Voids
Overview
Cosmic voids are immense areas with little or no galaxies. These exist between filaments of galaxies and are typically tens of millions or hundreds of millions of light years in diameter. They are the negative space in the large-scale structure of the universe.
A mapping of the voids via labels. It’s difficult to capture these 3-D voids in a 2-D image like this, but labels sit in the middle of known voids. Here we see several voids noted, including the nearby Local Void.
Note
The Void Labels data are designed to be shown with the Tully Galaxies.
Why Are Voids Important?
Voids are a tracer of the evolution of the universe. The cold spots in the cosmic microwave background images are believed to evolve into the voids we see today. (The warmer spots in the images are believed to evolve into the large-scale structure of galaxies and matter we currently see—more on this in the cosmic microwave background section.)
Voids likely have some matter in them, but are overshadowed by the more massive galaxies that gravitate toward the large-scale structure that we see—clusters, superclusters, and filaments of galaxies.
Voids are often roughly spherical, partly shaped by the expansion of the universe. They, therefore, are important for studying dark energy and other properties of the expanding universe that shape them. As the universe expands, the changing shape of the voids reveals to us the nature of the dark energy and parameters of the universe.
A view of the void labels from outside the Tully Galaxies. Again, it’s a lot easier to see these when you’re viewing this interactively in OpenSpace. But, when you orbit these data, you will see these labels in areas of emptiness—bubbles that are defined by the large-scale structure of the galaxies around them.
Profiles
Dossier
Census: |
24 cosmic voids |
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Asset File: |
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OpenSpace Version: |
2 |
Reference: |
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Prepared by: |
Brian Abbott (AMNH) |
Source Version: |
1.02 |
License: |