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Space

Cosmic bubble made cold spot in big bang afterglow

By Rachel Courtland

30 June 2010

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Behind the universe’s odd spots

(Image: Lawrence Lawry/SPL)

A BUBBLE of space that expanded differently to the rest of the early universe could explain a strange “cold spot” in the afterglow of the big bang. Such bubbles might have formed just fractions of a second after the universe came into existence, when it grew dramatically in size.

“It would be an unexpected gift, because we would all of a sudden have a very good window on inflation,” says Anže Slosar of the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, part of the team that put forward the idea.

Much…

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