Astronomers discover largest known structure in the universe is ... a big hole

[Surya Gayatri]

Scientists searching for an explanation for an unusually cool area of sky instead discovered a supervoid: an empty spherical blob 1.8 billion light years across.


An earlier image from the Planck telescope shows the Cold Spot, circled. Photograph: ESA and the Planck Collaboration

Astronomers have discovered what they say is the largest known structure in the universe: an incredibly big hole.

The “supervoid”, as it is known, is a spherical blob 1.8 billion light years across that is distinguished by its unusual emptiness.

István Szapudi, who led the work at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, described the object as possibly “the largest individual structure ever identified by humanity”.

Its existence only emerged thanks to a targeted astronomical survey, which confirmed that around 10,000 galaxies were “missing” from the part of the sky it sits in.

The so-called Cold Spot was discovered 10 years ago and has proved a sticking point for the best current models for how the universe evolved following the Big Bang. Cosmological theory allows for a bit of patchiness in the background temperature, due to warmer and cooler spots of various sizes emerging in the infant universe, but areas as large and cold as the Cold Spot are unexpected.

The structure may sound unremarkable – hardly a standalone object even – but scientists say it is unprecedented given how evenly distributed the universe normally is at this spatial scale. “This is the greatest supervoid ever discovered,” Kovács said. “In combination of size and emptiness, our supervoid is still a very rare event. We can only expect a few supervoids this big in the observable universe.”

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Who knew? A big hole runs through it...


http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/apr/20/astronomers-discover-largest-known-structure-in-the-universe-is-a-big-hole

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. The collective intelligence of the GOP?

[Surya Gayatri]

2. But, they say it's not a total vacuum. Smarter than the average GOPer.

[LondonReign2]

3. Vogons

[Surya Gayatri]

4. Cultural ref. I don't understand...care to explain?

Something to do with Dr. Who?

[LondonReign2]

5. Hitchhikers actually

[Surya Gayatri]

6. That's one I'd forgotten...LOL!

But, do you need your towel to go there?

[LondonReign2]

7. It could have been the result of a Vogon poetry recitial

and all the stars chose to move away.

[Surya Gayatri]

9. I don't recall. Was their poetry that execrable?

[LondonReign2]

13. Third Worst in the Universe!

Vogon poetry is a variety of poetry, often considered to be one of the worst in the universe.

"Vogon poetry is of course, the third worst in the universe. The second worst is that of the Azgoths of Kria. During a recitation by their poet master Grunthos the Flatulent of his poem "Ode to a Small Lump of Green Putty I Found in My Armpit One Midsummer Morning", four of his audience died of internal hemorrhaging and the president of the Mid-Galactic Arts Nobbling Council survived only by gnawing one of his own legs off. Grunthos was reported to have been "disappointed" by the poem's reception, and was about to embark on a reading of his 12-book epic entitled "My Favourite Bathtime Gurgles" when his own major intestine - in a desperate attempt to save life itself - leapt straight up through his neck and throttled his brain. The very worst poetry of all perished along with its creator, Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings of Sussex, in the destruction of the planet Earth. Vogon poetry is mild by comparison. "

[Surya Gayatri]

16. Oh god, I'd forgotten how much I loved that book. It's been 30 years.

"Ode to a Small Lump of Green Putty I Found in My Armpit One Midsummer Morning"...

Bwaaahaaaaa!

[DirkGently]

19. Oh freddled gruntbuggly, thy micturations are to me

As plurdled gabbleblotchits on a lurgid bee.

[hifiguy]

10. Shit, they went to the wrong place

and destroyed the wrong galaxy cluster.

No one ever said Vogons were the brightest bulbs on the marquee.

[hifiguy]

8. Dark matter and dark energy surely have something to do with this.

Those remain the big cosmological mysteries.

[Surya Gayatri]

11. You said a bunch there, hifiguy!

[NuttyFluffers]

12. Azathoth.

if we focus our satellites there we might get to hear the mad pipings that entertain it.

[Surya Gayatri]

14. Maybe that's what they'll christen it...

[brooklynite]

15. Didn't I see this in a Star Trek episode?

[Surya Gayatri]

17. Good chance...there weren't too many places left unvisited by the Enterprise.

[GeorgeGist]

18. Rabbit hole

[Delphinus]

20. I wish

I was young enough to become an astronomer. Had wanted to when I was a child, but I was a girl and that was a long time ago ...