Boötes Void: What is This Patch of Space With Few Stars?

Gas cloud Barnard 68 gives us an idea of what a space void might look like if we could peer through the stars at one. NASA, Credit: FORS Team, 8.2-meter VLT Antu, ESO.

Astronomy is more than just a study of the heavens. Humanity’s first great venture into the scientific world was fueled with mankind’s desire to learn more and to never be satisfied with current understanding. For every answer astronomical studies provide, there are exponentially more questions lurking behind. An interesting discovery that occurred in 1981 is a prime example of this. There is a large area in the constellation of Boötes that contains an extremely low density of galaxies. Scientists named the anomaly the Boötes Void, but exactly what it is still a mystery.