Aug 23, 9:43 PM EDT

*Astronomers Puzzled by Gigantic Cosmic Black Hole*

By SETH BORENSTEIN
AP Science Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Astronomers have stumbled upon a tremendous hole in
the universe. That's got them scratching their heads about what's just
not there. The cosmic blank spot has no stray stars, no galaxies, no
sucking black holes, not even mysterious dark matter. It is 1 billion
light years across of nothing. That's an expanse of nearly 6 billion
trillion miles of emptiness, a University of Minnesota team announced
Thursday.

Astronomers have known for many years that there are patches in the
universe where nobody's home. In fact, one such place is practically a
neighbor, a mere 2 million light years away. But what the Minnesota team
discovered, using two different types of astronomical observations, is a
void that's far bigger than scientists ever imagined.

"This is 1,000 times the volume of what we sort of expected to see in
terms of a typical void," said Minnesota astronomy professor Lawrence
Rudnick, author of the paper that will be published in Astrophysical
Journal. "It's not clear that we have the right word yet ... This is too
much of a surprise."

Rudnick was examining a sky survey from the National Radio Astronomy
Observatory, which essentially takes radio pictures of a broad expanse
of the universe. But one area of the universe had radio pictures
indicating there was up to 45 percent less matter in that region,
Rudnick said.

The rest of the matter in the radio pictures can be explained as stars
and other cosmic structures between here and the void, which is about 5
to 10 billion light years away.

Rudnick then checked observations of cosmic microwave background
radiation and found a cold spot. The only explanation, Rudnick said, is
it's empty of matter.

It could also be a statistical freak of nature, but that's probably less
likely than a giant void, said James Condon, an astronomer at the
National Radio Astronomy Observatory. He wasn't part of Rudnick's team
but is following up on the research.

"It looks like something to be taken seriously," said Brent Tully, a
University of Hawaii astronomer who wasn't part of this research but
studies the void closer to Earth.

Tully said astronomers may eventually find a few cosmic structures in
the void, but it would still be nearly empty.

Holes in the universe probably occur when the gravity from areas with
bigger mass pull matter from less dense areas, Tully said. After 13
billion years "they are losing out in the battle to where there are
larger concentrations of matter," he said.

Retired NASA astronomer Steve Maran said of the discovery: "This is
incredibly important for something where there is nothing to it."

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On the Net:

Rudnick paper: http://xxx.lanl.gov/pdf/0704.0908

National Radio Astronomy Observatory: http://www.nrao.edu/pr/2007/coldspot/