We live in a mysterious universe. While science has given us some of the answers to life’s biggest questions, nobody has a clue how all matter, energy, space and time came into existence. The good thing about unanswered questions is that it opens up the door for interesting discussion. Here are five astonishing alternative theories about the universe!
EKPYROTIC THEORY OF HOW THE UNIVERSE HAS EVOLVED
Everyone knows about the Big Bang theory. Without going into details about this theory, and remembering that now it is even taught in schools, let’s mention an alternative theory that attempts to explain the origin of our universe from a different perspective.
Proponents of this theory follow a belief that a universe parallel to our own exists, and occasionally these two “sister” universes intersect. The amount of energy released during this intersection causes enormous disturbances of space, resulting in appearance of particles, which form gaseous nebulae, galaxies, stars and other celestial bodies.
After the collision, the universes start moving in opposite directions, but the more they diverge, the more they are attracted to one another, which is quite plausible. Gradually, they begin to converge again, and by that time no stars and other objects in the two universes can be found, everything is evenly distributed in accordance with the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
Universes collide again and again and the energy from these collisions results in the formation of particles and the process is repeated as one endless cycle.
WHITE HOLES
We all heard about the presence of black holes in space. Generally, their existence can only be speculated about based on perturbation of gravitational fields and deflection of light. But scientists are already talking about the possibility of locating white holes. After all, if the matter is absorbed by a black hole, it must be released elsewhere in the universe, correct?
And in theory, the locations where the matter is released, not absorbed, do exist. While they have not been detected yet, proponents of this theory hope one day to discover white holes in space.
Generally speaking, the possible presence of white holes, if any will ever be discovered, violates several established laws of modern physics. And if a white hole is eventually found, we will have to reassess the foundations of the modern science, and do it very thoroughly in order to explain their existence.
THE MATRIX THEORY OF THE UNIVERSE
Yes, as it turns out, the film with the same name was created “based on” a very extravagant theory, which states that the whole universe may be a product of a powerful computer program created by some unknown force. Actually, this computer cannot even be imagined by anyone. They could create a plethora of pet universes, vastly outnumbering the real cosmos.
This thought led philosopher Nick Bostrom at the University of Oxford to conclude in 2003 that it makes more sense to bet that we’re delusional silicon-based artificial intelligences in one of these many forgeries, rather than carbon-based organisms in the genuine universe.
THE UNIVERSE ORIGINATING FROM A BLACK HOLE
This is a very interesting theory which posits that black holes which emit matter to an unknown location, in fact, create new universes that appear faster than mushrooms after rain. Every particle absorbed by a black hole may become a source of origin for a new universe, after the particle charged with enormous energy explodes. It may be similar to the Big Bang only with a lot of explosions.
Each newly-created universe in turn creates new black holes, and those give life to new universes. A recent study published in the scientific journal Nature shows that our entire universe may have been born out of a black hole from another universe. In other words, the Big Bang was really just an extension of a black hole in a different universe. See more about this idea here.
CREATION OF WORLDS ACCORDING TO QUANTUM THEORY
This theory is often used in the science fiction literature. It is based on a constant branching and divergence of realities. For example, if you are trying to decide whether to go shopping or turn on TV, in one reality you may start walking to the store, while in another you may turn on TV. We have two universes, which differ very little from each other, but the further we go, the more profound differences are.
In fact, these variances “branch out” depending on many factors, including the behavior of atoms that move in different directions, and so on. As a result, billions and billions of new realities appear at each given moment, and the farther away they are apart, the stronger the difference between these universes becomes.
Visually, this can be imagined as a fan, with each blade which is infinitely divisible, and each of the sub-components dividing again and so on…
Source: Learning Mind
