A cold spot that is 1.8 billion light-years across – a strange anomaly in deep space — seems to indicate the largest structure of the universe, but more importantly, it could indicate proof that we live in a multiverse.

The great cold spot registers temperatures that are .00015 degrees Celsius (0.00027 degrees Fahrenheit) and were measured using background radiation.

Previously scientists thought that this massive cold spot had 10,000 fewer galaxies than other similar areas of space, but in a recently published paper, astronomers from the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) say that this supervoid could not exist.

The paper explains,

“We have found voids at z=0.14, 0.26 and 0.30 but they are interspersed with small over-densities and the scale of these voids is insufficient to explain the Cold Spot through the Λ CDM ISW effect.”

The paper goes on to detail how galaxies in cold spots are clustered around smaller voids that populate the area like bubbles.

In order to explain this odd phenomenon, astronomers suggest that a non-standard cosmological model is required.

“But our data place powerful constraints on any attempt to do that,” explained researcher Ruari Mackenzie in an RAS press release.

While the study had a large margin of error, the simulations suggest there is only a two percent probability that the Cold Spot formed randomly.

More “exotic explanations” may be required to determine how this cold spot occurred. Researcher Tom Shanks states the press release,

“Perhaps the most exciting of these is that the Cold Spot was caused by a collision between our universe and another bubble universe.”

A more detailed analysis of the report suggests that this is proof of the multiverse theory – an explanation for parallel universes that exist on the same timeline.

An example of this phenomenon is in a myriad of science fiction stories. One example which can be called to mind is in “Star Trek.” Kirk and Spock, portrayed by Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, are in an alternate timeline apart from the William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy versions of the characters.

There are multiple theories that explain how we could live in a multiverse. They include:

• The theory that an observable universe extends only as far as light has had a chance to filter through space in the 13.7 billion-light years since the Big Bang. The space-time beyond that distance can be considered to be its own separate universe. In this way, a multitude of universes exists next to each other in a giant patchwork quilt of universes.
• Another theory, and one which may support the cold spot anomaly, suggests that the Universe is part of an “eternal inflation” – that the Universe is constantly expanding instead of shrinking. Eternal inflation, first proposed by Tufts University cosmologist Alexander Vilenkin, suggests that some pockets of space stop inflating, while other regions continue to inflate, thus giving rise to many isolated “bubble universes.”
• Another theory, which could also explain the cold spot anomaly is that there are likely many dimensions in space other than the three that we currently experience. Other Universes may float in dimensions of space beyond our own, creating a “parallel universe.”
• Based on quantum mechanics, there is a theory that each universe creates a daughter universe, based on the behavior of quantum particles. In other words, all possible outcomes of a situation occur, not just the one that you happen to be observing. So, while you think your universe is the only universe, there are others which were created simultaneously.
• Finally, there is a mathematical theory of the multiverse, in which all possible mathematical structures exist as their own separate universes – without the “human baggage” of conceptualization.

Image: Smithsonian