Great 'cosmic nothingness' found

[jason]

Astronomers have found an enormous void in space that measures nearly a billion light-years across. It is empty of both normal matter - such as galaxies and stars - and the mysterious "dark matter" that cannot be seen directly with telescopes.
The "hole" is located in the direction of the Eridanus constellation and has been identified in data from a survey of the sky made at radio wavelengths.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6962185.stm

 

[accer]

I love astronomy and found this really cool. I can't wait for more information to come out about this as they investigate further.

 

[reviewer]

Voids have been known for some time, but such a large void is (of course) unprecedented. It's interesting to think that structure exists even larger than galaxies!

 

[accer]

It's also kind of spooky. It makes you wonder how much nothingness exists in the vastness of space. Of course philosophically, there is no such thing as nothing because when you name it "nothing" you have deemed it something...

 

[jason]

It's also kind of spooky. It makes you wonder how much nothingness exists in the vastness of space. Of course philosophically, there is no such thing as nothing because when you name it "nothing" you have deemed it something...

I'm just wondering if it could be something that we do not know how to see yet. And what would happen if we traveled into it?

 

[reviewer]

Nothing would. It's a lack of anything. Even if we can't "see" something, we should be able to observe its effects (which is a known phenomenon called "dark matter").