Gigantic deserts of almost complete nothingness that make up most of the universe may be causing the expansion of the universe to speed up, new research suggests. That means these vast tracts of nothingness could explain dark energy, the mysterious force that seems to be flinging the universe apart.
The power of nothingAstronomers first detected cosmic voids in the late 1970s, but since then, they've largely been ignored. Astronomers and cosmologists have instead focused on the brightly lit structures of the universe, such as galaxies and clusters. Through those studies, astronomers detected a surprise in the 1990s: dark energy.
What do the voids have to do with dark energy? For one thing, the effects of accelerated expansion aren't felt inside of star systems or galaxies; there, the gravitational attraction of matter is more than strong enough to completely overwhelm it. For example, neither our own solar system nor the Milky Way is getting bigger because of dark energy. But because the voids are almost completely empty, they feel the effects of dark energy far more readily.
Cosmic voids don't simply exist. Like all other large structures in the universe, they grew from humble beginnings into their present enormous stature. Billions of years ago, all the matter in the universe was spread out pretty evenly; there were no big density differences from place to place. But over time, any place that had a little more matter than average started to attract more matter onto it. With more matter, that region had even more attraction, which fueled even more growth.
We get it, giant voids of nothingness. Have at it!
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