty void. As astronauts have said, "If the Milky Way were at the centre of the Boötes Void, we wouldn't have known there were other galaxies until the 1960s."

 Boötes Void vs Big Bang

Boötes Void is suspected proof that the universe was not created from the Big Bang.

After the Big Bang, the universe began to expand like a balloon. This expansion began to accelerate. The universe is already in a battle between two main forces that want to become dominant. These are Gravity and Dark Energy. Gravity pulls objects together, and Dark Energy does the opposite. Dark Energy and Dark matter are something new. They are made from invisible atoms. 

We can see billions of stars and galaxies in the universe. But all these only make up 5% of the universe's mass. Dark energy takes 68% and dark matter 27%. So the universe has some great density fluctuations and is heterogenous according to the Theory of Relativity.

No, the Boötes Void is not dark Matter or dark energy! Due to these fluctuations, clusters may move far away or close to each other, leaving the gaps we now call Voids. This process happens relatively slowly, as Intergalactic distances are massive. 

Now let us come to the formation of Boötes Void. The universe is only 14 billion years old, and as I mentioned the massive Intergalactic distances, you might see where I am hinting at.

The Boötes Void can't form this enormous shape in only 14 billion years! It takes longer to do! This hints that the Big Bang can't happen to create this big void. However, this idea was discarded for now, because Boötes Void could be made by the merging of two or more voids. We just can't say for sure.

Outro

As we can see, we have the ability to explore and think about the 93 billion light-years expanse before physically leaving our own planetary system.

As Stephen Hawking said -

"We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the universe. This makes us special."

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Anyways, this wraps us on the post for Boötes Void.

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Thank you for reading!

Aditya VN Kadiyala