Do We Really Understand The Universe? There is an area in space, a sort of barrier, where astronomers think we can see the beginning of the results of the Big Bang. The Big Bang is what most astronomers believe created our universe. It was said to be an explosion which created the universe. The more powerful our telescopes become, the further out we can see and it is believed we may be able some day to see the very beginnings of the remnants of this explosion in the form of the earliest stars and galaxies. What would this mean to us? It would mean there could be nothing beyond those stars and galaxies if we go along with this assumption. There have been a couple of times I have felt some of these scientific ideas get depressing. The first time was when I was a kid and heard the sun would someday swell up and swallow the earth. I realized if it happened, I would be long gone, but the idea just didn’t make me happy. The next time was when scientists came out with the theory the universe would just keep expanding and ultimately the planets and galaxies would get further apart until all the objects in space were in a cold dark area and not near any other body. Now it is the idea there is nothing past those first stars and galaxies. Scientists are great at making assumptions. Sometimes they are right, but many times throughout history they have been proven wrong. To my thinking, we have no idea if there is something past those early stars and planets. The Big Bang could have been the Big Burp, burping out more material from time to time and there might be uncountable universes out there which have some sort of void between them and us. It has been estimated the universe is about 13.8 billion years old. In order to believe this, we would have to believe there was never any universes created before this and perhaps it was a one time thing. We may find out the entire universe is surrounded by a sort of bubble and there are many other universes in these bubbles. Actually, this is not my idea, just one which has been purposed. Here is the strangest thing about looking back in time at the edge of the universe, we are seeing old light. It takes light 13.9 billion years to reach our telescope from the edge of the universe. This means we are looking at objects which have a good chance of not existing anymore. Think about this, if a planet exists on the edge of the universe with a very advanced civilization and they can look back at us, they would be looking into the beginning of the universe also, in their estimation, but in a different direction. If they could look at the exact spot where the Big Bang occurred, if it did, what would they find? They wouldn’t even see us, because the earth was not around and maybe what they perceived as the edge of the universe would be a lot closer to them. Yes, I know this is a strange thought, but they could believe the universe was a lot younger than us because so many galaxies might not exist to them. On the other hand, however, they could have technology which might solve this problem. Maybe some sort of quantum detection. One of the problems with the Big Bang theory is explosions usually are uniform, but yet the universe may not be expanding at the same rate everywhere. This has been suggested to us by various probes and scientific instruments such as Chandra, ROSAT, and XMM-Newton. This might mean the calculation of the age of the universe is wrong. You might be saying by now, who cares, a few billion years here and a few billion years there, what is the difference? While it might not matter to many of us, it could make a big difference in how we view our universe. In trying to understand the universe there have been some bizarre theories put forward. One of the weirdest was one which claims our universe might just be one cell in a huge organism which is alive. I tried not to laugh out loud when I heard this one. I think there is far more of a chance the theory which states there is a rip in space time and material is pouring into our universe which accounts for the expansion, has a much greater chance of being true. There could also be a hidden power we have yet to discover which is responsible for the expansion of space. There also have been ideas put out that much of what we see is not real. I think many of us have heard the theory we are looking at holographs when we get out to a certain distance. Personally, I don’t buy this, but some scientists do. They base this on certain visual effects, and yet don’t seem to consider the fact what they are seeing could be caused by unknown factors which are not holographic. That is the problem when a civilization is just starting to make technological strides, they make mistakes in many areas. In the early days of astronomy many believed the earth was the center of the universe and primitive scientists defended it. There was also scientists who believed the earth was flat, but it was too easy to prove it wasn’t so that mostly went away. I say mostly because the Flat Earth Society still exists, but do the members really think the earth is flat or was it just fun to join? One theory which we cannot prove or disprove currently, is known as the Braneworld theory. It states our universe is actually a four dimensional universe which has a fourth spatial dimension we can’t see and we are inside a membrane floating through a four-dimensional large space. This space would probably have other membranes floating through it. This would mean there are many universes, perhaps billions upon billions. Before telescopes who would have believed there were billions of galaxies? What we have to realize is we don’t have the entire story about how the universe operates. Some scientists get too officious when dealing with the theories of others. Every theory should be met with an open mind even if they seem to be wrong at the moment. There should be studies, and only after careful study a decision should be made. There are even times when a disregarded theory might be proven correct because of more up to date information.
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