Top 10 Mysteries of the Universe
The Universe… The incredible difference in scale between the tiny world we live in every day and the vastness of all time and space begs the question of whether we will ever be able to grasp the fullness of the cosmos. But that doesn’t stop us from trying. In fact, contemplating the great unknowns must be one of the oldest hobbies in human experience. The pursuit has given rise first to religion, then to philosophy, then to people who make fun of religion and philosophy.
We may never understand the entire universe, but we can sure appreciate the fact that it’s so complex that it eludes us.
10. Extraterrestrial Intelligence
This is really a simple mystery. Is there other intelligent life out there in the universe? Carl Sagan reminds us that if we exist, then, no matter how rare intelligence is in the universe, given how huge the universe is, we must have many neighbors out there somewhere. Frank Drake, an astrophysicist, created an equation that helps figure out how much intelligent life there is in the universe, and estimated that if only one in a billion planets has intelligent life, then there must still be over 6 billion planets with intelligence on them. Enrico Fermi, however, pointed out that if life is that common, then it is virtually impossible that we haven’t yet detected any signs of other intelligent life in the universe. So, the real mystery is this: what is it about Earth that makes no one want to play with us?
9. The Tunguska Explosion
On the 30th of June, 1908 (or the 17th, at the time; the calendar has been revamped since then), at 7:17 am (local time), something exploded over a region of forest in the Tunguska River Valley in Siberia, Russia. Locals many miles away saw something bright blue streak toward the area and explode with incredible force, sufficient to register on instruments in England. Later examination of the site showed that trees had been knocked down in a radial pattern from a central point, indicating an air burst of some kind. To this day, scientists aren’t sure what it was, and generally figure that it was a meteor or a fragment of a comet. Why did it explode in the air? Why haven’t we found any pieces? The mystery has kept UFO aficionados up at nights since then.
8. Rare Antimatter
Matter and antimatter are, in theory, created at the same time by the same event. When a normal baryonic particle is created, an antiparticle of the same mass and opposite charge is also created. However, while we have created antimatter in laboratories on Earth, we don’t see it in the universe around us. No one seems to know what happened to all the antimatter that should be there…
7. Consciousness
What is the mind? Behaviorists say that it is just conditioned responses. But it’s hard to deny that our ability to reflect on our own thoughts is something distinct and interesting. Is it a mere side-effect of the way our brains work? If so, how long will it be before a computer becomes self-aware and asks for equal rights? How can you tell true consciousness from something designed to simulate it? Can consciousness survive the death of the brain that carries it? There are a lot of questions, but until we can have an equal conversation with either a robot or a ghost, there really won’t be any answers.
6. Dark Matter / Dark Energy
Current models of the universe, and observations made by high-tech instruments, point to there being an enormous amount of matter in the universe beyond what we can actually see. In fact, we can only seem to perceive about 4% of the stuff in the universe directly. The rest is invisible, or “dark matter,” a term that just means that we have no idea what it is. Accompanying this dark matter is some type of energy that, like dark matter, we can’t perceive directly. We call this, in a moment of inspiration, “dark energy.” Apparently, there’s even more of this than there is dark matter. Different theories abound, but perhaps, as mentioned in #10 above, most of the universe is just avoiding us.
5. Time
You think you know what time is? Okay, try defining it without using any terms that rely on time. Time is… well, it’s time. It’s what keeps every event from happening simultaneously, and it’s what distinguishes something that happened in the past from something that will happen in the future. Is it a dimension, like space? Is it a quality of matter? Is it merely an illusion, possibly created to boost sales of digital watches? The smartest guys in the world get headaches from this one.
4. The Beginning of the Universe
How did the universe begin? Did the universe ever begin? If the universe includes everything that we know, including time, could there possibly even be a “before” before the beginning of the universe. Current theories generally talk about a “Big Bang,” which is a massive expansion of all matter and energy from a single point, which is still continuing through the present day. What started the bang? Where did all the energy and matter come from? Are these questions even meaningful? What about creationism, if that is for you? If God created the universe and all the physical laws in it, what is he doing now that it is running itself?
