Where In The Universe Should You Live?

Looking to live somewhere really weird and alternative? Take a trip of about 650 million light-years to get to one of the strangest places in the Universe: an enormous, glowing structure that looks like a mass of ectoplasm slowly spiraling in space. Named after the Dutch school teacher who discovered it, Hanny's Voorwerp is a quasar ionization echo, a ghost image of a quasar event that is floating through time and space. No one really knows what caused this super-rare object, but it has sparked the imagination of more than just scientists and even inspired a comic book named 'Hanny and the Mystery of the Voorwerp': http://hannysvoorwerp.zooniverse.org/sandbox/Downloads/VoorwerpComic.pdf.

If you are looking for peace and quiet, we recommend a retreat in the Eridanus Supervoid. Space is pretty empty to start with, but this area is almost entirely vacant: no stars, no planets, not even dark matter! We know that this vast nothingness stretches over a billion light-years of space in the Eridanus constellation, but its origin remains a mystery. One theory speculates that it could be home to an alternate universe held within a huge black hole, and another that it is the imprint left behind from a collision between our Universe and a parallel universe. Want to know more about multiverse theory? Read this article in 'Forbes' magazine: https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2016/01/22/is-the-multiverse-a-scientific-theory/#297fa2e516f1.

If you cannot make up your mind where to live, then move to the neighborhood of a black hole and hang out for a while: http://www.physicsoftheuniverse.com/topics_blackholes_event.html. As long as you stay just outside the event horizon, you can circle in peace and possibly even set up camp on an accretion disk formed by material waiting to vanish across that line of no return. The local distortion of space-time means your clocks will appear to slow, giving you an excuse to chill and check out the neighborhood. Who knows who or what you will find within the bright halo of stellar debris gathered at the edge of the unknown?

Love the idea of building walls? Then you will love the biggest wall in the Universe! Stretching over 1.38 billion light-years, which is 5 percent of the diameter of the observable Universe, the Sloan Great Wall is made up of innumerable clusters of galaxies. Does anyone know what this enormous wall is for? Well, scientific theory says it is a chance cohesion of smaller cosmic structures, but could it really be just coincidence? It's easy to imagine a greater purpose behind this incomprehensibly huge construction, especially seeing as the Universe is literally littered with these super walls. As on Earth, so in space? But that leaves the question, who is trying to keep whom out? And which side of the Universe are we on!

You are the type of person who likes to be in the center of the action, and you can't get more central than the phenomenon known as the Great Attractor. While investigating the Norma Cluster, scientists noticed that something was exerting a gravitational force on the area and sucking matter toward it at speeds faster than 200,000 miles per hour. Mystified, they named it the Great Attractor and set out to investigate this unknown energy that seemed to be the focal point of our observable Universe. What they discovered is that everything in our neighborhood, including our very own Milky Way home, is part of the Laniakea Supercluster and the Norma Cluster is pretty much bang in the center. So the Great Attractor is the downtown of our Universal environs and the place we are all heading toward!

Practical as always, you need to know that wherever you are heading in the Universe is a habitable planet, as close to Earth as you can get. Luckily for you, scientists have located just the place! Proxima Centauri b is an exoplanet that orbits the neighboring solar system of Proxima Centauri. Almost the same size as Earth, and within the habitable zone of the Proxima Centauri triple-sun system, Proxima b is only 4.2 light-years from Earth, and although it was only discovered in August 2016, plans are already underway for a robotic exploration mission: http://www.businessinsider.com/starshot-proxima-centauri-habitable-planet-2016-8. So pack your bags and prepare for hyperspace. Your new space mansion will be ready in approximately 150 years, give or take a decade for planning permission to go through!