Just two weeks before his death Stephen Hawking submitted a research paper revealing how to detect evidence of a multiverse and predicting the end of our existence.
The multiverse is a theory that our universe is just one of many others out there caused by the Big Bang.
The paper, which was completed on his deathbed, discusses the idea that we could measure other universes using a detector on a spaceship.
If this evidence was discovered during Hawking’s lifetime it may have put him in the running for a Nobel Prize – something he was never able to achieve.
Thomas Hertog, who co-authored the paper named A Smooth Exit from Eternal Inflation, told the Sunday Times: ‘He has often been nominated for the Nobel and should have won it. Now he never can.’
A 1983 paper Hawking drew up with James Hartle explains how the universe came into being but the theory also suggested that the Big Bang also created an infinite number of others – each producing their own universe.
This theory of inflation, that the universe expanded exponentially before settling down to slower expansion, was impossible to test.
Hertog claims that he and Hawking wanted to take the idea of a multiverse and turn it into a ‘testable scientific framework’.
However the potentially ground-breaking research also suggests the existence of earth will fade into darkness when the stars run out of energy.
The idea that we will eventually fade into blackness remains controversial with cosmologists, including Professor Neil Turok, director of Canada’s Perimeter Institute, who was confused as to why Hawking found the idea interesting.
However on the other hand some scientists have concluded that Hawking’s work could be the breakthrough that cosmology needs.
This is largely because it is the first theory that could be tested.
Carlos Frenk, professor of cosmology, agreed that it has previously been impossible to measure other universes.
She said: ‘The intriguing idea in Hawking’s paper is that [the multiverse] left its imprint on the background radiation permeating our universe and we could measure it with a detector on a spaceship.’
Frenk argues that finding evidence of other universes could completely change our perception of our place in the cosmos.
