Over a decade ago, by measuring microwave radiation, astronomers took an image that showed us the temperature of our universe. This was the beginning of a very peculiar mystery.
They discovered a void in our universe that’s so large, it would take 1.8 BILLION light years to travel through and is said to be missing around 10,000 galaxies. This is the largest structure that has ever been discovered and to this day we are not certain why it exists.
Eridanus supervoid
a recent study suggests that the void is draining energy from light as it travels through it. This is all down to the expansion of our universe. When a photon travels through the void, space expands faster and faster, this drains the photons energy causing it to shift to a lower frequency. The energy is not lost though, once it comes out the other side, its greeted by matter and matter has gravity, giving the photons its energy back.
The simplest explanation for the void is that it's all down to chance. Researchers have discovered that it’s a 1 in 200 chance of a void this size to exist but even at a low number like that, it's still pretty unlikely.
Other theories suggest that it might not even be possible for the universe to create a void of that size. Could you imagine if it was caused by alien technology wiping out a chunk of space that size? Pretty scary but I doubt that’s possible. Another theory explains how a parallel universe could have bumped into our universe causing a cold spot like a thumbprint. At this point in time we can't say for sure but this won't be the last mystery for us to come across.
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