ÍøÆØÃÅ

"Researcher discovers nothing" does not sound

particularly spectacular, but scientists at the University of Minnesota have discovered some ground-breaking nothingness. The research team has found a void in the universe a thousand times bigger than any previously discovered - so big that it would take a billion years for a beam of light to cross it. The void is in the constellation Eridanus to the southwest of Orion, between 6 billion and 10 billion light-years away. "It's really strange that there is such an empty region," said Marco Peloso, assistant professor of physics at the university. "How do you explain this? It was quite a surprise."