Astronomers have known about the electromagnetic radiation of the Universe known as Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) since the 1960’s. This radiation is the oldest example of light we have left over from the Big Bang and in 2004 astronomers also discovered that a large region within the CMB was much cooler than the rest and soon became known as the CMB Cold Spot.
Various explanations have been suggested over the years as to why this Cold Spot exist, including it being a data artifact to it being caused by a supervoid. However, a new study conducted by scientists at Durham University has just ruled out supervoids, so once again the door is open for more wild explanations such as that of a parallel universe.
This Cold Spot’s temperature is around 2.73 degrees above absolute zero on average, which is not that much cooler than its surroundings. Even so, it’s enough to make it stand out in standard models of cosmology. When the scientists at Durham University tested their theory, they found that supervoids they detected were unable to explain the Cold Spot under the rules of standard cosmology. However, Ruari Mackenzie, a postdoctoral student in the Dept of Physics at Durham University and lead author of the study, said, “There is a 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.”
The Durham team also found that rather than be accounted for as one big region, the Cold Spot could, in fact, be split into smaller voids, each one surrounded by clusters of galaxies. So then, if the Cold Spot was not caused by a void or lack of galaxies, what was behind them? Tom Shanks, a professor with the Dept. of Physics at Durham and co-author of the study comments, “Perhaps the most exciting of these [explanations] is that the Cold Spot was caused by a collision between our universe and another bubble Universe. If further, more detailed, analysis of CMB 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.”
Multiverse Theory first came about when philosopher and psychologist William James stated there might be an infinite number of parallel universes that exist alongside out own. Variations of this theory exist which include String Theory and M-Theory. Another is one called the Many Worlds interpretation. This one states that all possible outcomes exist somewhere in alternate universes. But is it possible that a parallel universe is too close to us, hence causing these anomalies in the CMB? No one can say for sure until further research has been carried out. All we do know is that the Cold Spot definitely can’t be explained as easily as a supervoid and the lack of galaxies.
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