My apologies for the tardiness in sharing this post, I got caught up with finishing my MBA degree, work, and other academic pursuits while caring for a puppy who is now 6 months old and a lot more trained and independent.
This post is about the universe and its mysterious presence. We live in a vast universe – for perspective: “if you took all the grains of sand from all the beaches in the world and counted all those grains – they would still be less in quantity than all the stars in our universe”. Are we really alone? The Hubble telescope only discovered spheres like earth that revolve around a star (like our solar system) in the early 1990’s – we are still exploring and understanding our place in the universe. To think that we have a solid understanding of how our universe works is just ignorant.
We are exposed to a host of activities, dark secrets, superstitions, and misunderstood phenomenon such as paranormal activity, unexplained disappearances of transport vessels, dark energy, and UFO sightings (to name a few). Mysteries within our world and beyond attract conspiracy theorists and debunkers alike. In this briefing, I will share some research and articles on the mysteries that surround us and where we are as a society in finding answers.
Only 5% of the universe is visible, what’s lurking in the dark? Short answer: the invisible 95%. Scientists discovered that 25% of the invisible universe is made up of a substance called dark matter, and 75% of the invisible universe is consumed by a force called ‘dark energy’, which repels gravity. Dark matter is yet to be observed directly because it is invisible to light or electromagnetic radiation – making it impossible to detect with current instruments. In other words, we do not have it all figured out. Scientists are convinced of dark matter’s existence given the gravitational effects it appears to have on galaxies. Dark matter also explains the optical illusions astronomers encounter while observing the universe whereby large invisible clouds of dark matter is suspect of distorting or magnifying light from distant galaxies. Some scientists hypothesize that dark matter may not interact with normal matter or light but still exert gravitational pull. Scientist at the CERN agency in Switzerland are working on generating dark matter particles so they can be studied in a controlled environment. Other startling theories by some scientist’s purport that the effects of dark matter could be explained by “fundamentally modifying our theories of gravity”. According to these theories, there could be multiple forms of gravity which may be different from the gravity we are accustomed to on planet earth. The mystery gets even more startling when you bring dark energy into the mix, which was only discovered in the 1990’s and fundamentally changed the established view at the time, which assumed that the universe was decelerating. In short, dark energy is a force in empty space that is accelerating and causing the universe to expand. According to the National Geographic, scientists currently have no plausible explanation for dark energy. Why does this strange force exist in our universe and what does it mean? (National Geographic).
In 2018, NASA’s curiosity rover found organic matter on the surface of Mars which points to the possibility of the building blocks for life’s existence on the red planet. NASA’s rover also discovered methane, a simple organic molecule, revealing another chemical clue of life. The discovery of methane, though not prevalent across Mars is a breakthrough since on planet Earth, a common source of methane is microbial life. In 2018, the European Space Agency (ESA) detected a small lake of liquid water beneath the southern polar ice cap of the planet which will aid in understanding the evolution of habitability on the planet. However, the real clues and evidence of life on Mars would be achieved through a manned mission which will allow astronomers to bring samples from the planet’s surface back to Earth and study them in depth. NASA is planning to send astronauts to the red planet by 2035 (CNN by Lauren Kent). Fingers crossed! If you are interested in learning more about a manned mission to Mars, I highly recommend the academically acclaimed mini-series by National Geographic: ‘Mission to Mars’.
Chad Underwood, a retired Navy pilot broke his 15-year silence to the New York Times about his UFO sighting. Underwood’s footage represents one of three sightings by a member of the US Air Force of an “unknown aerial object” – a more recent sighting was reported on Jan 21, 2015. Underwood describes the unidentified object resembling a Tic Tac, “its changes in altitude, air speed, and aspects were just unlike things I’ve ever encountered before flying against other air targets” he said. A report by the Department of Defense revealed that the object changed altitude from 60,000 feet to 50 feet in a matter of seconds. That is a lot faster than the supersonic planes Richard Branson is developing with Virgin Galactic to launch space tourism. Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute told Business Insider that close to 10% of UFO sightings do not have an explanation; and that alien civilizations would know about our existence only if they were within 35 light-years of Earth to get in reaching distance of our radio signals. Experts have provided different explanations of Underwood’s account – blaming glitches in the infrared camera that may have played tricks with Underwood’s eye (BBC by Aria Bendix).
Bioluminescence is the ability of a living creature to create its own light. We see such phenomenon in fireflies on land, but this excerpt points to deep sea creatures well below the depths human beings have sent probes to. Deep sea life must endure harshly cold, dark, and high-pressure environments and therefore to survive under such conditions, their adaptations may appear strange or even scary to the human eye. Here’s a slideshow to get you acquainted (Smithsonian). To further understand the conditions in deep sea, the BBC provides a comprehensive summary and it makes you wonder whether life exists on places like Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons that is hypothesized to have oceans and perhaps creatures that adapt to living under harsh, and utterly dark conditions. In my opinion, we are so consumed by what exists beyond our planet – investing billions of dollars on space probes and telescopes. In contrast, we have spent substantially less on technology and science to explore the depths of our oceans and life that exists there. Perhaps understanding and exploring the deep oceans further may point to more clues about life’s evolution on our planet and what may lay beyond.
Time travel is a real deal. Seriously! But you have got to understand some fundamentals of speed, time, and gravity. Unfortunately, time machines are not real but NASA reports that clocks on planes and satellites follow a different speed than the clocks at ground level in stationary position. Note also that given the vast distances between stars and planets, when you look through a telescope, you are looking at a picture of the universe from a long time ago. That is because light from far away places takes a long (very long) time to reach us. Time travel is possible because Albert Einstein theorized that nothing could travel faster than the speed of light, hence the faster you travel, the slower the clock ticks for you (NASA). Here’s a really short video that explains this phenomenon. This doesn’t mean you can go back in time and change the course of history, but it does mean that if you travel at the speed of light and have a twin sibling, you may come back to an Earth only to find that your sibling is a lot older than you. Some distances in our universe are unfathomably vast and makes you wonder how you would get there. For instance, a planet that is a thousand light years away means you would need to live at least a thousand years to get there. But that distance could be shortened through a wormhole which is essentially like a tunnel through a mountain – no need to climb up or around the mountain to get from point A to B. In essence, a tunnel serves as a shortcut and saves you time. Therefore, in theory, a thousand years could be shortened significantly if you traveled through a wormhole. But this is a farfetched hypothesis, and the concept of wormholes is still nascent. On that note, I highly recommend the movie Interstellar that depicts the concept of time travel, gravity, wormholes, and blackholes. If you really pay attention to the scientific concepts in the movie, it will make you wonder about the possibilities that lay ahead for us as life evolves on our planet. I also recommend the acclaimed series ‘Cosmos‘ by Neil Degrasse Tyson, which provides a thorough introduction to space, galaxies, and our world.
Stay safe and never underestimate the mystery and power of the universe.
References: Hubble Site, National Geographic, CNN, BBC, Virgin Galactic, Smithsonian, and NASA. Please note that this briefing contains paraphrased summaries and attributes the original content to the news sources. Readers are encouraged to visit the links to access the full article in its original form for a thorough and complete view. You may need to subscribe to the news agency and source for access.