spacetoday.net: Astronomers find giant void in universe

Astronomers find giant void in universe

Posted: Fri, Aug 24, 2007, 9:25 AM ET (1325 GMT)
Hole in universe seen by VLA and WMAP (NRAO)

Radio astronomers have discovered a giant "hole" in a region of the universe 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 6-10 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 a mystery.