Embark on a cosmic journey to explore "Stranded in a Supervoid" on Above and Beyond. Delve into astronomy's vast Supervoids, leaving enormous voids amidst stupendous galaxy clusters. Discover the Bootes Supervoid with only 60 galaxies instead of thousands. Imagine the desolate abyss and the challenge of astronomers in the past trying to make sense of such wonders. Join us on this mind-bending astronomical adventure!
Transcript:
In astronomy, there’s a topic that has nothing to do with things, and more to do with emptiness—vast stretches of space, hundreds of millions of light years across. They’re aptly named Supervoids.
See, galaxies are made of stars. As a result they have gravitational influence pulling other galaxies towards them. More galaxies beget more gravity and more pulling, creating stupendous galaxy clusters (of course), but also leaving enormous voids in their wake.
Find the Bootes constellation in tonight’s sky and know that far beyond the connect-the-dot-stars lies one of these great nothings, the Bootes Supervoid.
This Supervoid is so big, it should have two thousand or so galaxies. Instead, astronomers have found a 60.
Stranded galaxies.
An abyss so desolate that if humans had evolved in the center of this void, we wouldn’t have had the telescopes to discover another galaxy until the nineteen sixties.
Imagine researchers back then making sense of that one.