8:23pm UK, Wednesday August 18, 2004

The next time you hear a big bang in your kitchen it may not be the chip pan exploding - it might be a new universe being created.  

Scientists say they cannot dismiss the possibility that a new universe could explode into life in your kitchen.

180 stars galaxy galaxies milky way universe

A new universe could be created at any time

Nor can they rule out a Big Bang in your bedroom. 

But don't be too concerned that you could become the centre of a new universe.  

Scientists say the chances are so remote the figure is one divided by one followed by 100 million trillion trillion trillion trillion noughts.  

"It is probably the smallest number in the history of physics," said Dr Sean Carroll, from the University of Chicago, who helped to work the figure out.  

The universe was created out of nothing more than 14 billion years ago in the Big Bang.  

Cosmologists have been trying to work out the chances of the phenomenon happening again.  

They have concluded it could happen at any time in any place.  

Although the odds of it happening in your home are phenomenally high against, the probability is not zero.  

Cosmologists say the likelihood is that a new Big Bang will not occur until long after the human race has disappeared - perhaps not until after the last star has gone out.