The
concept of a parallel universe has been floating around since the early 1960s, largely in the
minds of fans of sci-fi TV shows and comic books, but now a cosmic ray detection experiment
has discovered particles that could be from a parallel reality that was also born in the
Big Bang.
In a scene right out of "The Twilight Zone," a group of NASA scientists working on an experiment
in Antarctica discovered evidence of a parallel universe whose physics rules are totally opposite
to our own.
While some scientists dismiss this as science fiction, new evidence for the existence of
these parallel universes is emerging.
What exactly are parallel universes, and how do they impact you?
In this video, we look at how scientists have finally discovered evidence of parallel universes.
We may have just caught a peek of another universe for the first time.
A new analysis of data from the European Space Agency's Planck telescope shows that a strange
glow in deep space could be the result of a parallel universe to our own.
The presence of numerous universes – a multiverse — has been regarded scientifically plausible.
If all of these universes formed from the same Big Bang, they're probably vibrating
together like ducks in a row.
According to this line of reasoning, there should be some kind of trace evidence left
behind if these universes happen to collide with one another.
Which leads us to the Planck telescope's map of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) – leftover
light from the early universe's chaotic, swirling origins.
Ranga-Ram Chary, a Caltech cosmologist, compared the CMB to a picture of the entire night sky
taken by the Planck telescope and discovered a strange region of intense light that could
be the consequence of universes merging in a new publication.
According to the statistics, the other universe pushing up against ours would look completely
different from anything we've seen before, and it would have struck our universe just
a few hundred thousand years after the Big Bang.
A multiverse would be the result of cosmic inflation, which is the theory that the universe
is perpetually expanding.
According to Alan Guth, an MIT cosmologist and pioneer of the multiverse notion, everlasting
inflation would create "a number of pocket universes."
This is because latent energy in empty places would accelerate inflation, creating new energy
bubbles that could eventually blow up into tiny pocket universes that continue to expand.
But have you ever considered whether there are other forms of life in the universe?
Since the beginning of time, people have been obsessed with the questions they have, but
inquiries of this nature are, of course, the reason we are human.
Scientists, on the other hand, do much more than speculate about other forms of life since
some of them believe there may be another universe out there alongside ours.
Some people believe that there are an infinite number of similar universes, which they call
parallel universes.
Hugh Everett III, a Princeton University undergraduate at the time, suggested the contentious concept
of parallel realities or realms that appear identical to and are linked to our own in
1954.
These parallel universes separate themselves from our own, just as our own universe separates
itself from those of other dimensions.
This audacious idea has numerous practical ramifications since it indicates that world
wars may have different results in parallel universes.
For example, dinosaurs may have lived or are now thriving in specific parallel universes,
while humans may have become extinct in specific parallel universes.
Many questioned this young scientist and his audacious proposal, but Everett's Many Worlds'
Theory, as it became known, was an attempt to solve certain unanswered questions raised
by the results of tests done in the burgeoning science of quantum physics.
Quantum physics is the study of phenomena at the quantum level, which is the smallest
level found so far by scientists.
Quantum matter appears to act irregularly at times, in contrast to the regularity found
in many other fields, prompting scientists to conclude that there are additional scientific
principles at work that we are unaware of.
For example, scientists researching quantum meta quickly discover that quantum particles
like photons appear to assume several shapes at random.
Photons, according to scientists who study them, act like particles at times and waves
at others, much like you being a solid human being one minute and a gas the next.
The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle describes this phenomenon.
Scientist Werner Heisenberg proposed that humans can change the behavior of quantum
matter just by observing it.
Another physicist, Niels Bohr, concurred and went so far as to argue that quantum particles
exist in all conceivable states at the same time and that when we watch them, our perception
changes their behavior, causing them to choose one state at that point in time.
Everett's many worlds hypothesis could be thought of as an alternative to Bohr's concept
of quantum matter.
Observing quantum matter, according to Everett, causes a true split in the universe rather
than a flip between states, hence the universe actually replicates and divides into numerous
parallel universes for each potential quantum matter state.
Meanwhile, other scientists are concerned about the many worlds theory's implications.
For example, if you've ever been in a situation where the only possible consequence was death,
Everett's theory argues that there must be a parallel universe where you died.
Everett's method was especially controversial since it violated our fundamental sense of
time.
For many years, Everett's hypothesis was regarded to be implausible; nevertheless, scientists
have recently renewed their interest in it after numerous scientists conducted thought
experiments that appear to imply Everett's hypothesis is theoretically conceivable.
