Map signals existence of other universes

PTI May 21, 2013, 05.11AM IST

Tags:

• scientists|
• other universes|
• European Space Agency’s Planck spacecraft|
• data

LONDON: Scientists believe they have for the first time found evidence of the existence of other universes by analyzing data gathered by the European Space Agency's Planck spacecraft.
Theories that our universe could be just one of billions — or perhaps an infinite number — have been discussed for decades but until now, they have not been backed by any evidence.

However, a few weeks ago, scientists published a new map of the cosmic microwave background — the 'radiation' left behind after the Big Bang that created the universe 13.8 billion years ago. The map, based on the Planck's data, showed anomalies in the background radiation that, some experts say, could only have been caused by the gravitational pull of other universes outside our own.
"These anomalies are the first hard evidence for the existence of other universes that we have seen,, " said Laura Mersini-Houghton , a theoretical physicist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Mersini-Houghton and her colleague Richard Holman at Carnegie Mellon University published a series of papers from 2005 onwards predicting what Planck would see. In particular, they claimed that the ancient radiation permeating our universe would show anomalies generated by the pull from other universes . The scientists analyzing the Planck data have now published a paper acknowledging the anomalies exist and cannot be explained by conventional means.
"It may be that the statistical anomalies described in this paper are a hint of more profound physical phenomena that are yet to be revealed," it said.
Planck gathered radiation from when the universe was just 3,70,000 years old — still glowing from the Big Bang. Planck's data showed the radiation is stronger in one half of the sky than the other. There is also a large 'cold' spot where the temperature is below average