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Just imagine being trapped in a void—an endless, silent expanse where time seems frozen and direction has no meaning. 

No sound, no light, no gravity to anchor you. It’s a place where the laws of nature unravel, where you are suspended in a vast nothingness that stretches beyond comprehension.

Such a picture seems scary. Interestingly, not a single soul but the whole universe is trapped in a void. Researchers have found evidence that our Earth and Milky Way galaxy are suspended in a cosmic void based on the echoes from the Big Bang.

According to research presented at the Royal Astronomical Society National Astronomy Meeting on Wednesday, July 9, suggest that the Milky Way galaxy is floating in a 2 billion-light-year region of space with 20% less density than its surroundings. The theory is developed based on the sounds from the Bing Band, known as “baryon acoustic oscillation.”

This theory suggests that the local expansion rate of the universe could be faster due to this void. If proven true, this can help our astronomers to find the true age of the universe and solve the enigma of “Hubble Tension.”

What is the Hubble Trouble?

Hubble Tension suggests how fast our universe is growing at different rates. Currently, there are two standard methods to figure out the expansion rate, called Hubble Constant. The first method involves using the cosmic microwave background (CMB). This method yields a value of around 73 kilometers per second per megaparsec (km/s/Mpc), while the second lands closer to 67 km/s/Mpc, closely matched to predictions made by the standard model of cosmology.

The second method includes measuring the distance pulsating stars called Cepheid variables, giving 73.2 km/s/Mpc value for the Hubble Constant.

The difference between these two values suggests the potential error with our cosmological model.

Living in a ‘Giant Void’

“A potential solution to this inconsistency is that our galaxy is close to the centre of a large, local void,” explained Dr. Indranil Banik of the University of Portsmouth.

The region around the void would possess higher density, leading to gravitational pull that would cause the matter to be pulled towards the higher density exterior of the void. The void will become emptier with time.

That evacuation would trigger local expansion at a faster rate, Banik predicted.

This void theory supplements the idea that Earth would have to sit about in the centre of low-density “Hubble Bubble.”

After putting forth evidence, Banik and his team will not only compare their void model to other cosmological models to reconstruct the universe’s expansion theory but also try to resolve Hubble tension. 

In a world where we reroute rivers, bottle oceans, and build barriers taller than cathedrals, it’s easy to forget what all that effort might be doing to the planet beneath our feet, until now. A new study reveals that over the past two centuries, humans have moved Earth’s geographic poles. Yes, you read that right.

By trapping trillions of gallons of water behind nearly 7,000 dams since 1835, enough to fill the Grand Canyon twice, humans have redistributed the planet’s mass enough to cause a phenomenon known as true polar wander. The result? The North Pole has tiptoed roughly one meter off course, its slow dance recorded in rock, water, and the planet’s rotational axis.

Earth’s crust floats atop molten rock like frosting on a warm cake. Move weight around, like ice sheets shrinking or water shifting, and the crust repositions itself. Think of sticking clay to a spinning basketball: the ball changes direction slightly to keep spinning smoothly. That’s what happens on Earth when we build enormous dams.

The study, published in Geophysical Research Letters, shows the shift happened in two phases:

• 1835–1954: Dams in North America and Europe nudged the pole toward Russia and China.
• 1954–2011: Dams in Asia and East Africa steered it back toward North America and the South Pacific.

On top of the drift, trapping all that water behind concrete walls caused a global sea level drop of 21 millimeters, a quarter of the expected rise in the 20th century.

Lead author Natasha Valencic from Harvard points out that while the pole’s movement won’t trigger an ice age, it does influence sea level geometry; where and how fast oceans rise isn’t uniform, and dam placement could skew future projections. If major ice sheets melt due to climate change, the effects could compound.

“We’re not going to drop into a new ice age,” Valencic says. “But the way water moves—or doesn’t—can reshape our planet in ways we’re only beginning to grasp.”

From engineering triumph to planetary choreography, dam-building may be the most surprising way humans have left their mark, not just on the land, but on Earth’s cosmic spin.

Journal Reference:

1. N. Valencic, E. Speiser, E. Doi, E. T. Lee, B. Ford, A. Hatzius, D. Komaravalli, B. Erdmann, W. Hawley, J. X. Mitrovica. True Polar Wander Driven by Artificial Water Impoundment: 1835–2011. Geophysical Research Letters. DOI: 10.1029/2025GL115468

Durham University scientists examining radar images of the ice sheet above the east coast of Antarctica have discovered an 80-million-year-old ancient landscape hidden beneath the ice that is filled with mysterious flat surfaces. The scientists suggested this hidden array of flat surfaces was preserved by the ice sheet rather than eroded over the millions of years since.

