Top 10 Mysteries of the Universe

7/29/2019 Top 10 Mysteries of the Universe

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Top 10 Mysteries of the Universe

The Universe The incredible difference in scale between the tiny world welive in every day and the vastness of all time and space begs the question ofwhether we will ever be able to grasp the fullness of the cosmos. But that

doesnt stop us from trying. In fact, contemplating the great unknowns mustbe one of the oldest hobbies in human experience. The pursuit has given risefirst to religion, then to philosophy, then to people who make fun of religionand philosophy.

We may never understand the entire universe, but we can sure appreciatethe fact that its so complex that it eludes us.

10. Extraterrestrial Intelligence

This is really a simple mystery. Is there other intelligent life out there in theuniverse? Carl Sagan reminds us that if we exist, then, no matter how rareintelligence is in the universe, given how huge the universe is, we must havemany neighbors out there somewhere. Frank Drake, an astrophysicist,created an equation that helps figure out how much intelligent life there is inthe universe, and estimated that if only one in a billion planets has intelligentlife, 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 havent yet detected any signs of otherintelligent life in the universe. So, the real mystery is this: what is it aboutEarth that makes no one want to play with us?
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9. The Tunguska Explosion

On the 30th of June, 1908 (or the 17th, at the time; the calendar has beenrevamped since then), at 7:17 am (local time), something exploded over aregion of forest in the Tunguska River Valley in Siberia, Russia. Locals manymiles away saw something bright blue streak toward the area and explodewith incredible force, sufficient to register on instruments in England. Laterexamination of the site showed that trees had been knocked down in a radialpattern from a central point, indicating an air burst of some kind. To this day,scientists arent sure what it was, and generally figure that it was a meteoror a fragment of a comet. Why did it explode in the air? Why havent wefound any pieces? The mystery has kept UFO aficionados up at nights sincethen.
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8. Rare Antimatter

Matter and antimatter are, in theory, created at the same time by the sameevent. When a normal baryonic particle is created, an antiparticle of thesame mass and opposite charge is also created. However, while we havecreated antimatter in laboratories on Earth, we dont see it in the universe

around us. No one seems to know what happened to all the antimatter thatshould be there

7. Consciousness
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What is the mind? Behaviorists say that it is just conditioned responses. Butits hard to deny that our ability to reflect on our own thoughts is somethingdistinct and interesting. Is it a mere side-effect of the way our brains work? Ifso, how long will it be before a computer becomes self-aware and asks forequal rights? How can you tell true consciousness from something designedto simulate it? Can consciousness survive the death of the brain that carriesit? There are a lot of questions, but until we can have an equal conversationwith either a robot or a ghost, there really wont be any answers.

6. Dark Matter / Dark Energy
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Current models of the universe, and observations made by high-techinstruments, point to there being an enormous amount of matter in theuniverse beyond what we can actually see. In fact, we can only seem toperceive 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 cant perceive directly. We call this, in a moment of inspiration, darkenergy. Apparently, theres even more of this than there is dark matter.Different theories abound, but perhaps, as mentioned in #10 above, most ofthe universe is just avoiding us.

5. Time
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You think you know what time is? Okay, try defining it without using anyterms that rely on time. Time is well, its time. Its what keeps every eventfrom happening simultaneously, and its what distinguishes something thathappened in the past from something that will happen in the future. Is it adimension, 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 theworld 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 evenbe a before before the beginning of the universe. Current theoriesgenerally talk about a Big Bang, which is a massive expansion of all matterand energy from a single point, which is still continuing through the presentday. What started the bang? Where did all the energy and matter comefrom? Are these questions even meaningful? What about creationism, if thatis for you? If God created the universe and all the physical laws in it, what ishe doing now that it is running itself?
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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 toever expire. There are several possibilities. One is that the universe willcontinue to expand, and eventually become so spread out that all matterand energy is just a homogeneous cloud of thin, lukewarm dust. Another isthat gravity will eventually catch up with all the matter, and the universe willslow down and fall back into a single point, which may spark another bigbang. Yet another theory notes that baryons and protons, the building blocksof matter, dont seem to be being created naturally anymore, and if theydecay (as some other particles do), the universe will simply fade out as allthe particles just cease to be. In general, nothing untoward is expected tohappen to the universe for many billion years, which will probably be a reliefto those with long-range investments.

2. Multiple Universes

Current quantum physics raises the possibility that there are many universesbesides our own, existing in the same space and time, but only interacting in
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certain limited ways. These universes may have their own separate historiesand futures, and even their own laws of physics. This is all vague theory forthe moment, but some day it may be possible to travel to the universe whereyour 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 differencebetween Isaac Newtons classical physics (you know, what you use to playpool) Einsteins relativistic physics, that involve very large or massive thingsat enormous velocities, and Heisenbergs (and others) quantum physics,which concerns things so small that you cant even measure them withoutchanging the result. These three sets of physical laws seem to play by theirown rules, largely ignoring each other, and yet they all relate to the sameuniverse. And so physicists have hunted for the Grand Unification Theory,which would substitute for all of these incomplete sets of laws and makesense of it all. Perhaps it doesnt exist. Or perhaps its just too complex forhuman minds to grasp. One way or the other, its going to keep scientistsarguing for some time to come. Cartoon property of Berkeley Breathed.

Written by Glen Taylor

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Top 10 Mysteries of the Universe