Space : Boötes Void, The Only Galactic Void in The Known Universe

Last updated on May 2nd, 2024 at 05:07 pm

There is a region in space where very few galaxies are concentrated, which we can count on our fingers (almost), a region 250 million light years large.

Scientists have said that if we were born on a planet inside one of these Bootes Void galaxieswe wouldn’t have discovered the existence of other galaxies until the 1960s.

The Void of Bootes, named after the nearby constellation of the same name, is something rare, the classic exception that proves the rule.

It was considered a supervoid for a long time but then small galaxies were discovered inside it, although not crowded together; today there are around 60 of them.

But be careful not to confuse the Bootes Void with the Barnard Nebula 68.

The Botes void is named after the constellation Bootes, which is the Latin name for “herdsman” or “plowman.”, also named Botes void.

#### About the Botes Void

The Botes void, also known as the Great Nothing, is an enormous region of space that contains few galaxies. It is located in the vicinity of the constellation Botes, hence the name. The Botes void is approximately 330 million light-years (236,000 megaparsecs) in diameter, making it one of the largest-known voids in the Universe, often referred to as a “supervoid”. Its center is located at approximately right ascension 14h 50m, declination 46, and is around 700 million light years from Earth. The void is theorized to have formed from the merger of smaller voids, much like the way in which soap bubbles coalesce to form larger bubbles, which accounts for the small number of galaxies that populate it.

#### Size and Characteristics

The Botes void measures 250 to 330 million light-years across, which is about 2 percent of the diameter of the entire observable universe. It contains only 60 galaxies instead of the 2000 that would be expected from an area this large. This makes it one of the largest known voids in the Universe, accounting for 0.27% of the diameter of the entire Universe.

#### Discovery and Exploration

The Botes void was first discovered in 1981 as part of a survey on galactic redshifts, and its discovery was reported by Robert Kirshner. Initially, astronomers were only able to find eight galaxies across the expanse, but further observations revealed a total of 60 galaxies. Slowly, astronomers began to find galaxies in the region, and by 1997 around 60 galaxies had been confirmed in the void.

#### Theories and Significance

The existence of the Botes Void challenges the standard story of the universe’s past. The pattern of galaxies and voids is thought to arise from tiny quantum fluctuations in the fabric of space-time at nearly the beginning of time that have been stretched to galactic proportions as the universe expanded. However, given the age of the universe and its rate of expansion, there has only been enough time for galaxies and voids to form on a scale of tens of millions of light years, not hundreds, which makes the Botes Void a mystery challenging our standard understanding of the universe’s history.

The Botes void is an intriguing area of study due to its massive size and the implications it has for our understanding of the structure and history of the universe.