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Found this article in this month's issue of my Science magazine. As it is written in Swedish, I will attempt to translate it to the best of my abilities. Sadly, I will not be able to provide you with pretty images, but hopefully it can at least interest you.
A long way from our galaxy, astronomers found a colossal area, where there's nothing at all - neither galaxies or dark matter. This empty space, with a diameter of over 1 billion light years is hard to explain. However, a group of scientists propose this empty space could be the first experimental proof for the existence of neighbor universes.
American radioastronomy scientists have discovered a large empty space in the universe, which in size exceed everything previously known. The empty space exists about eight million light years away, in the direction of the astrological sign "River"(?), and have a diameter of no less than a billion light years.
While this isn't the first time the astronomers have observed empty spaces in the universe, this is by far the largest one ever found. Scientists already knew of about 30 so-called "super-empty rooms" with a diameter of about a few hundred million light years, the newly observed super-empty room is huge, even in comparison to the whole viewable universe. As a matter of fact, it is huge, that it creates a problem for the astronomers to explain with the Big-Bang Theory.
Now have a group of physicians found an explanation - although a controversial one. According to the physicians, this empty-space is none other that a fingerprint of another universe. Scientists, with Laura Mersini-Houghton at the University of South Carolina leading the team, have calculated that the presence of the super-empty room, can best be explained though reciprocal action between our galaxy and another one, at a very early stage of the universes existence. The unknown galaxy is thus said to have "pushed away" an area of our universe, so that less stars, matter (both viewable and dark), and galaxies exist in this area.
Big Bang requires homogeneity
The huge empty space was found by a coincidence by the scientist and professor Lawrence Rudnick and his colleagues at the University of Minnesota. The inspiration was that the satelite WMAP, which maps the cosmical background-radiation, discovered a large area, where the background-radiation were a bit colder than anticipated. The cold area shows that there's no so called "Dark Matter" in the area.
Rudnick and his colleagues started to study the distribution of radiogalaxies and quasars in the direction of the cold spot. Thus, they could use the large mapping of galaxies and other radiogalaxies done with the so called "Very Large Array" laboratory telescope in New Mexico, to compare and fill it in. The results came as a surprise to them. They discovered no radiation originating from the area of over 1 billion light years. The lac of radiation show that there's no galaxies or stars in this area.
The common thought of the universe in cosmology have been that the universe, in a very large area, is homogeneous. This means that if we take an area of the universe which has, for example, the size of 200 million light years, and compares it to another area of the same size, they would look pretty much the same, and contain the same amount of matter. As a matter of fact, the Big Bang theory requires the universe to look this way.
The newly discovered empty space, however, does not fit in with this principle. Unless we wouldn't discover several other large empty spaces of the same size, this area sticks out from the rest of the universe. This area thus creates a rather large problem, as the astronomers have no theory to explain a non-homogeneous universe that is much larger then a few million light years.
Matter is unevenly distributed
This area breaks the universe structure. Looking on the universe as a whole, it is built up of several galaxies. The galaxies stick to galaxy clusters, which can contain anything from a handful, to several thousand galaxies. The clusters are then drawn together in to super-clusters. Our own galaxy is a member of a cluster consisting of about 50 galaxies. This cluster is a member of the super-cluster by the name of "Virgo super-cluster", which has a size of about 20 million light years. Super-clusters are often either flat or oval, and together, they create a pattern which looks something like bathing bubbles in water.
The universe thus, as a whole, takes the shape which looks similar to a sponge, where super-clusters divide enormous empty-space areas without galaxies. It has been somewhat of a challenge for the astronomers to explain this structure, but thus far it has actually had an explanation which fits the Big-Bang theory. The question on everyones mind right now, is if this super-empty space can break the Big-Bang theory.
The astronomers are right now calculating several different scenarios that could explain this structure, and they have several parameters which they can change. One of the most important is the amount of Dark Matter, which the astronomers have calculated is about six times more then normal matter. If we are to keep the theory that the universe is homogeneous on a large scale, one must assume that dark matter is more evenly distributed then the normal, viewable matter we observe in the shape of stars and galaxies. If the dark matter really is evenly distributed, it doesn't matter if normal matter is unevenly distributed. Together, they both will mean that matter is still somewhat homogenous, even though that does not seem to be the case in the viewable spectra.
