We could have alien neighbours living in other universes, a new research suggests. Yes, you heard 'other universes'. Stephen Hawking's final theory of the cosmos, completed only weeks before his death in March, stated that reality may be made up of multiple universes. Not only did he propose the existence of the multiverse, but many other scientists, cosmologists and theorists also advocated the concept.
Ever since then, the debate around whether many universes might exist as part of a larger multiverse -- and if they could harbour life -- has been burning in modern cosmology.
A new study published in the Royal Astronomical Society has found that if more than one universe does exist, then life could potentially be far more hospitable than earlier thought.
The role of dark energy in multiverse
- The key to finding life-hosting capabilities in other universes, the researchers said, is dark energy -- a mysterious "force" that is accelerating the expansion of the universe -- according to an IANS report
- This challenges the earlier belief that our universe has been lucky to have only a small amount of dark energy that enabled it to host life, among other universes that could not
Luke Barnes, a research fellow at Western Sydney University said, as reported by The Independent:
The multiverse was previously thought to explain the observed value of dark energy as a lottery -- we have a lucky ticket and live in the universe that forms beautiful galaxies which permit life as we know it
- Using huge computer simulations of the cosmos, the new research found that adding dark energy, up to a few hundred times the amount observed in our universe, would actually have a modest impact upon star and planet formation
So, do we need more dark energy inside our universe?
- The finding also causes major problems for the idea of multiverse. In fact, the strangeness of our own universe might better be explained by an undiscovered natural law, said researchers
- Current theories predict there should be much more dark energy inside of our own universe than there is already
"We asked ourselves how much dark energy can there be before life is impossible?" said Pascal Elahi, another research fellow of the same Australian university.
"Our simulations showed that the accelerated expansion driven by dark energy has hardly any impact on the birth of stars, and hence places for life to arise. Even increasing dark energy many hundreds of times might not be enough to make a dead universe," added Elahi.
- A lot of dark energy in the multiverse is a problem because more dark energy would lead it to expand so quickly that any matter would be diluted before it could form the stars or planets that we need to live
- This opens up the prospect that life could be possible throughout a wider range of other universes, and we may be living in just one
Our work shows that our ticket [to living in a universe that permits life] seems a little too lucky, so to speak. It's more special than it needs to be for life. This is a problem for the multiverse; a puzzle remains
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