article_snippet.sent: A giant supervoid 1.8 billion light-years across may be responsible for a mysterious ‘Cold Spot’ in the universe.
article_snippet.sent: The theory was proposed by astronomers seeking to understand what is causing this larger-than-expected cold area.
article_snippet.sent: In 2004 astronomers first found the 'Cold Spot' - a region 20 per cent less dense than elsewhere - and may now have an explanation for its formation .
article_snippet.sent: The Cold Spot was first discovered by astronomers in 2004 when The research, published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society were examining a map of the radiation left over from the Big Bang - the cosmic microwave background (CMB) - made using Esa's Planck telescope.
article_snippet.sent: The different is marginal - typically about 70 nano-Kelvins - but it is enough to stand out when the entire cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) of the universe is measured.
article_snippet.sent: The original theory was that the Cold Spot originated from the Big Bang, and was a rare sign of 'exotic physics' that our current models of the universe could not explain.
article_snippet.sent: Previous attempts to find a void at the distance of the Cold Spot were unsuccessful, but this latest study suggests this latest study is actually a foreground object, three billion light-years from Earth.