World’s top cosmologists convene to question conventional view of the universe

Meeting at London's Royal Society will scrutinise basic model first formulated in 1922 that universe is a vast, even expanse with no notable features

If you zoomed out on the universe, well beyond the level of planets, stars or galaxies, you would eventually see a vast, evenly speckled expanse with no notable features. At least, that has been the conventional view.

The principle that everything looks the same everywhere is a fundamental pillar of the standard model of cosmology, which aims to explain the big bang and how the universe has evolved in the 13.7bn years since.