What is a 'supervoid' - a region with almost no galaxies that occupies a large area of the universe?
If you look up at the night sky in a place where you can see the stars clearly, you will see that the sky is covered with various stars and galaxies. However, most of the universe is actually an empty region called a '
Let's Travel to the Scariest Place in The Universe - YouTube
Large areas of the universe are occupied by empty spaces known as voids, vast areas stretching hundreds of millions of light-years and containing almost no luminous objects.
As of the time of writing, humanity has discovered over 8,000 voids, and this number is expected to continue to grow. While galaxy clusters are very large, there are always even larger cavities nearby.
This time, to get a feel for the scale of voids, we will try to search for voids while moving away from the Earth at high speed.
As we move away from the solar system at an incredible speed, we eventually see
Located 2.5 million light-years away is the Andromeda Galaxy and its surrounding satellite galaxies.
On a broader scale, these galaxies are observed as a local group of more than 50 galaxies, woven together by gravity, gas flows, and invisible
Looking even further away, you can see
However, right next to it is a void called
If the Local Void were luminous rather than completely dark, Kurzgesagt says, about 40% of the night sky visible from Earth would be bathed in its light.
Furthermore, if we look around the Local Void and the Virgo Supercluster, we can see many galaxies and the voids lying between them.
The largest void discovered so far is
The Bootes Void is the most complete darkness imaginable, a place with no up or down and no sign of a universe beyond.
However, dark matter exists inside the void, though it is invisible to the naked eye, and the tips of the tentacle-like dark matter can be seen to have a faint bluish tint. These are isolated galaxies inside the void, called
Astronomers once thought the universe was a homogeneous entity, with galaxies evenly spread out.
However, in reality, galaxies, cosmic gas, dark matter, etc. are arranged in a mesh-like pattern, and their distribution is not uniform. The membrane-like structure made up of galaxies is called
These huge structures are called
The void is surrounded by a dense cluster of organized galaxies, each moving through space at millions of kilometers per hour toward the center of a larger cluster of galaxies.
The large-scale structure of the universe is likened to the bubbles of a soap bubble, and it looks as if galaxies are attached to the periphery of a void.
Despite moving at high speeds through space, galaxies do not escape from the galactic filaments into the void because it is extremely difficult to penetrate into the void.
The gravity of the dense cluster of galaxies pulls the moving galaxies towards the center, but there are no objects on the void side that exert a gravitational pull on the galaxies, so they don't fly into the void.
This causes the void to become increasingly empty over time, Kurzgesagt says, making the light of the surrounding galactic filaments denser.
Generally, there is no benefit for humans to jump into the Void, but in the event of an emergency, it may be necessary to escape into the Void.
Dense galaxies are very active, and the gravitational pull of neighboring galaxies causes them to collide and sometimes merge.
On the other hand, because void galaxies are isolated, they age more slowly as galaxies.
Therefore, the Void Galaxy could be the last place that remains habitable if the entire universe dies.
'The last stars in the universe will probably be born here, perhaps in another 100 trillion years or so, when desperate aliens will embark on an impossible journey to survive a little longer in the Void galaxy,' Kurzgesagt said.
Another element that makes the void unique is
Inside the Milky Way and galaxy clusters, there is so much matter being pulled together by gravity that we cannot see dark energy doing anything.
However, inside the void, where there are few celestial bodies, dark energy is gradually expanding the void.
As the void grows, it disrupts the large-scale structure of the universe, slowly tearing apart galactic filaments.
The walls of the galaxy are also stretched and thinned, being drawn towards the denser regions at the periphery.
And one day the two voids will merge into one void.
Kurzgesagt concluded that in the distant future, voids will make up most of the universe.
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