Void (astronomy)

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In astronomy, voids are the empty spaces between filaments, the largest-scale structures in the Universe, that contain very few, or no, galaxies. Voids typically have a diameter of 11 to 150 Mpc; particularly large voids, defined by the absence of rich superclusters, are sometimes called supervoids. Voids located in high-density environments are smaller than voids situated in low-density spaces of the universe. (3)

A 1994 census ("The structure of the Universe traced by rich clusters of galaxies.", see References) lists a total of 27 supervoids with a distance of up to 740 Mpc; a selection is given below:

# Name Distance (Mpc) Diameter (Mpc)
1 188 124
5 182 130
9 Southern Local Supervoid 135 158
18 168 144
19 168 152
20 Boötes void 304 110
21 201 163
24 Northern Local Supervoid 86 146

The Eridanus Supervoid, reported on 24 August 2007 by the NRAO from Very Large Array Sky Survey data, is much larger than these, being about 300 Mpc in diameter and 1800–3000 Mpc distant. It also corresponds to a cold spot in the cosmic microwave background. [1]

  1. ^ NRAO: "Astronomers Find Enormous Hole in the Universe". NRAO website, retrieved 24 August 2007.
General references
  • U. Lindner, J. Einasto, M. Einasto, W. Freudling, K. Fricke, E. Tago: The structure of supervoids. I. Void hierarchy in the Northern Local Supervoid., Astron. Astrophys., v.301, p.329 (1995)
  • M. Einasto, J. Einasto, E. Tago, G. B. Dalton, H Andernach: The structure of the Universe traced by rich clusters of galaxies., Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 269, 301 (1994)
  • 3 Information on Voids
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