Torben Albert-Lindqvist


	As a species we have completely conquered this planet. We have discovered every island, climbed every mountain and sailed across every sea that our planet possesses. However, we are surrounded by a seemingly infinite territory: space. We have taken many aerial images of the surfaces of other planets in our solar system, with the help of satellites, but have never traveled farther than our moon. And sure, that’s a very far distance. As a matter of fact the moon is approximately 240,000 miles away from Earth, according to NASA. This means that we could fit 30 Earths in between us and our moon. If that makes you feel small, look at this illustration of our galaxy. That’s the sun. You can’t even see it! What about the andromeda galaxy, the galaxy closest to us. Well it’s currently approximately 2.5 million light years away, according to BBC Universe. That means it would take you 2.5 million years to reach it if you traveled at the speed of light which is 671 million miles per hour. This shows us how expansive our universe really is, and how little we actually know about it. There are an infinite number of questions related to our universe, which has generated hundreds of thousands of theories. Today we will be discussing some of my favorites, including the multiverse theory, and various unnamed ones from renowned physicists and astronomers.
	One of the most vastly known astronomical theories is the Big Bang Theory. It is widely accepted as the start of our universe in the scientific community. What some people have the difficulty grasping is pre-Big Bang. It’s impossible for us to understand the concept of “nothing.” How could our universe come from absolutely nothing? Well Nikodem Poplawski of the University of New Haven believes this is not the case. He believes that our universe was created inside a black hole, which we are still in today. If you use Einstein’s theories you will find that the bottom of a black hole has a spot that is unfathomably dense and small, which we call a singularity. It is believed that these singularities do have a limit, however. And since black holes spin close to the speed of light, when the singularity reaches its limit it may explode and expand similarly to how we believe the Big Bang did. Because of this, Dr. Poplawski believes that black holes may be doorways to other universes. This would mean that there are more than one universe, or as astronomers call it: the Multiverse.
	The answer to the question of “how many universes are there?” varies based off the definition of “universe.” In the past the universe was correlated with everything there is. However, scientists have begun to specify a bit more due to the Multiverse theory. The universe is now more widely accepted as everything that was created by our Big Bang. Everything that can be seen 13.8 billion light years away. If this definition is used when talking about the multiverse, it is much more plausible. That being said, there are multiple variations to this theory. For example, the quilted multiverse exists only in an infinite universe. It states that if the universe truly is infinite, then everything repeats infinitely because there is a finite number of arrangements of particles, according to space.com. This means that everything, including you, has an infinite number of clones that are nearly exactly like you. They may differ slightly, however. For example, there may be some that decided to wear a different sweater today or bring a salad to lunch rather than a sandwich. This is called the quilted multiverse because the infinite number of universes line up on a two dimensional plane. Another multiverse theory is the simulated multiverse. Contrary to the others, these alternate universes don’t exist in reality. It states that a distant mother universe created a computer simulated universe which was completely unaware of its mother universe. As the simulated universe became more technologically advanced, it did the exact same thing as its mother universe did, which continues infinitely. There is no way to prove this theory, but this means that it is possible that what we call reality is simply a computer simulation.
	I haven’t yet addressed one of the most renowned mysteries of space: are we alone? Similarly to the other theories we have learned about, we have no way of knowing at the current moment. However, some scientists believe that it is highly plausible that there exists life out there and that life on our planet may have originated from it. The theory of panspermia is the theory that microorganisms that could survive the harsh conditions of space landed on the Earth from asteroids or comets. This has led many to believe that life as we know it today may have originated from microorganisms originating from other habitable planets. If we relate back to the theory of the infinite universe, it is actually highly unlikely that there isn’t life other than us out there. As a matter of fact, astronomers have found that there could be approximately 40 billion Earth-sized planets orbiting in habitable zones throughout the Milky Way.





http://www.space.com/31465-is-our-universe-just-one-of-many-in-a-multiverse.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/02/140218-black-hole-blast-explains-big-bang/
http://bigthink.com/think-tank/we-may-be-living-inside-a-black-hole
http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/moon-distance/en/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/universe/key_places/andromeda_galaxy