ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, April 22, 1997 TAG: 9704220059
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
It's unclear if the axis was created during the Big Bang, the universe's birth, 15 billion years ago.
The universe may have an axis similar to Earth's that points the cosmos in a specific direction, scientists say in an upcoming paper that challenges long-held assumptions about the nature of time and space.
The theory, if proved valid, could mean the universe has an ``up'' and a ``down,'' and that the creation of the universe was less random than scientists previously believed.
``We don't know if the axis is just a blemish in space or the umbilical cord of the universe,'' astrophysicist Greg Benford of the University of California, Irvine, said, responding to the theory published Monday in the highly respected Physical Review Letters.
Kansas and New York scientists studied radio waves emitted by 160 galaxies and recorded by observatories around the world. Something is twisting the radio waves into a corkscrew pattern before they reach Earth.
``The shocking thing about our result is that there seems to be an absolute axis, a kind of cosmological north star that orients the universe,'' said one of the paper's authors, University of Kansas physicist John Ralston. ``We don't really know yet what this axis represents.''
Ralston also said it's unclear whether the axis was created during the Big Bang, the cataclysmic birth of the universe, about 15 billion years ago.
That question fascinates UCI's Benford.
``If the axis was created during the Big Bang, it would show that creation was far more complex than we thought, that there was almost a blueprint for it,'' he said.
That's because until now, scientists have seen no hard evidence of structure, or building blocks, at the moment of creation that would explain the later formation of stars and galaxies. The axis could provide evidence of such structure.
It would also challenge one of the fundamental assumptions of cosmology: that space is the same in all directions, with no up or down.
The new theory was posed by Ralston and University of Rochester physicist Borge Nodlund, who say they found an axis that is defined by changes in the vibration of radio waves emitted by distant galaxies.
Timothy Ferris, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, wondered if the axis reveals the existence of multiple universes. Some theories propose that our universe is one of many ballooning out of a primordial froth.
``Imagine a scenario in which our universe is a bubble from a pre-existing space,'' Ferris said. ``That bubble could have a kind of axis, the way a football does. And it points to the direction of the point of origin, so to speak.''
The multiple-universe concept is ``one of the most extreme interpretations'' in modern cosmology, Ferris said, though not out of the question. More mainstream models of the universe call for space and time expanding together from the primordial Big Bang, not expanding from an existing space.
And Ferris said the measurements suggesting an axis may be found invalid once they are placed in the context of measurements from more galaxies.
``If I had to put money on it, the money would be that the data will go away,'' Ferris said.
Ralston said: ``Everyone will be skeptical. This will be checked six ways to Sunday. If it is still there, wow!''
LENGTH: Medium: 69 linesby CNB