C
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osmic
Void, literal meaning of these two words are cosmic vacuum. This cosmic void
still is a mysterious matter to astronomers in the twenty first century.
Scientists have been relentlessly pursuing this mystery of creation through
mathematical analysis and observation.
To understand the
cosmic void, we must first understand how this universe was created. In this
regard the most useful tool which can help us is ‘The Big Bang Theory’.
This word first came to limelight in 1927 by Belgian Catholic priest Georges
Lemaitre. Later,
the theory was established in 1929 by Sir Edwin Hubble, a renowned US
astronomer with various mathematical analysis and proofs.
According to the
theory of scientists, that explosion took place at the particle, smaller than
the proton of an atom, about 13.8 billion or 1,380 crore years ago, called the Cosmic
Point of Singularity. That
had created and initiated two important events, namely Time and Substances
or Matter. Heated substances were in its fourth form or the Plasma
State. From then onwards, the entire substance were scattered all
around. Substances that can be seen and observed are called Baryonic
Matter and those that cannot be seen or monitored are called Dark
Matter.
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| Sir Edwin Hubble |
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| The Big Bang (Imaginary illustration) |
All
of these substances came close to the influence of gravitational forces in
themselves and formed various complex structures, such as stars, galaxies,
super clusters, etc. The point here to mention is that, the association
of numbers of small or medium sized galaxies is called Super Clusters. The super clusters are
identified as the largest single element in universe. With 54 galaxies
including the Milky Way, our local cluster is formed which is the
part of the Virgo Cluster. The diameter of this Virgo cluster
extends over 11 crore light years. This Virgo cluster is again the part of the Laniakea
Cluster which has a diameter of about 50 crore light years. In this way, various super
clusters came together under the influence of gravitational force and formed
the complex structure called Filament.
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| Cosmic Filament |
In the year 1970,
scientists adopted the Red Shift Survey, a method for
constructing the Map of the Universe, where the map was created based on the
wavelength of light coming from every objects of the universe. The second
purpose of that approach was to see how fast the universe is expanding after
the Big Bang. At
the time of this map observation it was noticed that, the distribution of the celestial
substances were not uniformly distributed in all around. This is because of the
type of wave called the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation. It is a
cosmic mechanical wave that changes the density of substances. It was only
after the Big Bang that, this cosmic wave began which is still spreading to
every part of the universe and is gradually expanding the universe.
Just after the Big
Bang, the Baryon Acoustic Swing or the cosmic wave began and from that onwards
the uneven distribution of substances began. At the initial state, the distance
between the substances, generated due to the uneven distribution, were very
little but now, after 1,380 crore years later of the Big Bang, the very little
distances have been converted into gigantic light years. Filament rich regions
became high-density regions and relatively empty or void regions became
low-density regions
.
The term 'Void'
was first time introduced to us by Dr. Stephan Gregory and Dr. Laird
Thompson through their research paper in 1978.
The void is an
apparently huge empty space which is spread over few hundred crore light years.
Void separates the filament-rich region of universe. However, in reality, they
are not empty. The voids also contain dust, gas, dark matter and a few
galaxies. However, the substances cannot exist in close association like the
filament rich region. The average density of space is the number of galaxies
present in per unit volume of universe. Average density of void is one tenth of the
average density of filamented area, that is, ten percent of the total number of
galaxies present in per unit volume in the filamented region is present in per
unit volume of void. This shows that the distribution of matter in the universe
has not been uniform.
In
the future, the expansion of the voids will increase further in the space and
in the universe, the voids will dominate. Due to the expansion of the
voids, the gravitational force in the filament will gradually become weak, and
there will come a time when the bonds of the filament will break apart and they
will fall apart. Different voids will mix up with each other and form larger
monster voids. After that, the filaments will float in the voids just like the
different sizes of islands float on the sea in our earth.
This
time when the idea about cosmic voids has been cleared up, here are some of the giant and famous cosmic voids that if not mentioned, the text will remain incomplete.
The
first name to be mentioned is Bootes Void. Dr. Robert Krishner
discovered this cosmic void in 1981. This cosmic void with a radius of 30 crore
light years is about 70 crore light years away from our Earth. There should be
at least 2,000 galaxies present in this super void, but till date there are
only 60 galaxies found.
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| Bootes Void |
This
is followed by the Canes Venatici Cosmic Void or Giant Void.
In 1988, a joint team of scientists discovered this cosmic void. This cosmic
void is located in the Northern Galactic Hemisphere. This cosmic
void with a diameter of about 130 crore light years is present about 170 crore light
years away from our Earth. There should be at least 8,000 galaxies present in
this super void, but till date there are only 17 galaxies found.
The
largest cosmic void found, so far, has been named KBC Cosmic Void
or Local Hole. Dr. Amy Barger, Dr. Ryan Keenan, and
Dr. Lennox Cowie are the scientists who discovered this Cosmic Void in
the year 2013. The cosmic void, with a diameter of 200 crore light years, is
greater than seven times of the average volume of the cosmic voids. A detailed
study of this cosmic void is still underway, so the total number of galaxies in
this cosmic void has not yet been determined.
Now
this is the time to mention the most exciting subject in this article. In case
of the first two cosmic voids, the distance of those particular voids from the
earth are mentioned, but with regards to the third cosmic void there is no
mention of its distance from the earth. The only reason for this is that, the
distance from this cosmic void to the earth is zero, which is surprising, but
it is true that our earth, our galaxy, is in this vast cosmic void. We are
residents of this great cosmic void. The distance from our Earth to the center of
the KBC Cosmic Void is only a few crore light years.
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| Dr. Amy Barger |
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| Dr. Lennox Cowie |
It must be said that human intelligence and the effectiveness of the
machine are bringing us new kinds of reality every day and whether this ever
new reality will be a blessing or a curse, will be determined by time itself.
However, there is no way to deny that the stream of real origin of such
reality will continue to come in the future.
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| Dr. Ryan Keenan |
