Introduction
Our Universe is a mystery.
It’s a collection of mysteries.
The more we learn, the more we realise
that thereโs a lot more that we do not know.
Here are five big mysteries.
The Multiverse
There is no reason to believe
that our Universe is unique.
It is quite possible that just as our Universe was created,
many universes were also created.
If that is the case, then we live,
not in a single Universe,
but in a vast collection of universes
that physicists refer to as the multiverse.
We can think of those as island universes –
each with its own quirks,
maybe even each with its own laws of physics.
For example, there could be one of these other universes
where gravity is 100 times stronger than it is in our Universe.
If we could somehow prove conclusively
the existence of multiple universes, of the multiverse,
that would be a genuine intellectual revolution –
a complete change in our cosmic thinking.
The Dark Side
The dark side of the Universe is a really big mystery.
The dark matter and the dark energy
make up no less than 96% of what the Universe contains.
The stuff that you and I, the Sun, the Earth,
the stars, the galaxies are made of,
that is just the icing on the cake.
It makes up only 4% of what our Universe contains.
The most likely explanation for the dark matter is that
it is made up of some exotic fundamental particle
that came into existence just a tiny fraction of a second
after our Universe was formed in the Big Bang.
But it is a mystery.
We have compelling evidence that it’s there.
We suspect it’s a fundamental particle.
But, frustratingly, it has yet to be discovered.
White Holes
I think most people have heard about black holes.
Fewer may have heard about white holes.
White holes are in a way the opposite of a black hole.
Black holes eat everything.
White holes kind of vomit everything out.
Nothing can come out of a black hole.
Nothing can go into a white hole.
Whether white holes exist or not
is a matter of heated debate.
Of course, if they do exist, they are fascinating,
and they may even raise the possibility
that they act as tunnels to other universes,
or indeed to other epochs in our own Universe.
But they remain hypothetical objects.
The current view in cosmology
is that everything we see in the Universe – everything –
started life as something called a quantum fluctuation.
Sounds mysterious. Let me explain what this is.
When the Universe was born, it expanded very rapidly
in a very short period of time known as “cosmic inflation”.
As the Universe expanded,
these quantum fluctuations were stretched,
and this stretching seeded the Universe with tiny ripples.
These ripples yet are the origin of galaxies,
galaxy clusters, planets, the Earth, and people.
The mystery here is, is it really possible
that a sub-microscopic entity like a quantum fluctuation
could eventually grow into the Milky Way galaxies?
If you had told me that a few years ago, I would have thought,
“You’re really out of your mind.”
And yet today, the standard model
of the formation of cosmic structure is exactly what I just described.
Time
Time fascinates, not just physicists,
it fascinates everyone.
And yet, it is a relative concept.
For example, if you travel faster and faster and faster,
time slows down more and more and more.
If you travel at the speed of light, time simply stops.
If you look at the equations of physics,
it is striking that time can go forwards or backwards –
the equations of physics donโt distinguish.
Because of this, many people believe
that you can travel into the past,
because there is nothing in the equations of physics
that forbids you doing that.
It is quite possible that we could in principle travel back in time,
so long as we do not introduce any inconsistency with the future.
So thatโs five big cosmic mysteries.
But each mystery – as is always the case in science –
leads to another, even bigger, mystery.
And we havenโt even got to possibly the biggest mystery of them all –
are we alone in the Universe?
But thatโs a whole new story.
