Astronomy Answers
Universe Family Tree: Void

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Matter in the Universe is distributed at large scales as in a kind of foam, with large voids that contain hardly any galaxies (or none at all), and with filaments in between that contain almost all galaxies. The diameters of voids vary between about 11 Mpc and 150 Mpc [1]. The largest voids are defined by the absence of rich galaxy clusters. Such voids are sometimes called supervoids.

A recent census of rich galaxy clusters up to a redshift z = 0.2 (distance 740 Mpc) lists 27 supervoids, with a median (a kind of average) minor diameter of 130 Mpc [2]. All supervoids from that census at distances up to 211 Mpc and all those that have a proper name are listed below. "nr" is the identification number of the supervoid in the census, "name" the proper name (if any), "dist" the distance from the center of the supervoid to us, and "diam" the minor diameter of the supervoid. All lengths are mentioned in units of Mpc.

Table 1: Space Voids

The Local Supercluster, the supercluster that our galaxy is in, lies at the edges of the Northern and Southern Local Supervoids.

1. References

1. "The structure of supervoids. I. Void hierarchy in the Northern Local Supervoid." U. Lindner, J. Einasto, M. Einasto, W. Freudling, K. Fricke, E. Tago; Astron. Astrophys., v.301, p.329 (1995) [ADS 1995A&A...301..329L]
2. "The structure of the Universe traced by rich clusters of galaxies." M. Einasto, J. Einasto, E. Tago, G. B. Dalton, H Andernach. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 269, 301 (1994) [ADS 1994MNRAS.269..301E]

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Last updated: 2021-07-19