3. End of the Universe
Following the question of the end of the universe is the question of the end of the universe. Opinions vary on whether we can expect the universe to ever expire. There are several possibilities. One is that the universe will continue to expand, and eventually become so spread out that all matter and energy is just a homogeneous cloud of thin, lukewarm dust. Another is that gravity will eventually catch up with all the matter, and the universe will slow down and fall back into a single point, which may spark another big bang. Yet another theory notes that baryons and protons, the building blocks of matter, don’t seem to be being created naturally anymore, and if they decay (as some other particles do), the universe will simply fade out as all the particles just cease to be. In general, nothing untoward is expected to happen to the universe for many billion years, which will probably be a relief to those with long-range investments.
2. Multiple Universes
Current quantum physics raises the possibility that there are many universes besides our own, existing in the same space and time, but only interacting in certain limited ways. These universes may have their own separate histories and futures, and even their own laws of physics. This is all vague theory for the moment, but some day it may be possible to travel to the universe where your favorite singer won American Idol or visit with evil Spock.
1. Grand Unification Theory
For decades, physicists have been trying to make sense of the difference between Isaac Newton’s classical physics (you know, what you use to play pool) Einstein’s relativistic physics, that involve very large or massive things at enormous velocities, and Heisenberg’s (and others’) quantum physics, which concerns things so small that you can’t even measure them without changing the result. These three sets of physical laws seem to play by their own rules, largely ignoring each other, and yet they all relate to the same universe. And so physicists have hunted for the Grand Unification Theory, which would substitute for all of these incomplete sets of laws and make sense of it all. Perhaps it doesn’t exist. Or perhaps it’s just too complex for human minds to grasp. One way or the other, it’s going to keep scientists arguing for some time to come. Cartoon property of Berkeley Breathed.
Written by Glen Taylor
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“If so, how long will it be before a computer becomes self-aware and asks for equal rights?”
I wouldn’t worry too much about that. If that happens, he can be treated the same way as Commander Data was treated. Give him rights, but allow them to be randomly stripped in a ten minute trial.
Time has a simple answer. It doesn’t exist. There are only instantaneous configurations of matter. Time is there so that we can understand that there is a different configuration before us. Time is a framework that humans created to make sense of motion and decay of matter. I recommend “The End of Time” by Julian Barbour for further information.
very nice wonderful article. I like it most. But you want to give 1 place to ” Consciousness ” and ” the beginning of universe “
So many of these “top ten” overlap in their fundamental framework that it is difficult to vote in your poll. I would say that Time, the unified theory and multiple universes all fall into one mystery. Also, dark matter and anti matter could be answered by the same answer to one mystery (maybe not) – who knows. Finally, the beginning and the end of the universe overlap with matter and time, so if you could answer those “mysteries” would the other questions be so mysterious? I think you need to ask more specific questions.
Watch “Imagining the Tenth Dimension” at http://www.tenthdimension.com/ … it will blow your mind.
“You think you know what time is? Okay, try defining it without using any terms that rely on time.”
Definitions for the time didn’t always exist, and that didn’t mean people couldn’t distinguish when things were happening. Sunrise, Sunset, every position of the sun in between, and same with the moon. Our terms for time came from somewhere, it’s not like we just spewed them out. A day is categorized as such because it’s a full cycle of the sun.
Basically, I’m just saying before our words were invented, sunrise would be a time, sunset would be a time, but that’s not a time related term, it’s an observation.
Anyone that doesn’t consider grand unification theory the biggest mystery on here doesn’t know physics.
Consciousness comes down to neurons, our brains our complex computers, nothing more.
in response to #8:
the Tunguska explosion was a comet that collided with the earth. Carl Sagan said so in his book and movie about the universe, and gave it as an example of how the earth isn’t invincible.
The imaging the 10th dimension book and video is very inaccurate….Read the Elegant Universe
Tambien se cree que la explocion de Tunguska fue un experimento de Tesla. busquenlo y veran. y si el tiempo es tan simple! como puedes explicar el envejecimiento, y la relacion con la velocidad de la luz!
a y si no saben español lo lamento! jeje
I’ve been browsing around your blog for a while but I just had to comment on this post, great stuff!
