A Hole In Space

Europe's Herschel infrared space observatory has found a black knot in space in fact contains nothing at all. Through the twentieth century, astronomers took the area to be an extremely dense cloud of gas and dust that completely blocked light from stars behind it. Gas and dust would show up in the infrared, however-- and weren't there.

The hole is in a star-forming area, and astronomers, though surprised by the discovery, theorize that the radiation pressure from new stars bursting onto the scene may sweep everything away from that area, leaving the hole. As theories go, it's a start.