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Boötes Void Explorer
60 interior points inside a sparse cosmic void.
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Scientific overview
What is the Boötes Void?
The Boötes Void is a huge, roughly spherical underdense region in the direction of the constellation Boötes. Redshift surveys found far fewer bright galaxies there than expected, making it one of the best-known nearby supervoids.
62 MpcConfirmed approximate radius in the 1987 survey.
15,500 km/sCentral recession velocity used in the survey map.
Not emptyA few unusual emission-line and active galaxies are known inside.
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The void was found through redshifts
Kirshner, Oemler, Schechter, and Shectman reported a striking gap in galaxy redshifts in 1981, then confirmed a large low-density region with a wider survey in 1987.
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The cosmic web surrounds it
Galaxies collect in sheets, walls, and threadlike filaments. Voids appear between those structures, like empty regions inside a foam of galaxies.
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Interior labels are visible first
The explorer keeps all named labels on by default. The label button switches back to smart labels when the screen needs a quieter view.
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This is a reconstruction-inspired map
The scale, center, sparse interior, and named targets are research grounded. The surrounding filaments and some depths are procedural to make the 3D structure readable.
This visualization is not a precision catalog plot. It is designed to communicate the observed scarcity of bright galaxies, the 62 Mpc survey radius, and the way cosmic voids sit inside larger web-like structure.
