There is an alternative, Tim, with 'islands of energy'.

This is part of the Big Whisper theory that declares that matter is only one component of the energized output of the materialization process. The other part is the remnant of the original energy in the original state.

The idea in the Big Whisper is that an inward motion that did not stop caused the end of the prior state of the universe. During the subsequent catapulting action, only one area (Zone 2) was the source for matter. Zone 1 and Zone 3 did not become matter, but where catapulted outwardly as well.

As such, grouped energy ended up floating through space. The largest example would then be a galaxy that is enveloped in original energy. Between galaxies there would then just be space.

The available remnant of original energy enables matter to perform the way it does - ad infinitum.

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What I like is that this may place a conundrum on the discovered 2K-3K Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation. Because we cannot move into space and measure this CMBR anywhere outside our own galaxy, we may actually be recording the 'island of energy' of our Milky Way and not the proposed CMBR.

It would be like wearing pink glasses and declaring that pink is everywhere because even the whitest white is then pinkish. Our galaxy may be enveloped in that ‘pink pair of glasses’.

Looking at other galaxies to discover if they have a 2K-3K envelope is a useless exercise; we cannot read that distinction among the temperature readings of other galaxies.