The question isn’t, are we alone in the universe it’s are we alone in these universes?
According to a bit of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation we might have a neighbor…
right…
THERE.
This is the cosmic microwave background radiation or CMB.
It’s the leftover light from the Big Bang itself.
It’s the furthest light from us in the visible universe.
In fact it’s everywhere you look.
If you could see it (which you can’t because it’s in the microwave spectrum), it would
glow everywhere!
It’s all around us constantly, but it’s super low-energy, because, again, it’s been
around since the beginning of the universe.
Over time, we’ve taken the CMB’s temperature, mapped it in increasing detail and in doing
so we found something… curious…
See, usually the CMB is pretty uniform in temperature about 2.73 Kelvin -- Only deviating
a few micro-Kelvin across the whole CMB... except in one place: ‘The Cold Spot.’
For some reason there it skews colder than the average temperature by a few microkelvin.
No big deal for a tiny area, but this is consistent across a huge region!
It’s a billion light-years across!
This spot challenges what we know about the universe.
What is this thing?
How did it get there?
Astronomers have been fighting about The Cold Spot for years, and they’ve come up with
a few theories…
The cosmic texture hypothesis says if you analyze the CMB a certain way, it’s just
a bumpy part of the cosmos.
The cluster hypothesis says there are clusters of galaxies that may affect the CMB as we
perceive it.
Which is similar to the supervoid hypothesis, which states that it was only cold from our
perspective, because in between the CMB and Earth is a “supervoid” a cooler, less
galaxy-dense region of space.
The most banal theory is that it exists because the satellite instruments or analysis has
some math error.
But the most fantastical could also be one of the most likely: that the spot is cold
because it’s where the edge of our universe touched the edge of another universe!
The reason it’s gained some ground is because the supervoid theory was strongly refuted
in May 2017.
Apparently, astronomers don’t think voids that super exist!
Either way, none of these theories are 100%...
So, let’s get back to the crazy exotic physics answer: that at some point our universe may
have bumped into another universe, leaving a bruise.
This is based on ideas of the multiverse theory.
In the 1920s, famous physicists Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg kicked us into the quantum
physics theory of “superposition.”
The idea that an infinite number of universes are possible...
all overlapping on each other.
But because we’re observing the universe, we can only see one.
So think of Schrodinger's Cat -- a cat, in a box with a vial of poison that could break
at any time.
This thought experiment wouldn’t be an issue, because of superposition.
There’s no observer, so the cat is both alive and dead in two separate universes!
Not a huge deal for quantum mechanics -- but earth-shattering for regular physics in the
observable universe.
Obviously, I’m simplifying a lot for sake of time, but it’s all very confusing.
Suffice it to say, the math works.
But, if infinite universes are out there, how could one universe even physically touch
another anyway?
There are a lot of questions, and no answers.
Some even say it’s impossible to prove others say it’s unprovable period.
And still others say it’s just an unlikely natural event.
If it’s not a supervoid, or a multiverse bruise, say physicists, then our assumptions
of the universe based on our standard model of physics might just be… wrong by a bit!
According to the newest study author, “The craziest-sounding of the exotic models for
the explanation of the Cold Spot… [the multiverse] is actually the most standard in terms of
[our current] model [of the universe].”
In the end, we can’t 100-percent say it’s not another universe…
I for one welcome our universe-neighbors, who are also ourselves.
I know that’s mind-blowing, but we’re not done yet.
The universe is expanding in all directions at once, we can tell by watch the CMB… but
what’s on the other side?
What’s outside the universe?
We’ve got a video about that here.
What do you think the cold spot is?
Let us know in the comments below, subscribe for more videos, like, share, come find us
on Twitter at-Seeker or me at-TraceDominguez, and thanks for watching.