This image shows the two hemispheres of a spherical mapping of the cosmic microwave background. New research examining the velocities of Type Ia supernovae suggests faster expansion in the northern hemisphere of the universe, challenging the cosmological principle that the universe is expanding uniformly in all directions.
Credit: WMAP/NASA
GOSFORD: Recent examination of supernovae velocities suggests the universe may be expanding non-uniformly in its acceleration, which implies the laws of physics may vary throughout the cosmos.
Physicists working with the Supernova Cosmology Project’s Union2 data set have suggested that the expansion of the universe seems to display a preferred axis, meaning that the universe is expanding faster in one direction than any other.