We Might Be Sitting in a Massive 'Supervoid' in Space, And That Could Explain The Hubble Tension

05 December 2023
ByMICHELLE STARR



Image showing the distribution of matter in space. The green dot represents the position of the Milky Way in a giant void. (AG Kroupa/University of Bonn)


When we gaze out into the cosmos beyond the borders of the Milky Way, we behold multitudes. Space is teeming with galaxies, speckled across the darkness like stars. If we stopped there, it would be easy to assume that the distribution of galaxies is more or less even throughout space-time.

But there's some method to the madness: rather than wheeling freely about, galaxies tend to concentrate into clusters and clumps and filaments of the cosmic web, attracted by mutual gravity into matter highways, superhighways and nodes.

The inverse of that is voids – regions of significantly lower density, with relatively few galaxies.

A growing body of evidence suggests that the Milky Way galaxy is drifting on the edge of one of these voids in its little corner of the Universe, a bubble of space known rather obviously as the Local Void.

More:
https://www.sciencealert.com/we-might-be-sitting-in-a-massive-supervoid-in-space-and-that-could-explain-the-hubble-tension