Cosmic Microwave Background: The detection of a mysterious anomaly sixty years ago was able to take us right back to the beginning of the universe … Did the universe have a beginning. Universe Unravelled with the Stephen Hawking Centre s1e10: Black Holes and the Big Bang (short)
One of the darkest mysteries of the universe … we’ve only just begun to explore. Universe Unravelled with the Stephen Hawking Centre s1e11: Shining Light on Dark Matter (short)
What exactly is dark matter? We don’t really know yet. ibid.
What is the universe expanding into? ibid.
How we discovered our universe is expanding ... ‘The space between the galaxies is expanding.’ Universe Unravelled with the Stephen Hawking Centre s1e12: Expanding Universe, Big Bang (short)
It started with two scientists, a telescope and some pigeon droppings. Universe Unravelled with the Stephen Hawking Centre s1e13: A Baby Picture of the Universe (short)
The glow: This was the Cosmic Background Radiation or CBR. ibid.
Not only is it expanding, this expansion at present is accelerating. And that acceleration cosmologists believe also happened in the early universe. Universe Unravelled with the Stephen Hawking Centre s1e14: What is Inflation? (short)
CMB provides compelling evidence for the Big Bang … It offers insight into how the large structures we see today came into being. Universe Unravelled with the Stephen Hawking Centre s1e15: Where Did We Come From? (short)
There was a slightly higher density of matter in some places than there was in others … Tiny fluctuations would evolve under the influence of gravity. ibid.
This extra gravitational effect comes from dark matter. Universe Unravelled with the Stephen Hawking Centre s1e16: Can We See Dark Matter? (short)
Cosmic pie: 69% dark energy, 26% dark matter, 5% ordinary matter. Universe Unravelled with the Stephen Hawking Centre s1e17: Cosmic Pies (short)
Physicists worldwide have tried to establish for over a hundred years a theory of quantum gravity. Universe Unravelled with the Stephen Hawking Centre s1e18: Do We Need Quantum Gravity? (short)
Gravitons: haven’t yet been observed. ibid.
We can make precise prediction about what happened in that first second. Universe Unravelled with the Stephen Hawking Centre s1e19: The First Second (short)
Einstein realised that space/time is not a fixed background on which physics plays out, but it interacts with the very matter in our universe. Universe Unravelled with the Stephen Hawking Centre s1e20: Spacetime Matters (short)
This new idea of General Relativity correctly described how gravity works. Universe Unravelled with the Stephen Hawking Centre s1e21: Space, Time & Gravity (short)
The next piece of the puzzle … Dark Energy and Dark Matter. Universe Unravelled with the Stephen Hawking Centre s1e22: Modified Theories of Gravity (short)
Scalar Tension theories that are very similar to General Relativity … They allow the gravitational constant to be not constant. ibid.
We uncover some black hole secrets … Black holes emit heat … After trillions of years they evaporate completely … The discovery of Hawking radiation. Universe Unravelled with the Stephen Hawking Centre s1e23: Radiation & Quantum Gravity (short)
The key to unlocking the early mysteries of the universe lies with gravitational waves. Universe Unravelled with the Stephen Hawking Centre s1e24: New Windows on the Universe (short)
There’s still so much to discover, understand and explore. Universe Unravelled with the Stephen Hawking Centre s1e25: Into the Future (short)
Futuristic plans to create an ecosystem on Mars. A source of light found on the edge of our solar system. And galactic probes that hunt for humanity’s next home. The UnXplained: Mysteries of the Universe, History 2024
I cannot identify a paradigm-shifting set of ideas more profound, more fundamental, more sweeping, in their implications that the Electric Universe paradigm. Breaking the Science Barrier, comment, Amazon 2023
I was very attracted to the work of Immanuel Velikovsky. ibid.
The Electric Universe acknowledges the fact that all matter is electrical in nature, and that we can understand far more about the universe, cosmology and ourselves by using this understanding and applying it to a simplification of all known physics. ibid.
The universe is a vast, beautiful and strange place. We understand very little of it. Over the course of human history hundreds of bizarre phenomena have crossed our paths. Strange Universe: In Outer Space Nothing is Normal, Amazon 2024
There is the sheer number of reports of UFO sightings. ibid.
Whether or not they are out there is still a mystery. ibid.
The quantum realm is a strange place where particles can exist in multiple states at once, and can even interact with each other without any physical contact. ibid.
Strange objects floating through space … Oumuamua is an elongated cigar-shaped object. ibid.
The search for Planet X is ongoing. ibid.
The space angels seen by Russian cosmonauts. ibid.
Is it really possible that aliens are abducting humans? ibid.
Astronomers have begun one of the most far-reaching efforts ever undertaken to study the universe. They are forging giant news lenses and mirrors while marshalling vast computational power … to peer into the deepest recesses of time. Seeing the Beginning of Time, Amazon 2017
The James Webb Space Telescope is slated for launch in 2018. ibid.
Where are we? How far do the stars go? And are we alone? Infinity I, Amazon 2021
If our universe is truly infinite, then it is thought that anything that could happen, has happened an infinite number of times. ibid.
But we may also exist in an infinite universe, which is one of many infinite universes. ibid.
‘The biggest problem I have wrapping my head around.’ ibid. student
It appears as if the universe is continuing to expand at an ever-increasing rate. ibid.
Can we rule out some edge or boundary? ibid.
What if our universe is in an endless rebirthing process? ibid.
If an edge or boundary to the universe exists, then nothing has to exist. Although saying nothing exists suggests there is something there in the first place. Nothing is an equally hard concept for humans to understand. ibid.
‘I found nothingness more uncomfortable than infinity.’ ibid. astrophysicist
‘There is a seething froth of virtual particles coming into and out of existence that’s irreducible.’ ibid.
How can we be sure infinity truly exists within a black hole? ibid.
‘There is something that is making the universe accelerate. ibid.
Playing games with infinities is as mind-blowing as any game we could conceive of. ibid.
The multi-world theory is understandably a controversial one. ibid.
Is it possible that other dimensions exist of which we are blissfully unaware? ibid.
How can we learn more about these other possible dimensions? ibid.
Is this fune-tuning a pure random coincidence, or is this the common outcome in the universe? ibid.
Multiverses could explain a lot of unanswered questions about our universe. ibid.
How do we try and understand what may simply be beyond human comprehension? Infinity II
It has been approximated that there are more stars in our visible universe than individual grains of sand on every beach and desert of the world. ibid.
How big is our universe? Do we truly understand its scale? ibid.
If we are part of a large universe, what form could that take? And does that mean that in turn, we are a host to perhaps billions of much smaller universes? ibid.
So is it possible that there is a smallest building block of the universe, a particle that makes up everything. ibid.
‘There may be a fundamental limit to how small we can go, or how small a time that we could possibly experience or measure. It just seems continuous from our very big perspective.’ ibid. comment
Einsten’s theory as to the composition of the universe is what he termed space-time foam, which is at the quantum level. The theory predicts a foam-like structure which is the fundamental stuff of the universe. ibid.