00:00 This picture represents one of the most terrifying places in the universe.
00:02 The Void of the Bouvier, also known as the Great Void, was discovered in 1980.
00:06 This cosmic void is a huge region where the density of galaxies is much lower than the average observed in the universe.
00:11 In short, it appears like a giant hole in the universe.
00:14 To really grasp the size of this void, you have to zoom back beyond all the local stellar systems and even galaxies to the cosmic web.
00:20 Expanded over nearly 330 million light years, this void contains only 60 galaxies, while a comparable size region should normally contain half.
00:27 This means that if you were to be placed in the center, we think that regardless of the direction you would look, you would only see total darkness and would not even know that other galaxies exist.
00:35 According to the astronomer Greg Aldering, the scale of the void is such that if the Milky Way was in the center of the void, we would not have known that there were other galaxies before the 60s.
00:42 And there is a very big debate among astronomers around the formation of this void.
00:45 Indeed, there has not been enough time since the beginning of the universe for the gravitational forces to be able to clean such a large region.
00:51 A theory therefore suggests that the Void of the Bouvier could be the result of quantum fluctuations during cosmic inflation.
00:56 A period of exponential growth in the very first moments of the universe.
00:59 And for more videos on space, subscribe to Omniscience.
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