Scientists Claim They've Found 'Cracks in the Universe' After Looking Closely at Strange Galaxies

Billions of years ago, a hot, dense point accumulated such tremendous energy that it suddenly exploded into a vast universe, which has been expanding ever since in a process called “cosmic inflation.” The monstrous explosion a.k.a. “Big Bang,” emitted a radiation later named the “Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)” radiation. Much like an ice lattice frozen in time, CMB is the cooled remnant of the “oldest light” that pervades the fabric of the whole universe, vibrating invisibly in the background. However, no ice lattice is devoid of imperfections.

But when scientists first studied CMB, they found no such imperfections or inconsistencies. Therefore, when last month a team of scientists from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics was exploring some of the brightest galaxies, they were stunned. They found that there are indeed imperfections or defects in the universe, which they called “cosmic strings.” The study was published in Bulletin de la Société Royale des Sciences de Liège and an earlier version was published on the Arxiv server.

Also known as “cracks in the universe,” the cosmic strings (CS) are hypothesized topological defects in the quantum field of the universe. The idea of CS was first suggested during the 1970s by a theoretical physicist Tom W. B. Kibble, according to IFL Science. The idea later became the springboard for the invention of “string theory.” Scientists discovered that these hypothetical strings emerged into existence in the first second of the universe after the Big Bang happened. Ideally, the leftover radiation, CMB should have displayed some clues to these strings but it didn’t. The first of the strings scientists observed was CSc–1.

Scientists were studying the brightest objects in the field which turned out to be a galactic cluster of two celestial bodies named SDSSJ110429.61+233150.3. They noticed that it wasn’t actually two galaxies but only one, which appeared to be two due to a process known as “gravitational lensing.” Gravitational lensing is when massive galactic objects between Earth and other observed parts of space block the object’s light. This usually warps out the space-time of heavy objects, often magnifying objects into a distance that is too long or far for scientists to study. The galactic duo in question was observed through the Himalayan Chandra Telescope.

"Our modeling of observational data in CSc-1 shows that a large number of pairs can be explained by the complex geometry of the string," the researchers noted in the paper. “Simulations of the SDSSJ110429 galaxy pair have shown that the observed angle between the components of the pair can be explained if the CS is strongly inclined and, possibly, bent in the image plane,” they added.

So how are these cosmic strings formed? PBS Space Time explains that “a filament of high-vacuum energy is squeezed down to one-ten-trillionth the width of a proton. And yet, it still holds an incredible amount of energy, which gives it the mass of the planet Mars for every 150 meters of length.” The discovery of these cosmic strings has opened up a new portal for researchers to delve deeper into the mysteries of the universe, especially the baby universe that emerged from the golden egg just after the Big Bang.

But since cosmic strings haven’t been studied extensively before, scientists are cautious that they cannot be taken as the hard proof they had been searching to unlock the oldest mystery of the universe. However, these anomalies could prove promising by pointing them in the right direction. Moving forward, the team is hoping for a deeper investigation into this cosmic string with their 4-meter class telescope, such as the Devasthal Optical Telescope in Nainital, India.