We often say that the matter in the universe is evenly distributed in various spaces after the Big Bang, and over time, because the expansion rate of the universe and the size relationship between celestial galaxies are unbalanced, resulting in its gravitational effect on matter is also different, so there are more white spaces in the universe.
But in general, the distribution of matter and galaxies in the universe is relatively balanced, and there will be no particularly large deviation.
However, scientists have found a very large "void" in the northeast direction of the Northern Virgo galaxy. The diameter of this void is about 250 million light-years, and the distance between it and the Earth is about 700 million light-years.
At this location, which is more than 2,500 times larger than the Milky Way's 100,000 light-years, there are so few stars inside it that it becomes a huge blank space that scientists have named the "Shepherd's Hollow."
The shepherd constellation is hollow
As one of the largest known voids in the universe, the number of galaxies in the Mufus void is so few that it takes almost an average of 10 million light-years to find a galaxy.
We can compare it this way: the diameter of the Milky Way is only about 1/2500 of the diameter of the constellation of The Shepherd, and in terms of volume, the name of the Shepherd can hold tens of millions of galaxies. In this "tiny" Galaxy, there are 100-400 billion stars alone, but in this huge Shepherd constellation, scientists have found only 60 galaxies here in the more than a decade from its discovery in 1981 to 1997. The gap is quite large, so sometimes the shepherd constellation is also called "super hollow".
According to the calculations of scientists on the distribution of galaxies in other spaces, it is reasonable to have at least 2,000 galaxies in the constellation of Shepherd, but the reality is quite rare, and the distance between them is quite far, averaging almost 10 million light years. Why is Shepherd so empty?
Because galaxies are too rare, there is a view that the original material in the Mughals void may have been taken away by other gravitational matter around it in the early stage of its formation, and later the universe expanded, and the faster-than-light speed between galaxies was far away, and the Shepherd's void was naturally getting bigger and bigger.
From some sparse galaxy distributions, it has been suggested that the super-large void in the constellation Shepherd may have been formed by the combination of multiple small voids. It is also believed that the sign of Shepherd is not empty, it is full of dark matter and dark energy.
The formation of cosmic voids
Scientists have found some (deep) blue regions from the microwave background radiation distribution map that studies the heat distribution of the universe after the Big Bang, which are the "holes" of the universe with energy-poor and extremely sparse material distribution.
There are not many "hollows" in the universe, and Shepherd is only one of them. The largest cosmic void discovered by mankind is far more terrifying than the size of the constellation Ofos, and its diameter can reach 1.8 billion light years, which is simply an invincible giant, known as a "super hollow".
These voids are not meant to be a complete vacuum, but in terms of the total distribution of matter in the universe, the matter here is 20% less than other regions, and the density is super low. When there are voids in the universe, no places for galaxies are found, and naturally there are no stars, planets, and other matter. Because there is no celestial body that can exist alone from galaxies.
That is, in a way, we can understand the voids of the universe as dark regions of "nothingness," including the Vulture void.
Maybe some people think that the gap between galaxies is too large? Where did so much empty talk come from?
From the scientists' study of the cosmic void, about 10,000 galaxies disappeared from the universe, and the area where they were originally located also lost energy because of the "hidden" of matter, gradually cooling down into a low temperature area of the universe, and it is also very much the blue part of the cosmic microwave background radiation map mentioned above, the darker the color, the lower the temperature, there is almost no matter here.
But in this case, scientists can't figure out where the stars are going, or why galaxies are far away from this region. It has been suggested that if this is attributed to dark matter, then it can be explained that the formation of the void may be related to the activity of dark matter.
So is there any other possibility besides dark matter? Some scientists have proposed another possibility: the expansion of advanced civilizations in the universe. How to understand this?
What did the higher civilization do?
For the speculation and exploration of cosmic civilizations, the world has never lacked the view of advanced civilizations other than humans. After all, the universe currently has no boundaries for human beings, and it is not entirely certain whether there will be civilizations that we do not know.
According to the kardashev civilization level, the universe should have three major stages Chinese: planetary energy utilization, star system energy utilization, and (Milky Way) parent galaxy energy utilization.
Based on this understanding, we can boldly guess: Will the voids in the universe be caused by advanced civilizations that can harness the energy of other galaxies in the universe?
In order to better develop their own civilization, these high civilizations will take away, store, use, and consume the energy of the galaxy, leaving only a void where there is nothing, and when the galactic energy in the vicinity is all absorbed, the scope of the higher civilization's demand for galactic energy will continue to increase, and the void will become larger and larger.
Such speculation is not completely unreasonable, but it is a bit exaggerated, the energy utilization of a star system is already exaggerated enough, how advanced civilization will consume tens of millions of galactic energy? According to this consumption, how long will the galactic energy in the universe be enough for these civilizations to consume?
Obviously, not many people agree with such a view.
Other astronomers believe that these low-temperature regions of space are evidence of cosmic cycles. However, the theory of cosmic circulation is still in the stage of speculation and confirmation, and which view is more informative will have to wait for more astronomical observations.