Radio astronomers have discovered a giant „hole“ in a region of the universe nearly devoid of any sort of matter, they announced Thursday. In a paper to be published in the Astrophysical Journal, University of Minnesota astronomers reported the discovery of the void, nearly a billion light-years across and about 6 to 10 billion light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Eridanus. The void was detected in data collected in a sky survey by the Very Large Array radio telescope in New Mexico. The void appears to lack any sort of matter, including invisible dark matter, and coincides with a „cold spot“ in the cosmic microwave background as measured by NASA’s WMAP spacecraft. The cause of the void is unclear.
Astronomers Find Enormous Hole in the Universe