It is thus of great importance to discover exactly how dark matter divides itself. We cannot directly see this form of matter, but it can be revealed due to its gravity affecting light from far-away galaxies. This can be measured, and in the end of 2006 the first results came, from a combination of the Hubble telescope data and telescopes on Hawaii and Chile.
From this data, scientists discovered that the dark matter is far from evenly distributed. It seem to pretty much follow the exact same structure normal matter use. There's actually large areas of space (like this newly discovered super-empty space), which is completely empty of anything. Neither normal, nor dark matter. With discovery of the new, extremely large empty space, which shows non-homogeneity on a scale of one billion lightyears, it is hard to keep the theory of a universe thats homogenous on a large scale. Measures on the dark matter are so far very unstable, which have resulted in some scientists still sticking to the old theory. If the dark matter is about twice as evenly distributed, it solves some of the homogeneous problem, but purely scientifically, it is unethical to invent parameters which can be adjusted until it explains the situation, and suits your own theory.
There is more then one universe
It is thus not very strange some scientists have started thinking in new directions. A group of physicians with Luciano Pietronero at the University of Rome, have looked with new eyes at the distribution of galaxies and galaxy clusters. They have proposed that the universe is not homogeneous, but fractal.The universe is what mathematicians call "self-simulative" on all scales. This means that viewing a small part of the universe which might be non-homogeneous, you can find the same non-homogeneous structure in another part of the universe. He means that this is what you can find by analyzing the data from the different telescopes.
So, now yet another theory exists. That empty spaces of the universe exists, because the universe grew up with others of the same type. The theory is built upon the string theory. The theory states that everything is built up of small strings, which vibrate in a time/space with ten or eleven dimensions. One of the problems with this theory, is that it explains more then one theory, which scientists so far has been unable to find any proof of. The string theory requires at least 10^5000 baby-universes. It has thus been unable to be proven, due to the fact we can only directly observe one universe, which is extremely large.
Mersini-Houghton have found a way in which all of these baby-universes can end up like ours, and a limited amount of neighboring universes. The theory predicts large empty-space areas, which has been created due to young universes being in quantum-mechanical (?) contact with each other billions of years ago. According to the theory, there should be another super-empty space out there.
Illustrerad Vetenskap, issue 4/2008 (26/2-17/3) pages 42-45
A long way from our galaxy, astronomers found a colossal area, where there's nothing at all - neither galaxies or dark matter. This empty space, with a diameter of over 1 billion light years is hard to explain. However, a group of scientists propose this empty space could be the first experimental proof for the existence of neighbor universes.
American radioastronomy scientists have discovered a large empty space in the universe, which in size exceed everything previously known. The empty space exists about eight million light years away, in the direction of the astrological sign "River"(?), and have a diameter of no less than a billion light years.
While this isn't the first time the astronomers have observed empty spaces in the universe, this is by far the largest one ever found. Scientists already knew of about 30 so-called "super-empty rooms" with a diameter of about a few hundred million light years, the newly observed super-empty room is huge, even in comparison to the whole viewable universe. As a matter of fact, it is huge, that it creates a problem for the astronomers to explain with the Big-Bang Theory.
Now have a group of physicians found an explanation - although a controversial one. According to the physicians, this empty-space is none other that a fingerprint of another universe. Scientists, with Laura Mersini-Houghton at the University of South Carolina leading the team, have calculated that the presence of the super-empty room, can best be explained though reciprocal action between our galaxy and another one, at a very early stage of the universes existence. The unknown galaxy is thus said to have "pushed away" an area of our universe, so that less stars, matter (both viewable and dark), and galaxies exist in this area.
Big Bang requires homogeneity
The huge empty space was found by a coincidence by the scientist and professor Lawrence Rudnick and his colleagues at the University of Minnesota. The inspiration was that the satelite WMAP, which maps the cosmical background-radiation, discovered a large area, where the background-radiation were a bit colder than anticipated. The cold area shows that there's no so called "Dark Matter" in the area.
Rudnick and his colleagues started to study the distribution of radiogalaxies and quasars in the direction of the cold spot. Thus, they could use the large mapping of galaxies and other radiogalaxies done with the so called "Very Large Array" laboratory telescope in New Mexico, to compare and fill it in. The results came as a surprise to them. They discovered no radiation originating from the area of over 1 billion light years. The lac of radiation show that there's no galaxies or stars in this area.
