James Webb telescope findings suggest we might be living 'inside a black hole'

We could all be living in a block hole.

No, seriously. Well, if the latest scientific studies are to be believed.

It's fair to say that the world of astronomy has benefited endlessly from the introduction of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which was launched on Christmas Day 2021.

It's made discoveries of its first ever exoplanet as well as some icy disks circling a juvenile solar system, among other things.

A study analysing all the observations made by JWST of the early universe has stumbled upon an interesting discovery, and it could defy everything we know about space, with the authors behind the studies even making a wildly bold statement.

If true, it means that almost everything we know about the universe may be wide of the mark - but is it true?

What is the James Webb Space Telescope?

The James Webb Space Telescope may have helped to make a groundbreaking discovery (NASA)

The innovative bit of space tech has allowed us to see deeper into space, and therefore further into the past, than any previous telescope in history.

We've been able to see infrared light from distant galaxies from just 300 million years after the Big Bang, and teams are currently working to better understand the formation of galaxies.

Since being launched into space four years ago, JWST is the most powerful telescope when it comes to deep space discovery, working with its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, to collect data.

Able to sit out further in space, it's also got a mirror over twice the size of Hubble's one.

Due to this increased sensitivity to light, it has been described by NASA to be 'largest, most powerful and most complex telescope ever launched into space'.

They explain that its longer wavelength means they can 'look much closer to the beginning of time and to hunt for the unobserved formation of the first galaxies,' while also examining the inside of dust clouds.

What has the study found?

Was the universe conceived in a black hole? (Getty Stock Image)

The study, which was published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society earlier this year, claims that our universe may exist inside a black hole.

This is due to the fact that most galaxies appear to be rotating in the same direction. The pattern defies existing cosmological models, as previous studies have assumed that our universe moves in the same direction on large scales.

But as the majority of physicists and astronomers think there is no preferred direction of rotation for galaxies, this would be true of the early universe.

However, it was found that 40 percent of the galaxies observed (105) rotated counterclockwise, while 60 percent (158) rotated clockwise,

Associate professor of computer science in the Carl R. Ice College of Engineering, Lior Shamir, stated: "The analysis of the galaxies was done by quantitative analysis of their shapes, but the difference is so obvious that any person looking at the image can see it."

Adding that there was 'no need for special skills' to see the different numbers, the power of the JWST puts it out in plain writing.

What could this mean?

The study suggests that we could all be in a black hole (Getty stock images)

While similar findings have been reported in the past, this is the most definitive bit of evidence we've had.

In the paper, it is explained that if this claim is true, 'it shows that the early universe was more homogeneous in terms of the directions towards which galaxies rotate'.

This would then become 'more chaotic over time', as the paper continues: "Some cosmological models assume a geometry that features a cosmological-scale axis.

"These include ellipsoidal Universe, dipole big bang, and isotropic inflation. In these cases, the large-scale distribution of the galaxy rotation is aligned in the form of a cosmological-scale axis, and the location of that axis in close proximity to the Galactic pole can be considered a coincidence."

Authors suggested that the preferred direction is the result of us being in the black hole of an even larger universe, as they suggest that the universe was born rotating.

This lines up with black hole cosmology, according to Shamir, who added: "But if the universe was indeed born rotating it means that the existing theories about the cosmos are incomplete."

Alternatively, this could be caused by the Dopple shift effect, making light appear red or blue-shifted depending on the movement of an object relative to us.