Earth could be in a huge void, Big Bang sound waves suggest

 Hey, Space Placers!

If we are located in a region with below-average density such as the green dot, then matter would flow away from us due to stronger gravity from the surrounding denser regions, as shown by the red arrows. Credit Moritz Haslbauer and Zarija Lukic via RAS

Today we have a very intriguing announcement from the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS)  that suggests our planet is located in a huge void in space. 

As explained in this excellent article:

"Earth and our entire Milky Way galaxy may sit inside a mysterious giant hole which makes the cosmos expand faster here than in neighbouring regions of the universe, astronomers say."

"Their theory is a potential solution to the 'Hubble tension' and could help confirm the true age of our universe, which is estimated to be around 13.8 billion years old."

"The latest research – shared at the Royal Astronomical Society’s National Astronomy Meeting (NAM) in Durham – shows that sound waves from the early universe, "essentially the sound of the Big Bang", support this idea."

To help understand the article I have included the RAS explanations for some of the key terms in the article:

The Hubble constant was first proposed by Edwin Hubble in 1929 to express the rate of the universe's expansion. It can be measured by observing the distance of celestial objects and how fast they are moving away from us.

The Hubble tension refers to the discrepancy in the measured expansion rate of the universe, specifically between the value based on observations of the early universe and value related to observations of the local universe.

Baryon acoustic oscillations are a pattern of wrinkles in the density distribution of the clusters of galaxies spread across the universe. They provide an independent way to measure the expansion rate of the universe and how that rate has changed throughout cosmic history.

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If further research confirms this, it will be a momentous discovery regarding our Universe and where we fit in. It should also lend further insight into dark energy and dark matter.

STAY TUNED!

Sky Guy in VA