The common thought of the universe in cosmology have been that the universe, in a very large area, is homogeneous. This means that if we take an area of the universe which has, for example, the size of 200 million light years, and compares it to another area of the same size, they would look pretty much the same, and contain the same amount of matter. As a matter of fact, the Big Bang theory requires the universe to look this way.
The newly discovered empty space, however, does not fit in with this principle. Unless we wouldn't discover several other large empty spaces of the same size, this area sticks out from the rest of the universe. This area thus creates a rather large problem, as the astronomers have no theory to explain a non-homogeneous universe that is much larger then a few million light years.
Matter is unevenly distributed
This area breaks the universe structure. Looking on the universe as a whole, it is built up of several galaxies. The galaxies stick to galaxy clusters, which can contain anything from a handful, to several thousand galaxies. The clusters are then drawn together in to super-clusters. Our own galaxy is a member of a cluster consisting of about 50 galaxies. This cluster is a member of the super-cluster by the name of "Virgo super-cluster", which has a size of about 20 million light years. Super-clusters are often either flat or oval, and together, they create a pattern which looks something like bathing bubbles in water.
The universe thus, as a whole, takes the shape which looks similar to a sponge, where super-clusters divide enormous empty-space areas without galaxies. It has been somewhat of a challenge for the astronomers to explain this structure, but thus far it has actually had an explanation which fits the Big-Bang theory. The question on everyones mind right now, is if this super-empty space can break the Big-Bang theory.
The astronomers are right now calculating several different scenarios that could explain this structure, and they have several parameters which they can change. One of the most important is the amount of Dark Matter, which the astronomers have calculated is about six times more then normal matter. If we are to keep the theory that the universe is homogeneous on a large scale, one must assume that dark matter is more evenly distributed then the normal, viewable matter we observe in the shape of stars and galaxies. If the dark matter really is evenly distributed, it doesn't matter if normal matter is unevenly distributed. Together, they both will mean that matter is still somewhat homogenous, even though that does not seem to be the case in the viewable spectra.
It is thus of great importance to discover exactly how dark matter divides itself. We cannot directly see this form of matter, but it can be revealed due to its gravity affecting light from far-away galaxies. This can be measured, and in the end of 2006 the first results came, from a combination of the Hubble telescope data and telescopes on Hawaii and Chile.
From this data, scientists discovered that the dark matter is far from evenly distributed. It seem to pretty much follow the exact same structure normal matter use. There's actually large areas of space (like this newly discovered super-empty space), which is completely empty of anything. Neither normal, nor dark matter. With discovery of the new, extremely large empty space, which shows non-homogeneity on a scale of one billion lightyears, it is hard to keep the theory of a universe thats homogenous on a large scale. Measures on the dark matter are so far very unstable, which have resulted in some scientists still sticking to the old theory. If the dark matter is about twice as evenly distributed, it solves some of the homogeneous problem, but purely scientifically, it is unethical to invent parameters which can be adjusted until it explains the situation, and suits your own theory.
There is more then one universe
It is thus not very strange some scientists have started thinking in new directions. A group of physicians with Luciano Pietronero at the University of Rome, have looked with new eyes at the distribution of galaxies and galaxy clusters. They have proposed that the universe is not homogeneous, but fractal.The universe is what mathematicians call "self-simulative" on all scales. This means that viewing a small part of the universe which might be non-homogeneous, you can find the same non-homogeneous structure in another part of the universe. He means that this is what you can find by analyzing the data from the different telescopes.
So, now yet another theory exists. That empty spaces of the universe exists, because the universe grew up with others of the same type. The theory is built upon the string theory. The theory states that everything is built up of small strings, which vibrate in a time/space with ten or eleven dimensions. One of the problems with this theory, is that it explains more then one theory, which scientists so far has been unable to find any proof of. The string theory requires at least 10^5000 baby-universes. It has thus been unable to be proven, due to the fact we can only directly observe one universe, which is extremely large.
Mersini-Houghton have found a way in which all of these baby-universes can end up like ours, and a limited amount of neighboring universes. The theory predicts large empty-space areas, which has been created due to young universes being in quantum-mechanical (?) contact with each other billions of years ago. According to the theory, there should be another super-empty space out there.
Illustrerad Vetenskap, issue 4/2008 (26/2-17/3) pages 42-45
