Much to scientists' surprise, a tremendous black hole was spotted in the universe, devoid of stars, gas and other normal matter, and also strangely empty of the mysterious "dark matter" that permeates the cosmos.

; It is 1 billion light years across of nothing. That's an expanse of nearly 6 billion trillion miles of emptiness, a University of Minnesota team announced Thursday.

Other space voids have been found before, but what the Minnesota team discovered, using two different types of astronomical observations, is a void that's far bigger than scientists ever imagined.

"This is 1,000 times the volume of what we sort of expected to see in terms of a typical void," said Minnesota astronomy professor Lawrence Rudnick, author of the paper that will be published in Astrophysical Journal. "It's not clear that we have the right word yet ... This is too much of a surprise."

The gargantuan hole was found by examining observations made using the Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope, funded by the National Science Foundation.

One area of the universe had radio pictures indicating there was up to 45 percent less matter in that region, Rudnick said.

There is a "remarkable drop in the number of galaxies" in a region of sky in the constellation Eridanus, Rudnick said.

The region had been previously been dubbed the "WMAP Cold Spot," because it stood out in a map of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation made by NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotopy Probe (WMAP) satellite. The CMB is an imprint of radiation left from the Big Bang, the theoretical beginning of the universe.

Astronomers may eventually find a few cosmic structures in the void, but it would still be nearly empty, said Brent Tully, a University of Hawaii astronomer who wasn't part of this research but studies the void closer to Earth.

Holes in the universe probably occur when the gravity from areas with bigger mass pulls matter from less dense areas, Tully said.

Any signs of anything that may have consumed the nearby matter? My thoughts are that the shape of the void and actions of the viewable matter at its horizons will give hints to the location or existance of its possible creator/s. A small so as not to be seen but emencly powerful black hole thats been busy cleaning its little part of the universe even of dark matter? Then again, maybe its the very center of the big bang.

Or then again, nightrover is right and everything ends in meaninglessness.

the result of a superadvanced race blowing itself up prehaps?

Someone correct me if I'm wrong. But even thousands of black holes put next to each other couldn't prodiuce a void that big in space. Much less a WMD created by intelligent life.

Maybe there was a gigantic solar system, that gave rise to a gigantic form of life on gigantic planets, that in its course of evolution made a... very big mistake! ;-) When we let off the first bomb it is a fact that we didn't really know what would happen. (actual fear of blowing up the universe!)
Maybe they found a much more potent form of destruction, If so i hope we have learned a bit more before we find it too..
Or maybe its a space of nothing so big we find it hard to imagine, leading to us all speculating very hard about its existence in the first place.

It's mind-boggling to imagine there being nothing, not even dark matter. Very hard to wrap your mind around.

Just by sheer laws of physics alone no alien life, even in a far distant galaxy from ours, can be much different in size from ours. Too big and they will collapse on their own mass.

Im open to the possibilities of lifeforce's we might not have the capacity to comprehend yet.
Made of shifting energy alone, or something else too strange to be of any natural/physical sense to us at this current age of our minds..
I refuse to limit the posiblitities of what can exist to what we know.
Although i do stay within the boundries of sanity for my personal quest for knowledge, i also keep a very open mind.
Sometimes i see the similarity of space and the solar systems to atomic structures..
with the stars being the nucleus and the planets and things being their little orbiting protons/elecrtons or whatever, (dont they seem very similar?) Making us some life form that evolved inside a tiny atomic structure that makes up something else and so on and so forth both ways forever?
A bit like looking in a mirror with one behind you also..
(More of my many speculations) ;-)

Thats exactly how I see the Universe Succubus, infinite and fractal, life layered on top and within. Most astronomers will scoff at the notion of similarities, but there are a few philosopher astronomers who would agree.

I'm a little more sceptical about apparent celestial observations, I just think the further we stretch our primitive technologies the easier a mistake can be made. A single mistake can then alter our civilisations path for hundreds of years.

Don't you know? Our solar system is inside this universe, which is lost inside the nucleus of some hydrogen atom lost inside some salesman's pocket... I heard he sells Enciclopedia Brittanica for a living, but that information is not confirmed... yet.

The real trouble would be ending up in a power plant workers pocket..
Our universe destroyed by a glowing stinky ball of lint, aaaarrh!
I just love possibilities and maybe's.. ;-)

LMAO!

Succubus,
Have you ever seen that one Simpsons' opening gag, where our universe is a very small particle that connects with millions of other tiny particles to make up larger particles that, in turn, make up one cell on Homer's head? It seems like Matt Groening and you should exchange ideas.

I make no oppoligies for my thoughts.
I have applied them in a respecful manner.
I dont watch much TV unless there is an interesting documentary showing..
Sometimes people need to have an open mind to grasp what im talking about.
Most times what im saying is mearly a means to convey my point,
and taken literally would make no sense..
I use alot of metaphors ;-)