Part 5 of 5 - Parallel Universes - BBC Horizon

Everything you're about to read here seems impossible and insane, beyond science fiction. Yet it's all true.

Scientists now believe there may really be a parallel universe - in fact, there may be an infinite number of parallel universes, and we just happen to live in one of them. These other universes contain space, time and strange forms of exotic matter. Some of them may even contain you, in a slightly different form. Astonishingly, scientists believe that these parallel universes exist less than one millimetre away from us. In fact, our gravity is just a weak signal leaking out of another universe into ours.

In another universe, the British could win the American Civil WarThe same but different

For years parallel universes were a staple of the Twilight Zone. Science fiction writers loved to speculate on the possible other universes which might exist. In one, they said, Elvis Presley might still be alive or in another the British Empire might still be going strong. Serious scientists dismissed all this speculation as absurd. But now it seems the speculation wasn't absurd enough. Parallel universes really do exist and they are much stranger than even the science fiction writers dared to imagine.

Greater dimensions

It all started when superstring theory, hyperspace and dark matter made physicists realise that the three dimensions we thought described the Universe weren't enough. There are actually 11 dimensions. By the time they had finished they'd come to the conclusion that our Universe is just one bubble among an infinite number of membranous bubbles which ripple as they wobble through the eleventh dimension.

Each universe may exist as a bubble with its own laws of physicsA creative touch

Now imagine what might happen if two such bubble universes touched. Neil Turok from Cambridge, Burt Ovrut from the University of Pennsylvania and Paul Steinhardt from Princeton believe that has happened. The result? A very big bang indeed and a new universe was born - our Universe. The idea has shocked the scientific community; it turns the conventional Big Bang theory on its head. It may well be that the Big Bang wasn't really the beginning of everything after all. Time and space all existed before it. In fact Big Bangs may happen all the time.

Of course this extraordinary story about the origin of our Universe has one alarming implication. If a collision started our Universe, could it happen again? Anything is possible in this extra-dimensional cosmos. Perhaps out there in space there is another universe heading directly towards us - it may only be a matter of time before we collide.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• BBC
• Horizon
• Parallel
• Universe
• Galaxy
• Science
• Space
• Planets
• Reality
• Alternate

[autopsysal666]

So there is the possibility that there is a universe out there somehwhere, where Justin Beiber "Doesn't" exist? ...... is it possible to travel to this universe?

[CooCurrent]

@autopsysal666 We can all dream...

[RJL738]

@autopsysal666 It's one of the most beautiful things that can happen to a society, it is when they change their way of thinking and have a period of amazingly increased knowledge.

[TS50ER]

Interesting that the scientist at the end spoke about creating a new universe. He will in affect a be God.

[newlyrisen]

The author of Narnia was right!!!!!

[ExpertGaming101]

We shall be the dominate universe.

We shall learn to travel this so called multiverse.

We shall destroy these multiverses' and take all of their technological advances / resources.

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[Ownageking75]

Unless there is not beginning and no end, and our universe consistently resets itself as life begins over and over. No start, no end, just continuity.

[FF8]

You mean there's a universe where George W. Bush didn't cheat?! Baloney!

[GreNadE1994]

Does this whole thing conclude that our existence is just a collision between other universes? Our existence is just a random outcome, of another random outcome? Nothing is really meant to be, it is just nature and the way it goes. As i saw someone comment below " I think that when we're born we just come from another dimension into another, and when we die we enter another dimension after that". So, the end is the start, and the start is the end.

[cryostation]

@Chordiegurl true that:) and how can u not know who lady kaka is where u from? u make me curious

[Chordiegurl]

@cryostation I don't know who kady kaka is but the reality is, intellectuals always remain a minority.

[kagairu]

So is there a universe where I'm married to...say, Napoleon? Ah creepy thoughts.

[qwefcas]

Thankfully we share this Universe with Einstein