Posted on 02/18/2024 10:39:57 AM PST by Red Badger
The universe is expanding faster and faster, but not all scientists agree that dark energy is the cause. Perhaps, instead, our universe keeps colliding with and absorbing smaller 'baby universes,' a new theoretical study suggests.
Our universe is expanding at an ever-accelerating rate — a phenomenon that all theories of cosmology agree upon but none can fully explain. Now, a new theoretical study offers an intriguing solution: Perhaps our universe is expanding because it keeps colliding with and absorbing "baby" parallel universes.
Studies of the cosmic microwave background, the afterglow of the Big Bang, have revealed that our universe is experiencing accelerated expansion. For this observation to fit with the main theory of cosmic evolution — called the Standard Cosmological Model — physicists assume that the universe is filled with an enigmatic substance dubbed dark energy that drives the expansion.
But this elusive form of energy does not manifest itself in any other way, leading many astrophysicists to question its existence and explore the possibility of an alternative cause for the universe's expansion.
In a new study published Dec. 12, 2023 in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, scientists proposed the idea that the expansion of the universe may be driven instead by constantly merging with other universes.
"The main finding of our work is that the accelerated expansion of our universe, caused by the mysterious dark energy, might have a simple intuitive explanation, the merging with so-called baby universes, and that a model for this might fit the data better than the standard cosmological model," lead study author Jan Ambjørn, a physicist at the Copenhagen University told LiveScience in an email.
Swallowing cosmic 'babies' While the idea of multiple universes interacting with ours isn't new, this study develops a mathematical model to explore the hypothetical impact of this on the evolution of our universe. The researchers' calculations showed that merging with other universes should increase the volume of our universe, which could be perceived by our instruments as an expansion of the universe.
The scientists also computed the rate of expansion of the universe using their theory, and their calculations more closely fit with observations of the universe than the traditional Standard Cosmological Model, the researchers said.
The authors' theory also addresses the problem of cosmological inflation — the mysterious super-rapid expansion that occurred in the early moments of the universe.
Physicists have previously proposed that this expansion was caused by "the inflaton" — a hypothetical field that drove ultra-rapid expansion in the first milliseconds after the Big Bang. But in the new study, the authors suggest this super-rapid early expansion could have been caused by our young universe being absorbed by a larger universe.
"The fact that the Universe has expanded … in a very short time, invites the suggestion that this expansion was caused by a collision with a larger universe, [that is] it was really our Universe which was absorbed in another 'parent' universe," the researchers wrote in their paper. "Since we have presently no detailed description of the absorption process, it is difficult to judge if such a scenario could take place in a way that would actually solve the problems inflation was designed to solve, but one interesting aspect of such a scenario is that there is no need for an inflaton field."
The scientists suggested that, after being absorbed, our newly enlarged universe then continued to collide with other “baby universes” and incorporate them as well.
Although the authors' theory enables us to solve some important problems of modern cosmology, only observational data can validate their hypothesis. Many experiments are currently being carried out to study the properties of the microwave background, so scientists may be able to answer these fundamental questions in the near future.
"Our late time expansion of the Universe is different from the standard cosmological predictions and we believe that observations from the Euclid telescope and the James Webb telescope will settle which model is best describing the present time expansion of our Universe," Yoshiyuki Watabiki, a physicist at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, told Live Science.
Dark matter we have a lot of data points on and they are all pointing to a rather simple explanation ( a class of particles that only interact gravitationally)
Dark energy is the real mystery. Most scientists are hopeful that someone will come up with a new theory that does away with it, but we’ve been trying for 40 years with no success.
The emperor with no clothes wrote this. How can the universe possibly have an expandable boundary — or any boundary at all?
So, uh, what are all the other baby universes expanding into and where did they come from?
“How can the universe possibly have an expandable boundary — or any boundary at all?”
It doesn’t. The universe is infinite, but expanding. Imagine a loaf of raisin bread of infinite size, but where the space between the raisins is getting ever larger.
Robert J. Ringer (author of Winning Through Intimidation and Restoring the American Dream) on his past weight problem:
“I was thankful this is an expanding universe. I needed the room.”
The reason they call it “dark energy” or “dark matter” isn’t that we can’t see it, but rather that we have no clue what it is. It’s “dark” in the same sense as any mystery. And it’s not outside the possibility that it might not even exist, but we just don’t understand enough about physics itself to explain it.
Not entirely, provided one treats Today as Yesterdays Tomorrow.
The theory makes some sense. There is no problem with multiple universes. There is never just one of anything, and scripture nowhere says that ours is the only universe created.
Winning through Intimidation was an inspiring book for me when I was a youngster.
If you get the body language right often that is enough to keep potential adversaries in line.
Nobody ever messed with me after I read that book.
Question :
Who or What established Cosmological Constant.
Now I have that stupid “Baby Universe” song stuck in my head.
The closer one gets to the edge of the universe, the more the mass from the rest of the universe is behind you. Near the edge of the universe, practically the entire mass of the universe is behind you, bending the light away from the edge and back towards the middle making it look like the universe is rapidly expanding.
-PJ
Sceintific Wild Ass Guess?? It's like all these so-called brainiac scientists are throwing darts at a dart board.
It's some new theory practically every day.
They really don't need all this guessing.
All they gotta do is pick up a copy of our Lord's bible if they want the truth! It's all there right on the very first page. Can't miss it.
"In the beginning God created the heaven and earth."
Anything else you need to know?
Notice I’ve steered clear of ever getting on your bad side here-——a bad place for someone to be.😇
By golly, I think you’ve hit on an answer to the various theories, at least.
I remember, back in the day, when science dealt in facts.
Nowadays, science has been usurped by political science and new-age, crystal-meth madness.
Yeah, but it’s a good theory.
More places to go once we get the warp drive.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.