New research may overturn Big Bang theory

Scientists are asserting evidence of events which took place before the Big Bang is evident in the glowing microwave radiation filling our universe.

Famed cosmologist Professor Roger Penrose says analysis of the background of the cosmic radiation is showing ‘echoes’ of previous Big Bangs. The echoes of pre-Big Bang events reveal themselves in ‘ring’ form set around galaxy clusters where variations in background radiation are usually low.

Prof  Penrose’s as yet unpublished research can be viewed online at the Arxiv website. The ideas contained in the research results support the Professor’s earlier theory  which upends the widely respected ‘inflationary theory’ that the universe came into being following an unimaginably large and fast expansion starting at a single point.

Modern high-energy physics strives to elucidate the means by which the laws of nature developed within a fleeting instance of creation. Prof Penrose has never agreed with the theory, but says if a theory isn’t acceptable, another which explains the event equally must be found.

He adds that in his proposal there exists an exponential expansion – but not in the period covering from Big Bang to the remote future. Therefore, the creation of our universe must be as a result of the remote future of another such. In this manner, a ‘conformal cyclic cosmology’ allows nature’s laws to evolve over time, but precludes a need for a theoretical start point for the universe.

Prof Penrose, working with his colleague Vahe Gurzadyan, believe they may have found evidence to support the CCC theory that the same object may undergo the same processes several times, with each event producing a shockwave of energy. In the case of a collision between two galaxies, their super-massive central black holes would merge in tremendous bursts of energy.

A search revealed 12 possible sites of such an event, revealed by as many as five concentric circles, suggesting five repeats of similar events from the same object. Although the theory and the research behind it is evolutionary, other respected scientists in the field find it impressive.