The Boötes Void

Imagine standing in the center of a darkness so absolute that even if you looked in every direction with the world’s most powerful telescope, you wouldn't see a single star. Welcome to the Boötes Void. A 330-million-light-year-wide "hole" in the universe that shouldn't exist. Commonly known as The Great Nothing, this spherical expanse of empty space is one of the largest "supervoids" ever discovered. In a region of space this size, we should see roughly 2,000 galaxies. Instead, we’ve found only about 60. It’s an astronomical anomaly that defies our understanding of the cosmic web, and where science leaves a gap, the internet fills it with terrifying possibilities. In this episode, we peel back the layers of the void. We start with the hard science: how was it discovered, how it might have formed. Then we dive into a crazy conspiracy! Join us for the ride.