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.
“a new theoretical study” No need to read beyond this point.
As a long time amateur astronomer, my guess is these “Scientists” have no clue in regards to cosmology.
Another horrific result of global warming, I’m sure.
Kind of like the soap bubble theory for time and space pockets?
I have a theory that theories are increasing, as the gravitational pull of grant money spawns more and more theories. This is, of course, theoretical....
So we are the Big Bubble gobbling up the little bubbles. We’re just a big Amazon?
Remember to “follow the science” even if they lead you into a black hole....
Lol.
It get rally interesting when the blue shift objects are appearing. Or are they? Could the over pressure of our universe push against an acquired universe and scatter the new matter away? Is the collection of dark matter be from failed universes and as they are subsumed they add to the matter of our universe affecting the physical properties of our universe?
Sorry makes me have a lot of questions when some new ideas come into it.
They’re just trying to “shoehorn the math” into the current set of observations. It will take awhile before something coherent develops by then the observations might change then you’ll have to do it again.
You need to be on LSD to buy into any of these new theories.
They just need to say the magic words:
“We have no clue—and we are going to follow the data wherever it leads.”
This is why time travel is not workable..........
‘dark energy’ and ‘dark matter’ seems like a modern version of aether or phlogiston.
This is obviously Trump’s Fault! ;)
“Get in my belly!”
In physics sometimes experimental data drives the math\theory sometimes its the other way round!
Hungry Hippo Ping!.....................
Maybe a few big azz asteroids or comets can come barreling into our little planet. Just big enough and hit the right places to whack a few people back to reality. I am honestly surprised no governments haven’t tried to nudge a few object in the belt to hit an enemy. Might be hard and next to impossible to hide the man made signature.
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