There is a weird strip in the universe – and we still do now why

A deviation in the temperature of the universe has long stumped physicists, and a new analysis of data from several radio telescopes has only elaborated on the mystery of what causes it.

This strange series is seen in the afterglow of the Big Bang – the radiation that has traveled towards us since the beginning of time, called the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Physicists agree that our view of the universe or position within should not be unusual in any way, so they expect CMB to look about the same in all directions. But measurements show other: There is an axis that CMB goes from colder to warmer. This is called a dipole, and Lukas Böhme at Bielefeld University in Germany, and his partners have now shown how deeply strange it is when turning data from radio telescopes.

Böhme says that the existence of a dipole in CMB is not surprising by itself, but its size does not match our strong cosmologic models. Radiation emitted from a moving source or measured by a person moving – and the Earth, our solar system and our ohe galaxy moves all – shifts to be warmer or colors depending on this movement due to the Doppler effect and other relative movement that is the theory of special relativity. But the dipole that the researchers have observed for decades corresponds to movement about ten times faster than expected.

To get a better overview of this discrepancy, Böhme and his colleagues analyzed data from six telescopes that collect radio waves. After a careful analysis, they narrowed the data to the three they found most precise and analysis of a new model of where radio waves come from in the sky. Böhme says their approach corresponded to dividing the sky into pixels and carefully determining how many sources of radiation contained in each. Yet, even with this paint adjustment, the dipole mystery lasted.

Dragan loses at the University of Michigan that the new finding is interesting exactly because of how careful the team’s analysis was. It is a loany significant step towards the establishment of the dipole as an undeniable fact and CMB, which would be a big thing, he says. This is because it means that we either understand something about the structure of our neighborhood with the cosmos, or the whole universe is not as just as our most successful theories suggest it should be. However, Huerer says that radio astronomic measurements are notoriously difficult to do precisely, so there may still be systematic errors in the data.

Part of the challenge comes from the fact that all radio signals telescopes collect are weak, says Böhme. “This is a really little thing that we will measure. It’s really hard to calibrate your [radio] Study to be so precise, ”he says. But this is not the only proof of the dipole we have. Infrared radiation that comes from quasars seems to strengthen the radio wave measurements, but it will really be up to future telescopes to add more accuracy to the image and reduce the dipoly mystery.

Reference: Physical review lettersFortHcoming