University of Hawaii – Many people have been led into thinking that galaxies are the biggest structures in the universe. However, astronomers have described this as a wrong notion after they discovered what they say could be “the largest individual structure ever identified by humanity.”
The supervoid is an extremely massive cold and dead spot that was discovered by a group of astronomers from the University of Hawaii, led by Istvan Szapudi. It is so wide and bright, factors that have been attached to the theory that “a void so wide that it does funny thing to light.”
The “cold spot” said to be bigger than what was discovered in 2004, releases cosmic microwave radiation in its background. According to the team’s theory, the structure identified billions of light years across the universe. This was in the direction of the Eridanus constellation.
The Planck satellite was used to mark the white-bordered eclipse. Besides, using Pan-STARRS1 and WISE data, the team managed to make a map of the environment of the rare abnormality in the universe. There were unusual, eye-catching light patterns that resulted from the vastness of the void.
According to the astronomers, the light patterns release significant amounts of energy that would make the supervoid weaker. Nonetheless, the superfast expansion of the universe could greatly affect the size of the void.
Voids are unique among cosmic structures and are characterized by an unusually low density of celestial objects. They are part of the topography of the universe. This particular void contains nothing. However, the team of researchers says there could be something in the void considering it as a structure and its hole’s physical shape.
Earlier on in 2004, astronomers discovered an unusually large cold spot in the sky. They were studying the leftover light from the Big Bang commonly referred to as the “cosmic microwave background” (CMB).
There have been different explanations for the spot and as proposed by scientists. However, the latest discovery by Szapudi’s team has the strongest argument so far.