Cosmic Scale
Boötes Void
Cosmic void · 700 million light-years
How big is Boötes Void?
Boötes Void is about 400 million light-years across.
See Boötes Void in 3D, at true scale
The Boötes Void is an enormous, nearly empty bubble in space about 400 million light-years across. A region that size would normally hold about 2,000 galaxies; only about 60 have been found in it.
At a glance
| Diameter | 400 million light-years |
|---|---|
| Diameter compared with Earth | 3.0 × 10¹⁷ × Earth |
| Distance | 700 million light-years |
| Size | About 400 million light-years |
| Galaxies | About 60 |
| Discovered | 1981, Robert Kirshner |
Good to know
- If the Milky Way were in its centre, we would not have known other galaxies existed until the 1960s.
- It is sometimes called the Great Nothing.
- Voids like it fill most of the volume of the universe; galaxies gather on their walls.
- Next smaller: Shapley Supercluster · 160 million light-years
- Next larger: Laniakea Supercluster · 520 million light-years