Map of the Universe

KBC Void

Cosmic void · Large, comparatively empty region of space

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KBC Void
Picture: Pablo Carlos Budassi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

About KBC Void

The map lists it as a cosmic void and shows it at the scale of the large-scale universe, drawn on the supergalactic plane.

Its distance or nature is debated, and the map shows one published value.

A proposed underdensity about 2 billion light-years across with the Milky Way near its middle: counts of galaxies suggest space around us out to ~300 Mpc holds 20–50% fewer galaxies than average (Keenan, Barger & Cowie 2013). It could explain part of the Hubble tension, but a hole this large and deep would be very rare in standard cosmology, and other surveys find a much weaker one.

Key numbers

CentreAround the Milky Way: we would be inside it
On the mapThe dashed circle marks its approximate size around its centre. Structures this large have no sharp edge, and the circle is not drawn to an exact shape.
Sizeabout 2 billion light-years across
Distance from the Sun978 million light-years

Where it is

Its place in the universe, from the inside out: Observable universe.

Zoom out to see it in context: Nearby superclusters, a view about 2.3 billion light-years across.

From Wikipedia

The Local Hole, also known as the KBC Void, is an immense, comparatively empty region of space, named after astronomers Ryan Keenan, Amy Barger, and Lennox Cowie, who studied it in 2013. The existence of a local underdensity has been the subject of many pieces of literature and research articles.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Local Hole, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

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