Top Astronomer Believes Multiverse Theory May Be Correct And That We Are ‘Just One Patch Of Space And Time’
Dr. Martin Rees, a cosmologist and astrophysicist who has also been Astronomer Royal since 1995, has written a new book called On The Future: Prospects For Humanity, in which he suggests that there is a strong probability that the multiverse theory is correct and that we are just one of many galaxies floating around in space.
As the Express reports, Dr. Rees explained that what we consider to be the universe, “our universe,” may simply be just one surrounded by a vast sea of others. He also suggested that rather than just the one Big Bang which spawned our universe, there may have been many others that gave rise to other universes as well.
“What we’ve traditionally called ‘the universe’ — the aftermath of ‘our’ big bang—may be just one island, just one patch of space and time, in a perhaps infinite archipelago. There may have been many big bangs, not just one.”
Dr. Rees is further of the opinion that these multiverses may have enormously different laws than our own, noting, “Each constituent of this multiverse could have cooled down differently, maybe ending up governed by different laws. Just as Earth is a very special planet among zillions of others, so—on a far grander scale—our big bang could have been a rather special one.”
#Multiverse BREAKTHROUGH: #Universe is ‘one patch of space and time’ https://t.co/rj1LWhcaZp #astronomy #physics #science #Astrophysics #RoyalMartinRees #ExtragalacticAstronomy #ColdSpot pic.twitter.com/uxcGJelWjW
— Dr. Wendell Craig (@drwendellcraig_) October 6, 2018
Dr. Rees has described how there have been three huge scientific discoveries through the ages that have changed the world as we know it completely for humans. The first of these, he believes, was the discovery that Earth is not the center of the universe and that we and all other planets orbit the sun.
The second discovery was one which showed us that our galaxy is teeming with planets, and the third is that in the observable universe there are also many, many galaxies. Dr. Rees feels that the next major scientific discovery could very well be conclusive proof that the multiverse theory is actually right and that we are only one of many other universes that are scattered around us and unknown as of yet, according to Scientific American.
“If we’re in a multiverse, it would imply a fourth and grandest Copernican revolution; we’ve had the Copernican revolution itself, then the realization that there are billions of planetary systems in our galaxy; then that there are billions of galaxies in our observable universe. But now that’s not all. The entire panorama that astronomers can observe could be a tiny part of the aftermath of ‘our’ big bang, which is itself just one bang among a perhaps-infinite ensemble.”
To detect these parallel universes, it is thought that gravitational waves may work to help find these other worlds, according to Gustavo Lucena Gómez at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam, Germany.
“If there are extra dimensions in the universe, then gravitational waves can walk along any dimension, even the extra dimensions.”
While Dr. Rees has admitted of the multiverse theory that “it may be true — though whether we’ll ever be sure of this is unclear,” it is certainly hoped by scientists everywhere that one day it may be if it is correct.
