Astronomers discover the largest structure in the universe
The universe's largest known structure has turned out to be nothing more than a supervoid — a.k.a, a really big hole.
Scientists discovered the supervoid, a blob that's a stunning 1.8 billion light years across, during a recent astronomical survey. Istvan Szapudi, who led the research, told The Guardian that the hole may be "the largest individual structure ever identified by humanity."
Szapudi explained that the astronomers had hoped to find the void, because it provides an explanation for why previous reports showed the area as "unusually cool," The Guardian reports. The new research suggests that the "Cold Spot," where the hole was discovered, could be a result of the supervoid draining the energy from light traveling through the region. The void could help explain the universe's formation after the Big Bang, because light photons would lose energy and become cooler after passing through the void, The Guardian explains.
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A giant hole may not seem exciting, but for scientists, the rare find is spectacular. "It just pushed the explanation one layer deeper," Roberto Trotta, a cosmologist at Imperial College London, told The Guardian. "Now we have to figure out how does the void itself form."
