Are We in a Cosmic Void? New Insights on the Hubble Tension
Earth may be at the center of a 2-billion light-year cosmic void…
It could explain why our local universe appears to be expanding faster than expected.
Earth and the Milky Way might be drifting through a colossal cosmic void spanning two billion light-years, according to a groundbreaking new study. This massive region contains significantly less matter than the rest of the universe, directly challenging the long-held cosmological principle that matter is distributed evenly throughout space. The findings suggest that our galactic home sits within a rare, low-density pocket of the cosmos, making our local neighborhood one of the largest and most unusual structures ever identified in the known universe.
This unique positioning provides a potential solution to the Hubble tension, the persistent disagreement between different measurements of the universe’s expansion rate. Because we are located in an underdense region, the local expansion would naturally appear faster to observers on Earth, potentially resolving this cosmic mystery without the need for new physics or exotic energy theories. Scientists now believe it is 100 times more likely that we reside in such a void than in a region of average density, a discovery that could fundamentally shift our perspective on the Big Bang’s aftermath.
source: Royal Astronomical Society.. Earth Inside Huge Void May Explain Big Bang Expansion Rate Puzzle. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
