Parallel Universe Exists We Have Evidence
Evidence for a parallel universe?
Today’s article is not about DNA, although its far-reaching implications prompted us to share this story with our readers.
Last August, astronomers working on the analysis of data being acquired by NASA’s WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe) satellite announced that they found a huge void in the universe. A void is a region of space that has much less material (stars, nebulae, dust and other material) than the average. Since our universe is relatively heterogeneous, empty spaces are not rare, but in this case the enormous magnitude of the hole is way outside the expected range. The hole found in the constellation of Eridanus is about a billion light years across, which is roughly 10,000 times as large as our galaxy or 400 times the distance to Andromeda, the closest “large” galaxy.
The dimension of the hole is so big that at first glance, it results impossible to explain under the current cosmological theories, although scientists put forward some explanations based on certain theoretical models that might predict the existence of “giant knots” in space known as topological defects.
However, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill physics Professor Laura Mersini-Houghton made a staggering claim. She says, “Standard cosmology cannot explain such a giant cosmic hole” and goes further with the ground-breaking hypothesis that the huge void is “… the unmistakable imprint of another universe beyond the edge of our own“.
The idea of alternative, or parallel universes has been around for quite a while and has provided considerable inspiration for Sci-Fi literature and sparked endless philosophical debate, but although begin seriously considered within the scientific realm it never crossed the limits of speculative of purely theoretical grounds. Perhaps until now. If Mersini-Houghton is right, Eridanus’ giant hole would be the first experimental evidence for the existence of another universe. The implications of this possibility are obviously of huge importance for everybody, but it also has further relevance for the astrophysics community as it would bring support for the hotly debated string theory and other central debates.
But Mersini-Houghton and colleagues’ theory of entangled universes make testable predictions, providing the opportunity to confirm or refute the claim as more data arrive to the astronomers’ computers. Her model predicts the existence of two voids rather than one, one in each hemisphere of our universe. The one that has been found by WMAP’s data lies in the Northern hemisphere. They expect new data will show a second similar void in the Southern side. This and other cutting-edge experimental projects testing Mersini-Houghton’s ideas will tell us whether a new era in cosmological thinking has indeed arrived.
Great ‘cosmic nothingness’ found
Astronomers have found an enormous void in space that measures nearly a billion light-years across.
It is empty of both normal matter - such as galaxies and stars - and the mysterious “dark matter” that cannot be seen directly with telescopes.
The “hole” is located in the direction of the Eridanus constellation and has been identified in data from a survey of the sky made at radio wavelengths.
The discovery will be reported in a paper in the Astrophysical Journal.
Previous sky surveys that have traced the large-scale structure of the nearby Universe have long shown, for example, how the clustering of galaxies is strung into vast filaments and sheets that are separated by great gaps.
But the void discovered by a University of Minnesota team is about 1,000 times the volume of what would be expected in typical cosmic gaps.
“It’s hard even for astronomers to picture how big these things are,” conceded Minnesota’s Professor Lawrence Rudnick.
“If you were to travel at the speed of light, it would take you several years to get to the nearest stars in our own Milky Way galaxy; but if you were to go to this hole and enter one side, you’d have to travel for a billion years before you would get to the other side,” he told BBC News.
The void is roughly 6-10 billion light-years away and takes a sizeable chunk out of the visible Universe in its direction.
Dark evidence
The team used data from the US National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) to make its discovery. The VLA - which stands for Very Large Array - is a collection of 27 radio telescopes in New Mexico.
The finding is said to fit neatly with observations of the Universe’s “oldest light” - the famous Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation, the study of which has earned several scientists the Nobel Prize.
This is the radiation that comes from just 380,000 years after the Big Bang when the Universe had cooled to such a degree that hydrogen atoms could exist. Before that time, scientists say, the Universe would have been so hot that matter and light would have been “coupled” - the cosmos would have been opaque.
Today, this light shines at microwave wavelengths at a frigid -270C; and observations of the CMB made by Nasa’s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe show a particular “cold spot” in the direction of the newly identified void.
The explanation for this may lie in the enigmatic “dark energy” that scientists know so little about but which is said to be accelerating the expansion of the Universe.
Light particles passing through the void would be expected to lose a little more energy than those passing through space cluttered with matter - if dark energy is stretching the Universe apart at a faster and faster rate.
Scientists refer to this as the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe Effect and a corresponding “warm spot” in the CMB associated with an area of space dominated by a supercluster of galaxies was identified some years ago.
