SPACE is smooth, say two astronomers after scrutinising images from a distant galaxy. That may sound like common sense, but in fact the claim could hardly be more controversial. According to theories that try to explain how gravity should act on the very smallest scales, space and time must be irregular, like constantly churning foam. If space-time were smooth, phenomena such as black holes or the big bang could not be explained, hence theorists' scepticism over the new result.
The causes of the argument are astronomers Richard Lieu and Lloyd Hillman, from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. They looked at a distant galaxy called PKS1413+135, and saw a set of rings around it - an interference pattern called Airy rings
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