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New theory suggests our universe is absorbing baby universes as it expands
A fascinating new theory suggests that our universe is expanding due to it colliding and absorbing smaller baby universes.
Ever since 1929 when Edwin Hubble made the critical discovery that our universe was expanding, scientists have been debating its mechanisms with fierce intensity. The consensus theory was that dark energy’ was behind the expansion, but a fascinating new theory suggests that its because our universe keeps colliding and absorbing new smaller baby universes.
Is our universe constantly merging with baby universes?
Whilst weve known for some time that our universe is expanding at an ever-increasing rate, the driving force behind this expansion has, understandably, remained somewhat of a mystery.
In order for our current best theory to fit the evidence of cosmic microwave background radiation, physicists around the world have been forced to assume that the universe was filled with something known as dark energy.
This dark energy is estimated to contribute to around 68% of all energy in the observable universe but since it doesnt manifest itself in any way, many scientists are looking for alternative theories that would still fit the evidence.
One such theory is that our universe is expanding because we keep colliding and absorbing smaller universes, which would explain why the universe keeps expanding faster and faster.
These have been aptly referred to as baby universes in a fascinating (and head-spinning) new study from a team of researchers from Copenhagen University, Radboud University and the Tokyo Institute of Technology.
As physicist Jan Ambjorn told LiveScience: 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.
The researchers even suggest that we might not have even been the starting universe in this cosmic melting pot.
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.
But what happens if a baby universe grows up before being absorbed? The team explains that whilst microscopic universes could be accommodated in a non-disruptive way, its less clear what if the baby universe is not small.
Here, the suggestion is that the absorption could happen inside a black hole, although the researchers themselves arent fully convinced of this particular aspect of the new theory:
We are not seriously suggesting such a black hole scenario, but we mention it to point out that there is room for a lot of interesting considerations.
So, where do we go from here? Whilst the answers to the universe likely wont be completely unlocked in our lifetime, there is hope that more light can be shed on expansion in the coming years.
Co-author of the paper Yoshiyuki Watabiki said that “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.