Interestingly, Everett's theory is not the only alternative theory that attempts to explain
quantum physics; string theory proposes the existence of particles considerably smaller
than quantum matter.
String theory also predicts parallel worlds exist, because we will almost probably encounter
parallel universes as we work our way back from the big bang.
How?
Keep in mind that the part of the universe that we can access has a time limit.
The universe as we know it began 13.8 billion years ago with the big bang, when the universe
was hot, dense, and full of matter and radiation.
It was cooling and leaving that initial state.
The further we look back in space, the further we look back in time, all the way to the limit
of the hot big bang.
You can't, however, go back to arbitrarily early ages since the universe would have had
qualities that we don't see if it had beyond a certain temperature and density.
Instead, evidence suggests that the hot big bang was preceded and set up by a period of
cosmic inflation that stretched the universe's curvature to the point where it was indistinguishable
from flat and then inflated away any problematic unobserved high-energy remnants predicted
to form at high temperatures.
The universe thus has the same energy density everywhere, with quantum fluctuations generated
by inflation placed on top of the uniform energy backdrop.
As inflation continues, there is a chance that the field will roll into the valley where
inflation stops, a chance that it will not and inflation will continue, and even a chance
that the field may roll in the wrong direction, moving us further away from the end of inflation.
Because the expanding universe is always creating new space, all of these possibilities can
coexist in various parts of the expanding cosmos.
As inflation continues to stretch the cosmos and produce new space in some locations, the
field rolls into the valley, bringing inflation to an end.
This causes scorching big bangs to form in the locations we may call the universe.
There is additional inflating space between those universes where inflation does not halt
but rather continues.
More space is created as the universe expands.
Now we have a scenario in which we have sufficient inflation to set up the hot big bang with
the features that we see, and we always get a multiverse as a result.
One in which new universes and blistering big bangs are constantly generated, permanently
separated from one another by space, and which continues to expand indefinitely as new universes
and scorching big bangs are born.
Despite the fact that each universe arose from the same little region of space, no information
can be exchanged between them because they are not causally linked.
Many people, including scientists, have criticized the hypothesis of parallel universes, claiming
that it cannot be tested.
However, an experiment appears to have changed everything.
The experiment was called the Cosmic Ray Detection Test, and it identified particles that could
have originated outside of our cosmos.
Anita, NASA's Antarctic impulsive transient antenna, uses a giant balloon to lift sensitive
electronic antennae into the cold, dry air over Antarctica, where radio noise is minimal.
There is a constant stream of high-energy particles from space, some of which are a
million times more powerful than anything we can create.
Low energy particles known as neutrinos can pass through the planet without colliding
with its material, whereas higher energy items are stopped by the earth's solid matter.
This suggests that high energy particles can only be detected as they fall from space,
but discovering a heavier particle known as a Tau Neutrino as it rises from the earth
would imply that these particles are travelling backward in time.
This suggests that a parallel universe exists.
Despite this, a large number of scientists have offered explanations for Anita's discovery,
arguing that regardless of the fact that the discovery is exciting, it was caused by something
other than parallel universes.
Given that astronomers used to assume that our planet was the only one in the cosmos,
then our solar system was thought to be the only one in the universe, the idea that there
are other universes is not one that should be rejected.
But how do we know for sure that parallel universes exist?
We'd have evidence if our universe collided with another.
According to certain physicists, colliding universes may leave cold or hot patches on
the cosmic microwave background CMB, which is the afterglow of the big bang.
If this is the case, advanced sky surveys should be able to pinpoint those areas.
Gravitational waves, or ripples in space-time, may also give evidence to support the notion
of cosmic inflation.
According to the idea, gravitational waves left over from the big bang could cause tiny
curls in the CMB, which some telescopes are actively searching for today.
If researchers can find such curls in the CMB as they thought they found in 2014, it
could eventually strengthen support for the hypothesis that there is another you out there
doing your thing.
There is, however, a connection between parallel universes and two more strange and scary space
phenomena: black holes and white holes.
Black holes are those terrifying monsters in space that consume everything in their
path.
They develop when massive stars collide, generating enormously dense masses with gravitational
forces so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape their grip.
White holes are the inverse of black holes in that they force everything inside them
out and allow nothing in.
But what's the link between the three?
In essence, each white hole can cause other big bangs, resulting in multiple universes
within or beyond its radius or borders, each with its own set of physical laws.
Reality could be made of antimatter, or time could be positive and unidirectional.
These universes are almost certainly reflections of our own, with different histories based
on separate quantum states coming to life, demonstrating quantum superposition.
Let us know what you think about parallel universes in the comments below.