As the lead of the new study has explained, their work may essentially contradict the belief that the universe is “the same in all directions”.
It appears that the expansion rate of our universe may vary from place to place, which may force scientists to reassess some of their assumptions regarding the universe’s nature, space.com reports citing a new study that was conducted using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s XMM-Newton.
According to the media outlet, study lead Konstantinos Migkas, of the University of Bonn noted that equations based on Einstein’s general theory of relativity suggest that the universe, which has been expanding continuously for more than 13.8 billion years, was growing at roughly the same pace “on large spatial scales”.
As the researcher pointed out, since the Observations of the cosmic microwave background – “leftover relic radiation from the Big Bang” – show that it appears to be isotropic, “cosmologists extrapolate this property of the very early universe to our current epoch, nearly 14 billion years later.”
However, Migkas and his colleagues have examined some 842 galaxy clusters during the course of their study, and established that the expansion rate of our universe appeared to differ from region to region.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