“In essence, this latest study gives us a very elegant demonstration of the existence of dark energy in a way which is very convincing,” commented Professor Carlos Frenk, the director of the Institute for Computational Cosmology at Durham University, UK.
“We keep getting evidence for dark energy, this component of the Universe which is so dominant, and yet we still have only a tiny glimmer of what it could be.”
The reason the void exists is not known. “That’s going to be a challenge for people that work on the development of structure in the Universe. It’s a very hot topic in the cosmology right now,” said Professor Rudnick.
Reference:
Universe
The Universe is defined as the summation of all particles and energy that exist and the space-time in which all events occur. Based on observations of the portion of the Universe that is observable, physicists attempt to describe the whole of space-time, including all matter and energy and events which occur, as a single system corresponding to a mathematical model. Our universe is also defined as one component part of a larger Multiverse.
The generally accepted scientific theory which describes the origin and evolution of the Universe is Big Bang cosmology, which describes the expansion of space from an extremely hot and dense state of unknown characteristics. The Universe underwent a rapid period of cosmic inflation that flattened out nearly all initial irregularities in the energy density; thereafter the universe expanded and became steadily cooler and less dense. Minor variations in the distribution of mass resulted in hierarchical segregation of the features that are found in the current universe; such as clusters and superclusters of galaxies. There are more than one hundred billion (1011) galaxies in the Universe, each containing hundreds of billions of stars, with each star containing about 1057 atoms of hydrogen.
There are also non-scientific investigations that explore and describe the universe as a whole with their own separate cosmologies.
Multiverse
A multiverse (or meta-universe) is the hypothetical set of multiple possible universes (including our universe) that together comprise all of physical reality. The different universes within a multiverse are sometimes called parallel universes. The structure of the multiverse, the nature of each universe within it and the relationship between the various constituent universes, depend on the specific multiverse hypothesis considered.
Multiverses have been hypothesized in cosmology, physics, philosophy, theology, and fiction, particularly in science fiction and fantasy. The specific term “multiverse,” which was coined by William James, was popularized by science fiction author Michael Moorcock. In these contexts, parallel universes are also called “alternative universes,” “quantum universes,” “parallel worlds,” “alternate realities,” “alternative timelines,” etc.
The possibility of many universes raises various scientific, philosophical, and theological questions.
5 Comments »
Don’t believe it. If all you have is a hammer(Big-Bang), everything looks like a nail.
If you take into account that we live in a plasma(99% of the universe)with moving charges, then voids of any size are expected, as well as filaments and other plasma structures. http://www.plasma-universe.com
Comment by Brant Callahan — November 27, 2007 @ 03:35
April 14, 2003
Parallel Universes
Not just a staple of science fiction, other universes are a direct implication of cosmological observations
http://holtz.org/Library/Philosophy/Scientific%20American%20Parallel%20Universes%20-%20Tegmark%202003.htm
http://space.mit.edu/home/tegmark/multiverse.html
Comment by willilam Miller — November 27, 2007 @ 20:45
When you think about it though, it’s entirely possible. I mean, think about it, how many thousands of years before humans discovered that there was a planet besides ours, or a galexy outside the Milky Way, doesn’t it make sense that it would take them a little longer to find another universe?
Comment by TJ — December 27, 2007 @ 19:41
this is a really good website ! i learnt alot thanks
Comment by carmel — February 29, 2008 @ 15:06
well if ya ask me i think parralel universes exist and they are all around us i mean just look into our human bodies why do we consantly keep searching outside of ourselves when all the answers lay inside our on being ..whatever there is in the universe resides in us all the elements are present all the dark matter all the light i mean cmon i aint no scientist and i realize this !! vibrate on frequencies and all the answers will come ulimatly the only anwser youl ever need and hat it comes down to is everthing you see and do not see is ONE , not to close the lid on theories there fun to play with ..theories i mean but do not attach to them that much think conclude let go and move on , we are a bunch of universes interacting with one another just ask you atoms cells there typing on some quantum computer somewhere asking about our bodies in space 90% void and dark matter we are i mean WOW!! connect to the light in our selves by vibrating and activating it ..the same thing suns and stars are doing vibraTing andmoving around in this cosmic orchestra .. well i dont know how many people will read this but what the heck i aint comin g back on here the knowledge is all here to share conclude and move on create preserve and ultimatly destroy the 3 key forces in all universes …ahh but what lies beyond these 3 or better yet what is in these 3 ?? theres the ULTIMTATE question and anwsers id love to hear the attempt sammimann@hotmail.com
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Comment by sammi — April 16, 2008 @ 07:56