Void (astronomy)

In astronomy, voids are the empty spaces between filaments, the largest-scale structures in the Universe, that contain very few, or no, galaxies. Voids typically have a diameter of 11 to 150 Mpc; particularly large voids, defined by the absence of rich superclusters, are sometimes called supervoids. Voids located in high-density environments are smaller than voids situated in low-density spaces of the universe.^[1]

List of voids

Supervoids

A 1994 census lists a total of 27 supervoids within a cube of 740 Mpc a side, centered on us (z=0.1 distant sphere).^[2]

#	Coordinates (B1950.0)	Distance (Mpc/h) ^{[Note 1]}	Diameter (Mpc/h) ^{[Note 2]}	Notes
1	19.0° −57.1°	134	88
2	28.2° −12.3°	207	96
3	34.8° −61.9°	216	72
4	36.6° −33.5°	241	86
5	37.8° −36.1°	129	92
6	46.0° −21.4°	236	72
7	62.0° −8.0°	248	100
8	71.2° −38.3°	201	76
9	121.7° −1.5°	96	112	Southern Local Supervoid
10	130.0° +49.3°	246	144
11	140.4° +10.5°	160	92
12	146.9° +27.4°	227	106
13	153.1° −11.4°	246	94
14	159.9° +1.2°	167	68
15	161.6° −32.2°	241	98
16	167.4° +22.8°	222	74
17	186.9° −15.6°	216	94
18	196.8° +9.5°	119	102
19	204.8° +35.7°	119	108
20	214.6° +13.6°	216	78	Boötes void (Great Void)
21	216.7° +56.5°	143	116
22	219.8° +57.9°	246	96
23	220.2° +33.9°	219	72
24	256.1° −4.8°	61	104	Northern Local Supervoid
25	353.0° −59.4°	198	74
26	356.6° +22.2°	246	80
27	358.9° −33.1°	241	70

Not shown in the above chart:

Capricornus Void
The claimed Eridanus Supervoid or "Great Void", reported on 24 August 2007 by the NRAO from Very Large Array Sky Survey data.^[3] This void, if real, would be much larger than the others listed here, being about 300/h Mpc in diameter and 1800–3000/h Mpc distant (where h is the Hubble constant). It would be associated with (and be the explanation of) a cold spot in the cosmic microwave background at the sky location. This void is also located at z=1, which is much farther away than those included in the table.
The evidence for such a "Great Void" is disputed by Smith and Huterer.^[4] They showed that the claims made of observational evidence for such a void from survey data neglected systematic effects, and did not account for a posteriori choices made in analyzing data.

Voids

Name	Dimensions	Location	Data	Notes
Local Void	60 Mpc in diameter	18^h 38^m +18°
Giant Void	300 Mpc in diameter	13^h 01^m +38° 49′	z=0.116	First discovered in 1988, it is the largest void in the Northern Galactic Hemisphere before z=0.14 ^[5]
Eridanus Void				This void is separated from the Sculptor void by a sheet of galaxies. ^[6]
Microscopium Void				A hole in the distribution of galaxies separating Sculptor and Microscopium voids the size of (redshift) 1250km/s appears to exist. This is roughly 1/2 of Microscopium's diameter. ^[6]
Ophiucus Void		17^h −25°		Discovered in 2000, the far wall of the void is the Ophiucus Supercluster. ^[7]
Sagittarius Void
Sculptor Void				This void is separated from the Eridanus void by a sheet of galaxies. A hole in the distribution of galaxies separating Sculptor and Micrsocopium voids the size of (redshift) 1250km/s appears to exist. A hole in the distribution of galaxies separating Sculptor and Southern Eridanus voids the size of (redshift) 1250km/s appears to exist. ^[6]
Southern Eridanus Void				The Southern Eridanus void is connected to the Eridanus void by a hole in the distribution of galaxies separating the two. A hole in the distribution of galaxies separating Sculptor and Southern Eridanus voids the size of (redshift) 1250km/s appears to exist. ^[6]
Taurus Void	100 million light years in diameter			The Taurus Void appears large and circular, and has walls of galaxies surrounding it. It lies next to the Perseus-Pisces Supercluster, and is the most visually identifiable. Several galaxies have been found to reside in the void, such as UGC 2627 and UGC 2629, both approximately 185 million light years away. ^[8]

Map

The Universe within 200 million Light Years, showing the nearest galaxy walls.