The research team also found evidence that the ancient landscape of flat surfaces is directly affecting the flow of melting ice on the continent. They suggest understanding this relationship and how rising global temperatures may influence it could improve efforts to predict and prepare for the consequences of melting Antarctic ice and rising sea levels.

‘Fragments of Evidence’ Hinted at Ancient Landscape Beneath Antarctica

According to a statement announcing the discovery of an ancient landscape hidden beneath the ice of Eastern Antarctica, the entire continent originally separated from Australia around 80 million years ago. Around 34 million years ago, the once-green land mass became completely covered in ice. This ice sheet, combined with Antarctica’s extreme cold and remote location, has made studying the hidden ancient landscape underneath challenging.

Dr. Guy Paxman, a Royal Society University Research Fellow in the Department of Geography, Durham University and the lead author of the published study detailing the team’s discovery said this 80-million-year-old ancient landscape is so inaccessible, it is among the most mysterious “not just on Earth, but on any terrestrial planet in the solar system.”

Research co-author Professor Neil Ross, a Professor of Polar Science and Environmental Geophysics at Newcastle University, agreed. Still, the professor also noted that scientists have “long been intrigued and puzzled about fragments of evidence,” hinting at the presence of ‘flat’ landscapes hidden beneath the ice sheet covering this area.

Motivated to learn more, the researchers joined forces with researchers from Exeter University, UK, the British Antarctic Survey, the Alfred Wegener Institute, Germany, the Polar Research Institute of China, and Beijing University of Technology. Together, the team used detailed radar imagery of the 3,500-kilometer-long coastline between Princess Elizabeth Land and George V Land to essentially ‘peer through’ millions of years of ice to image the landscape below.

Paxman says the mysterious flat surfaces, which were found beneath roughly 40% of the examined area, immediately stood out from the rest of the hidden coastline.

“When we were examining the radar images of the sub-ice topography in this region, these remarkably flat surfaces started to pop out almost everywhere we looked,” the Durham University scientist recalled.

The research team suspects the flat surfaces likely formed over 80 million years ago during the separation from Australia and were ultimately preserved in almost pristine condition by the ice sheet. Dr. Paxman said the fact that the features managed to survive seemingly intact for the past 34 million years indicates that at least some parts of the ice sheet have “preserved rather than eroded” the landscape beneath. The team believes that preservation may hint at a “lack of intense, selective erosion” of these identified areas throughout Antarctica’s glacial history.

Deep Troughs and Melting Ice

Perhaps the group’s most significant finding was the possible relationship between the newly discovered flat surfaces and the movement of the ice sheet on top of them. For example, the imaging revealed that the ice above the flat surfaces moved significantly slower than the ice above other sections of the nearby ancient landscape.

The team also found that the flat surfaces were separated by “deep troughs” where ice moved significantly faster. They believe the flat surfaces may be steering these fast-moving glaciers into the troughs. Professor Ross explained that by bringing these “jigsaw pieces of data together,” his team was able to reveal “how these ancient surfaces formed, their role in determining the present-day flow of the ice, and their possible influence on how the East Antarctic Ice Sheet will evolve in a warming world.”

The team said it is possible the flat surfaces of this ancient landscape could be acting as “barriers to ice flow.” Because rising temperatures are causing Antarctica to lose ice at an increasing rate, the team said that understanding this potential regulation of Antarctic ice loss rate could be critical to climate prediction models, primarily since an entirely ice-free continent where all the surface ice has melted could raise global sea levels by 52 meters.

“Information such as the shape and geology of the newly mapped surfaces will help improve our understanding of how ice flows at the edge of East Antarctica.” Dr. Paxman said. “This, in turn, will help make it easier to predict how the East Antarctic Ice Sheet could affect sea levels under different levels of climate warming in the future.”

The team suggests that future efforts to better understand this hidden ancient landscape could include going to Antarctica and drilling through the ice sheet to retrieve samples of the mysterious surfaces. Combining this data with the team’s findings on ice flow would help improve the computer models used to predict the future effects of rising global temperatures and aid efforts to prepare for those effects.

 Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him directly at christopher@thedebrief.org.