mexist
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Immortal since Dec 13, 2007
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    The Great Empty Nothing to Fear
    In this program, scientists discuss recent findings in parts of our universe that for some reason or another contain NOTHING. No gas, stars, or even the dark matter that seems to be ubiquitous in empty space. Pretty strange, but pretty interesting.

    "We'll take a look at an unusual part of space. Scientists studying several maps of space have found a space nearly a billion light-years across that contains nothing — no stars, gas, or galaxies, and not even any of the mysterious dark matter that astronomers believe makes up much of the universe. We'll talk to two of the astronomers who performed the study about their work and what it might mean to find nothing."



    Science Friday Podcast

    Thu, Dec 13, 2007  Permanent link
    10 comments
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    TheJehosephat     Thu, Dec 13, 2007  Permanent link
    Does that have anything to do with this story? http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/070823_huge_hole.html
    mexist     Thu, Dec 13, 2007  Permanent link
    Most definitely!
    TheJehosephat     Thu, Dec 13, 2007  Permanent link
    Yeah, weird stuff. They've found a couple smaller ones recently too. There is this weird theory that it is not just an empty spot but that it's a hole into an alternate universe.
    alborz     Thu, Dec 13, 2007  Permanent link
    Nothing! I gotta check this place out.
    mexist     Thu, Dec 13, 2007  Permanent link
    At this point, I wonder how surprised most people would be if it turned out to be holes in the universe... have you heard about the theory that our observation of the universe is causing it's life to shorten? It's a sticky thing to wrap your mind around, but there's a really good episode on that same podcast where a cosmologist discusses some evidence that may prove this. Imagine, the observation of an object, can affect it's past, not by altering the history in the past, but by some weird mathematical quirk, it does. He stresses that nothing actually "changes", but the past is altered. Argh...
    partymarty     Thu, Dec 13, 2007  Permanent link
    A "structure" of void... wow. Pretty cool way to think about it.
    Testpilot     Thu, Dec 13, 2007  Permanent link
    Incredible. If the universe is expanding and the Big Bang theory is true, could these voids possibly be the center of the universe? Are we stumbling upon the remnants of the origin of the Big Bang?
    jTp     Fri, Dec 14, 2007  Permanent link
    This is amazing to me. Funny how our human minds automatically try to figure out "what is this nothing?:" Maybe it's just......nothing. Or maybe not, since it is a significant chunk of the universe.
    mexist     Fri, Dec 14, 2007  Permanent link
    Our telescopes are looking farther and farther into space, and the farther we look, the younger the universe we are observing, since light takes so long to travel the span. So in essence, we're looking at something close to an infancy of everything. Sort of how we look at the sun, and we THINK we are looking at it, but in actuality, we're looking at an 8-minute-old image of what the sun was. So I guess, in reality, when you're sitting across from your friend, there's still a microcosmic gap between what you are perceiving and what is really there. Hug them next time to close the gap...
    sjef     Fri, Dec 14, 2007  Permanent link
    It's interesting that a void that size would fit the description of one left by the energy requirements of a highly advanced Type III civilization.
     
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