External links

Universe family tree: Void
a few animated views of voids and their distribution from Hume Feldman with Sergei Shandarin, Dept. Physics and Astronomy, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA.
Visualization of Nearby Large-Scale Structures Fairall, A. P., Paverd, W. R., & Ashley, R. P. Bibcode:1994ASPC...67...21F

References

^ U. Lindner, J. Einasto, M. Einasto, W. Freudling, K. Fricke, E. Tago (1995). The Structure of Supervoids I: Void Hierarchy in the Northern Local Supervoid "The structure of supervoids. I. Void hierarchy in the Northern Local Supervoid". Astron. Astrophys. 301: 329. {{cite journal}}: Check |url= value (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ Einasto, M (1994-07-15), "The Structure of the Universe Traced by Rich Clusters of Galaxies", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 269 Bibcode:1994MNRAS.269..301E
^ "Astronomers Find Enormous Hole in the Universe". National Radio Astronomy Observatory Press release, retrieved 24 August 2007.
^ "No evidence for the cold spot in the NVSS radio survey", Kendrick Smith and Dragan Huterer (2008).
^ Template:PDF Kopylov, A. I.; Kopylova, F. G. (2002) "Search for streaming motion of galaxy clusters around the Giant Void" Astronomy and Astrophysics, v.382, p.389-396 Bibcode:2002A&A...382..389K doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20011500
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Astronomy and Astrophysics, vol. 229, no. 1, March 1990, p. 75-79. ; "A two-dimensional sheet of galaxies between two southern voids" ; 03/1990 ; ISSN 0004-6361 ; Bibcode:1990A&A...229...75M
^ Template:PDF Hasegawa, Takashi; Wakamatsu, Ken-ichi; Malkan, Matthew; Sekiguchi, Kazuhiro; Menzies, John W.; Parker, Quentin A.; Jugaku, Jun; Karoji, Hiroshi; Okamura, Sadanori (2000) "Large-scale structure of galaxies in the Ophiuchus region" Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 316, Issue 2, pp. 326-344 Bibcode:2000MNRAS.316..326H doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2000.03531.x
^ NASA, "Cosmic Distance Scale"

Notes

^ To the center of the void
^ This is the diameter of the largest sphere one can describe inside the void that contains no superclusters. Some voids have an elongated shape, so this diameter may underrepresent the size of some voids.

[1] U. Lindner, J. Einasto, M. Einasto, W. Freudling, K. Fricke, E. Tago (1995). The Structure of Supervoids I: Void Hierarchy in the Northern Local Supervoid "The structure of supervoids. I. Void hierarchy in the Northern Local Supervoid". Astron. Astrophys. 301: 329. {{cite journal}}: Check |url= value (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

[2] Einasto, M (1994-07-15), "The Structure of the Universe Traced by Rich Clusters of Galaxies", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 269 Bibcode:1994MNRAS.269..301E

[5] "Astronomers Find Enormous Hole in the Universe". National Radio Astronomy Observatory Press release, retrieved 24 August 2007.

[6] "No evidence for the cold spot in the NVSS radio survey", Kendrick Smith and Dragan Huterer (2008).

[7] Template:PDF Kopylov, A. I.; Kopylova, F. G. (2002) "Search for streaming motion of galaxy clusters around the Giant Void" Astronomy and Astrophysics, v.382, p.389-396 Bibcode:2002A&A...382..389K doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20011500

[AA-229-1-8] Astronomy and Astrophysics, vol. 229, no. 1, March 1990, p. 75-79. ; "A two-dimensional sheet of galaxies between two southern voids" ; 03/1990 ; ISSN 0004-6361 ; Bibcode:1990A&A...229...75M

[9] Template:PDF Hasegawa, Takashi; Wakamatsu, Ken-ichi; Malkan, Matthew; Sekiguchi, Kazuhiro; Menzies, John W.; Parker, Quentin A.; Jugaku, Jun; Karoji, Hiroshi; Okamura, Sadanori (2000) "Large-scale structure of galaxies in the Ophiuchus region" Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 316, Issue 2, pp. 326-344 Bibcode:2000MNRAS.316..326H doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2000.03531.x

[10] NASA, "Cosmic Distance Scale"

[3] To the center of the void

[4] This is the diameter of the largest sphere one can describe inside the void that contains no superclusters. Some voids have an elongated shape, so this diameter may underrepresent the size of some voids.

[1]

[2]

[Note 1]

[Note 2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

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