A Hole In the Universe

"This is far outside the current expectations of the concordance cosmology,..."

That Concorde model is a chop suey of epicycles: A repulsive "inflaton" for initial expansion, another repulsive "dark energy" causing current acceleration, and our Ptolemaic world in the middle. Followers of this Concorde cite simulations that claim to reproduce large-scale structure of the Universe. Computer simulations are not nature, for my computer says Lara Croft can run with those boobs. The "Lambda-CDM" model can not explain THIS.

An immense hole or void has been found, far larger than anything thought possible. It is about 140 million parsecs across! This hole has appeared as an obvious cold spot in Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe data. Astronomers Lawrence Rudnick, Shea Brown, and Liliya Williams found the void using the Very Large Array in New Mexico. "What we've found is not normal, based on either observational studies or on computer simulations of the large-scale evolution of the universe," said Williams.

The Cosmic Microwave Background radiation comes from all parts of Space. In the illustration, the CMB encounters the immense void, causing WMAP to record a cold spot. Something in the void that absorbs all light would make this region appear even colder. The Very Large Array perceives a lack of galaxies in the same direction, as if long ago something sucked them up. The Rudnick, Brown and Willians paper is here.

The most optimistic estimates of the Concorde model give such a void only 5 x 10^{-10} probability of existing. Discovery of this single void within our sight puts its probability at least 3 x 10^{-5}, sixty thousand times greater. The Concorde model can not explain how this big hole can exist. "Voids this large currently seem improbable in the concordance cosmology, adding to the anomalies associated with the CMB." Perhaps you can add more epicycles, guys.

Most physicists believe that the Big Bang created billions of Black Holes. These would have formed from quantum fluctuations grown large by expansion of the Universe. Size of a Black Hole is limited by a horizon distance that light can travel. Because the speed of light was much faster, primordial Black Holes could have formed in any size. The largest were true monsters devouring everything in sight. They are theorised to have cleared immense voids in Space, exactly as observed. The 71.62% of the Universe ascribed to "dark energy" could easily be hidden in those voids.

We read fashion magazines too, and it has been fashionable to imagine a Universe of repulsive energies. This Concorde cosmology is slowly being taken apart. Real scientists have an obligation to tell the truth, not peddle "dark energy." As Marcus Aurelius said, "The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding one's self in the ranks of the insane."

See previous posts about voids in: Big News on Black Holes, Dark Thoughts, and Dark Matter News.