00:04Why is it that the Milky Way is so lonely?
00:06That is to say, most areas of the universe are actually packed with galaxies, called clusters.
00:11But ours isn't.
00:13Scientists have even come up with a name for our lonely little area of the cosmos.
00:17The local void.
00:18Because it's just that.
00:19Mostly empty space.
00:21Astronomers have estimated that our void is around 200 million light years wide.
00:25Or in other measurements, around 60 megaparsecs.
00:28Now a new study posits that the local void might be inside another larger one.
00:32And it might be 10 times that size.
00:34And that could turn our understanding of physics on its head.
00:37That's because this theory conflicts with the standard model of cosmology.
00:41Which dictates that all matter should be spread out fairly evenly more or less.
00:44Researchers say that doesn't seem to be the case in our void.
00:47And it might have to do with the very speed in which the universe is expanding.
00:51They say in a roughly 3 billion light year area around our galaxy, the universe appears to be expanding faster.
00:57The physicists say that if we are in a void of that size, that would mean there is more matter
01:01outside that area.
01:02Matter that has more mass and therefore considerably more gravity.
01:06With the expansion of the universe being accelerated outwards towards that mass.
01:10Meaning this observation could not only account for the change in speed of the expansion of the universe around us.
01:15But the researchers say this could be the first step in changing our understanding of gravity in more than a
01:21century.
01:21For more information on the marketplace.
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