Other universes exist alongside our own

The incredible claim emerged after they studied patterns in the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) - the after-effects of the Big Bang.

They say they may have found evidence that four circular patterns found in the CMB are 'cosmic bruises' where our universe has crashed into other universes at least four times. The findings are based on the complex theory of eternal inflation for our universe, reports the Daily Mail.

This theory holds that our universe is only one bubble in a larger cosmos and that other universes, which will have different physics to our own, all exist at the same time. This is also known as the the multiverse theory.

Where these universe bubbles crash against each other they leave signature traces in the background radiation, believe some scientists. The findings, by Stephen Feeney from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at University College London, are likely to be controversial, according to its release.

A number of cosmologists have already written in response to the paper that it is too easy to jump to conclusions about what can be seen in the CMB. The team behind the paper accept that "it is rather easy to find all sorts of statistically unlikely properties in a large dataset like the CMB".

But they add: "If a bubble collision is verified by future data, then we will gain an insight not only into our own universe but a multiverse beyond."