I think the space is itself the antimatter. An object can exist in either of the two states, hot and not hot. There s nothing called chill or cool. If anything can be driven below 0′C then there should be something as antimatter, just like light and dark residing in the same place.
Time, i guess s traveling in different dimensions as if a person s killed time travels in one direction and if he s not killed , time travels in another dimension, however there can be only two possibilities, like yes and no. Time branches into the universe and travels in the existing plane.
Hey you should have mentioned Black holes!! The biggest mystery in the universe!!
Sagan also noted that in spite of the volumes of data we have collected on the universe, we still don’t have one shred of evidence that life exists any where other than earth.
It is a montrous joke if we think that “earth” is the only place in the universe where life exists, and that the rest of the universe exist for nothing. Why would we humans expect to find life elsewhere in the universe just as it is on planet earth? Do we think we can find life forms walking around like human beings? Isn’t funny that we use our crude instruments seeking to make contact with other life forms in the universe thinking that they too are using the same instruments such as we do? Rest assure that there countless life forms even in our own galaxy also wondering if there is life elsewhere in the universe. They too are trying to make contact, but our instruments cannot tune into that frequency to make the reception.
If it was a comet that hit in Tunguska, it would be no mystery why it exploded in midair. That kind of thing happens all the time.
We are the universe manifesting itself as us. If you doubt my words, try this simple mental experiment: Imagine what would be the nature of reality in the absense of the universe. In other words, if the universe was not here, what would be the nature of things, and where or what would you be.
A comet? Did you know that the tail of a comet stretches about a million of miles in length, and the event at Tunguska was not nearly that size?
The biggest mystery for the unbeliever is the beginning of the universe… The point is: Time, space and “mind” or “consciousness” are correlated and they came into existence after the universe came into existence or after the consciousness came into existence, before there was no space therefore there was no time or mind to conceive space or time or even mind itself. So lets stop with this mind bogging thing for right now and concentrate in the existence of the universe… So the universe came into existence and after the universe BOOM happened, it brought some space into existence for there was no space before the universe, so now we can conclude that with the beginning of the universe it forced space to be born with its brother the “time” both carrying it own specific characteristics and individuality and later on the mind to conceive both. Now the main and most important question is: From where the energy from inside of the unborn universe “matter” came from to make it explode or expand? What was before the existence of matter or energy? Only the unbeliever would say that GOD does not exist and make the existence of LIFE a just little perception of passing entertainment with no happy ending and non-meaningful matter for worship.
So, Jack, what is God?
Its so obvious that how LESS we comprehend the WORLD we line in, not to mention the UNIVERSE. I suppose the Beginning of Universe, the Consiousness and the Time are greatest mystries we would face!
Time is a duration of our awareness of the objects and events of the physical world. Space, on the other hand, is an interval of our perception of the objects and events of the physical world. For the purpose of covenience, we divide time—our sense of duration of the physical world— into past, present, and the future. And so, it seems as though time flows from the future into the present and into the past. The future belongs to the dimension of anticipation; the present in the moment we have to apply our will power; and if we lose it, the present flows into the past that cannot be changed. But the reality is that we exist in the present while imagining this illusory flow of time that does not exist. Beyond this rhelm of our objective awareness is a universe that is, just we are; and we and this universe are inseperably one and the same. So, in essense, we might safely say that the universe is conscious of itself though us. The universe has no beginning in time; we, too, have beginning in time. We and the universe have always been.
just discovered this website and its awesome.the beginning of the universe shud be number 1 for me.how it all started.
to Simply Ridiculous,
We understand black holes way more then we understand anti matter, possible alien life, the higgs boson, or several other things. In one of the models used to project the end of our universe, using the model where we constantly expand forever….there will be a time period called the black hole era. Super massive black holes will consume whats left in a very dark and cold universe.
my mind,
I think the number of people who think there is life somewhere in our universe is more than that of those who think there isn’t any.So one should be somehow undoubted about any lack of lifelike ours in the entire universe.
my mind,
I think the number of people who think there is life somewhere in our universe is more than that of those who think there isnâ??t any.So one should be somehow doubted about any lack of life like ours in the entire universe.