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Boötes Void: Scientists find a huge void in the Universe 330 million light-years wide (photo)

Ihor Romanko

Scientists discovered the Boötes Void
Scientists discovered the Boötes Void. Source: iflscience.com

The Universe is an incredibly large and complex system full of various structures. One of these structures is the vast voids, where there are almost no galaxies, and they are located between galaxy clusters. One of the largest such structures is the Boötes Void, whose diameter is estimated at an impressive 330 million light-years.

Today, scientists assume that about 80% of the volume of the Universe is made up of these huge voids, where there are practically no galaxies, and they are located between galaxy clusters. This is reported by IFLScience.

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However, it is important to distinguish between those areas of space that appear empty in the optical spectrum and those where other galaxies are detected but are difficult to see due to visibility. This is often the case with dark nebulae, such as Barnard 68, located 400 light-years away. At first glance, it may appear to be a void with no stars.

But in the infrared spectrum of light, it becomes obvious that there are thousands of stars that are not visible in visible light. Such objects are part of the complex structure of the Universe.

The real huge voids or branes in the Universe are large, usually between 20 and 300 million light-years in diameter. However, there are even bigger ones, such as the Volopas Void with its 330 million light-years wide. This structure makes up about 2% of the Universe visible to us and is located at a distance of about 700 million light-years from Earth.

The Boötes Void was first discovered 42 years ago, and at first scientists thought it was completely empty. However, more than 60 galaxies were later discovered in this structure. This is certainly impressive, but given the size of the void, one would expect to find even more galaxies here.

Such voids exist between galaxies and galaxy clusters and resemble a huge cosmic web. That is, they are located between the threads of this web. Voids and woids are phenomena of the Universe that leave behind many more secrets and arouse the interest of scientists for further research.

Earlier, scientists announced that a giant hole appeared on the surface of the Sun.

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