observational astronomy - Why is there a gap in this image of supernova discoveries?

The coordinate system in this image is RA and Dec. It is a coordinate system which uses the Earth's equator (projected onto the sky) as its midline.

The inverted U is the Milky Way. The Milky Way is full of dust and gas, and blocks our view of galaxies (and supernovae) behind it. There is enough dust in the plane of the galaxy to block our view in that direction. For example the galaxy IC 342 is one of the nearest galaxies, and would be brilliant if it were not close to the galactic plane. There may be other galaxies that are completely hidden.

Our galaxy's bulk not only hides supernovæ that are in other galaxies, it also hides most of the supernovæ that occur in the Milky Way