Cosmic Cold Spot May Point to Validity of Multiverse Theory
Some scientists speculate that colliding universes may be to blame for the unexplained cold spot. (Image credit: Pexels/stock photo)
Postgraduate student Ruari Mackenzie and Professor Tom Shanks of Durham University's Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy recently published a paper in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society that postulates a gigantic 'Cold Spot' found in radiation produced by the formation of the Universe more than 13 billion years ago is unlikely to be caused by a supervoid--or large gap between galaxies caused by the Big Bang. One possibility being bandied about in the absence of the supervoid explanation is that of a collision between multiple universes.
The researchers discovered that, instead of the Cold Spot region being underpopulated with galaxies, it is split into smaller voids surrounded by clusters of galaxies. The structure formed by these clusters is visually very similar to the rest of the universe.
“The map of the CMB sky produced by the Planck satellite. The large area with anomalously low CMB temperature known as the CMB Cold Spot is highlighted in the inset,” Durham University. (Image credit: Durham University)
According to Mackenzie, "The voids we have detected cannot explain the Cold Spot under standard cosmology. There is the possibility that some non-standard model could be proposed to link the two in the future but our data place powerful constraints on any attempt to do that."
In light of these findings, simulations of the standard model of the universe show that the odds of the Cold Spot having arose by chance decrease to 1 in 50.
"This means we can't entirely rule out that the Spot is caused by an unlikely fluctuation explained by the standard model. But if that isn't the answer, then there are more exotic explanations," added Shanks.
As of yet, more research needs to be done to prove the existence of multiple universes, but if the Cold Spot can be shown to have been caused by such a collision, then perhaps this could prove to be the first evidence of their existence ever found.
"Perhaps the most exciting of these is that the Cold Spot was caused by a collision between our universe and another bubble universe. If further, more detailed, analysis of CMB (Cosmic Microwave Background) data proves this to be the case then the Cold Spot might be taken as the first evidence for the multiverse -- and billions of other universes may exist like our own."