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Our universe is expatiate at an ever - accelerating rate — a phenomenon that all theories of cosmogony agree upon but none can fully excuse . Now , a new theoretical study offers an intriguing result : Perhaps our universe is expanding because it celebrate collide with and take in " babe " parallel universes .

Studies of the cosmic microwave oven background , the afterglow of theBig Bang , have revealed that our universe of discourse isexperiencing accelerated expansion . For this observation to meet with   the master theory of cosmic development — called the Standard Cosmological Model — physicists take that the universe is occupy with an puzzling meat dubbeddark energythat ram the expansion .

Ai Generated Multiverse Universe royalty-free stock illustration.

An illustration of the Euclid spacecraft scanning the sky. Euclid’s mission is to hunt for traces of dark matter and dark energy in the ancient universe, to help explain the mysteries of cosmic expansion.

But this tough form of energy does not demonstrate itself in any other way , take many astrophysicists to oppugn its macrocosm and search the possibility of an alternative cause for the universe ’s enlargement .

In a new study published Dec. 12 , 2023 in theJournal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics , scientists proposed the approximation that the expansion of the creation may be driven instead by constantly merging with other population .

" The main finding of our work is that the accelerated enlargement of our universe , because of the cryptical dark energy , might have a elementary nonrational explanation , the merging with so - call child universe , and that a role model for this might fit the data point well than the standard cosmogonical model , " atomic number 82 study authorJan Ambjørn , a physicist at the Copenhagen University told LiveScience in an electronic mail .

An illustration of the Euclid spacecraft scanning the sky. Euclid’s mission is to hunt for traces of dark matter and dark energy in the ancient universe, to help explain the mysteries of cosmic expansion.

An illustration of the Euclid spacecraft scanning the sky. Euclid’s mission is to hunt for traces of dark matter and dark energy in the ancient universe, to help explain the mysteries of cosmic expansion.

Swallowing cosmic ‘babies’

While theidea of multiple universesinteracting with ours is n’t new , this report make grow a numerical model to explore the hypothetical impingement of this on the phylogeny of our universe of discourse . The researchers ' calculation showed that merging with other universes should increase the loudness of our macrocosm , which could be perceive by our instruments as an expansion of the universe .

The scientists also cypher the rate of expansion of the world using their theory , and their computation more closely fit with observation of the universe than the traditional Standard Cosmological Model , the researchers say .

Related : After 2 years in space , the James Webb telescope has broken cosmology . Can it be fixed ?

an illustration with two grids, one of which is straight and the other of which is distorted. Galaxies are floating in the middle of the two grids.

The author ' possibility also addresses   the trouble of cosmologic pomposity — the inscrutable super - rapid expanding upon that fall out in the other moments of the universe .

Physicists have previously project that this expansion was due to " the inflaton " — a divinatory field that push back radical - rapid expansion in the first milliseconds after the Big Bang . But in the new study , the authors propose this super - speedy former expansion could have been due to our young universe being absorbed by a larger universe .

" The fact that the Universe has expanded … in a very short fourth dimension , invites the suggestion that this expanding upon was make by a collision with a larger cosmos , [ that is ] it was really our Universe which was absorbed in another ' parent ' cosmos , " the research worker wrote in their composition . " Since we have soon no detailed verbal description of the absorption process , it is difficult to judge if such a scenario could take seat in a way that would actually solve the problem inflation was design to clear , but one interesting aspect of such a scenario is that there is no need for an inflaton field . "

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument maps the night sky from the Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope in Arizona.

The scientist suggested that , after being absorbed , our newly enlarge cosmos then continued to collide with other “ infant universes ”   and incorporate them as well .

Although the authors ' theory enable us to work out some important trouble of mod cosmology , only observational data point can corroborate their speculation . Many experiments are currently being carried out to study the properties of the microwave background signal , so scientists may be able to resolve these fundamental questions in the close time to come .

— How do galaxies grow while ensnared in the cosmos ’s cosmic entanglement ?

an illustration of outer space with stars whizzing by

— The universe might be young than we think , galaxies ' motion suggests

— Cosmic strings can break — and when they do , they shake the universe

" Our late sentence expansion of the Universe is unlike from the standard cosmological prediction and we believe that observations from theEuclid telescopeand theJames Webb telescopewill settle which model is considerably describing the present time expansion of our Universe,“Yoshiyuki Watabiki , a physicist at theTokyo Institute of Technology , order Live Science .

An abstract illustration of lines and geometric shapes over a starry background

Galaxies observed by the JWST with those rotating one way circled in red, those rotating the other way circled in blue

An illustration of a spinning black hole with multicolor light

An illustration of lightning striking in spake

an illustration of the Milky Way in the center of a blue cloud of gas

An artist�s interpretation of a white dwarf exploding while matter from another white dwarf falls onto it

On the left is part of a new half-sky image in which three wavelengths of light have been combined to highlight the Milky Way (purple) and cosmic microwave background (gray). On the right, a closeup of the Orion Nebula.

A false-color image taken with MegaCam on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) as part of the Pan-Andromeda Archaeological Survey (PAndAS) shows a zoomed-in view of the newly discovered Andromeda XXXV satellite galaxy. A white ellipse, that measures about 1,000 light-years across its longest axis, shows the extent of the galaxy. Within the ellipse�s boundary is a cluster of mostly dim stars, ranging in hues from bright blues to warm yellows.

Circular alignment of stones in the center of an image full of stones

Three-dimensional rendering of an HIV virus

a photo of the Milky Way reflecting off of an alpine lake at night

an illustration of Mars

three prepackaged sandwiches

Tunnel view of Yosemite National Park.