A Hole In The Universe?

iTWire (11.25.07), via AmericaBlog:

"The [research] team [of theoretical physicist Dr. Laura Mersini-Houghton of the U of North Carolina] states that the hole is another universe at the edge of our own universe. Such an explanation, if true, would be the first experimental evidence of such an exo-universe, or a universe outside of our own universe."

Has first evidence of another universe been seen?

The itWire article points us to this, from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (08.23.07):

"Astronomers have found an enormous hole in the Universe, nearly a billion light-years across, empty of both normal matter such as stars, galaxies, and gas, and the mysterious, unseen 'dark matter.'

While earlier studies have shown holes, or voids, in the large-scale structure of the Universe, this new discovery dwarfs them all."

Astronomers Find Enormous Hole in the Universe

"'Not only has no one ever found a void this big, but we never even expected to find one this size,' said Lawrence Rudnick of the University of Minnesota. Rudnick, along with Shea Brown and Liliya R. Williams, also of the University of Minnesota, reported their findings in a paper accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal."

Rudnick sez what they found is "'is not normal, based on either observational studies or on computer simulations of the large-scale evolution of the Universe'".