National Geographic News, Reporting Your World Daily

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Photo: Gaping "Hole" in the Sky Found, Experts Say


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A "cold spot" in the universe lacks much of the normal cosmic background radiation, left over from the Big Bang, that ripples through the rest of the sky (left, with blue representing colder spots).

Researchers studied radio-wave-emitting galaxies (right) and found such sources were not responsible for the low-radiation region.

The team therefore speculates the spot is an empty hole that is devoid of both regular and dark matter—a structure completely unexpected in modern theories of the universe.

Image courtesy Rudnick et al., NRAO/AUI/NSF, NASA