Did NASA really finds a new Parallel Universe

 

The truth behind headlines

Don’t pack your bags just yet!

Some reports claim that NASA has has found evidence of a parallel universe where time runs backward. So the truth is NASA hasn't found a new parallel universe. 

While this has certainly made a whole lot of people excited but in reality, this is far from the truth. In fact, scientists have just found evidence of high-energy particles that defy our current understanding of physics and a parallel universe has been suggested only as one of the possible theories to explain them, without any solid evidence in the favour.

What is parallel universe? 

A parallel universe, also known as a parallel dimension, alternate universe, or alternate reality, is a hypothetical self-contained plane of existence, co-existing with one's own. The sum of all potential parallel universes that constitute reality is often called a “multiverse".

Parallel Universes: Theories & Evidence

Is our universe unique? From science fiction to science fact, there is a concept that suggests that there could be other universes besides our own, where all the choices you made in this life played out in alternate realities. The concept is known as a "parallel universe," and is a facet of the astronomical theory of the multiverse.

The idea is pervasive in comic books, video games, television and movies. Franchises ranging from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" to "Star Trek" to "Doctor Who" to "Digemon" use the idea to extend plotlines. (A fuller list of parallel universes in fiction is at the bottom of the article.)

There actually is quite a bit of evidence out there for a multiverse. First, it is useful to understand how our universe is believed to have come to be. 

Around 13.7 billion years ago, simply speaking, everything we know of in the cosmos was an infinitesimal singularity. Then, according to the Big Bang theory, some unknown trigger caused it to expand and inflate in three-dimensional space. As the immense energy of this initial expansion cooled, light began to shine through. Eventually, the small particles began to form into the larger pieces of matter we know today, such as galaxies, stars and planets.

One big question with this theory is: are we the only universe out there? With our current technology, we are limited to observations within this universe because the universe is curved and we are inside the fishbowl, unable to see the outside of it (if there is an outside.) 

What happened?
It all started after a report by New Scientist about an experiment by astrophysicists came out. Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) is a telescope that comprises of radio antennas attached to a giant balloon that hovered over Antarctica at a very high altitude of around 37kms. It is run by a multi-university consortium led by Peter Gorham of the University of Hawaii-Manoa. ANITA was sent so high so that it was able to detect matter like the high-energy particles called “neutrinos” from the space, according to CNET. The telescope can spot these neutrinos coming from the space and hitting the ice sheet in Antarctica. ANITA detected these particles, but instead of coming from the space, the neutrinos were found to be coming from the Earth's surface without any source. These detections happened in 2016, then again in 2018, but there was no credible explanation.

No clarity on the anomaly
"After four years there has been no satisfactory explanation of the anomalous events seen by ANITA so this is very frustrating, especially to those involved," CNET said quoting Ron Ekers, an honorary fellow at Australia's National Science Agency. The recent reports claiming that there is evidence of a parallel universe appear to be based on ANITA findings that are at least a couple of years old.

What is the ANITA?

It’s a stratospheric balloon-based experiment in Antarctica that has a radio antennae pointed back at Earth to detect radio waves emitted by very (and very rare) high-energy neutrinos if they strike an atom in the ice. A radio telescope, ANITA is the first NASA observatory for neutrinos of any kind. Hence the NASA connection.

What is the IceCube Neutrino Observatory?

Situated near the South Pole, it’s made-up of 5,160 optical detectors buried in the ice that are there to detect neutrinos passing through, and reacting with, hydrogen or oxygen atoms in the ice.

“This process makes IceCube a remarkable tool to follow up the ANITA observations, because for each anomalous event that ANITA detects, IceCube should have detected many, many more—which, in these cases, we didn’t,” said Anastasia Barbano of the University of Geneva in Switzerland. “That means that we can rule out the idea that these events came from some intense point source, because the odds of ANITA seeing an event and IceCube not seeing anything are so slim.”

What did the academic paper conclude?

The results from the check on ANITA detections using IceCube published in the paper concludes with phrases like “inconsistent with a cosmogenic interpretation” and “new physics,” and is summarized thus:

“An astrophysical explanation of these anomalous events under standard model assumptions is severely constrained regardless of source spectrum.”

Correct translation: we don’t yet know where these signals came from.

Incorrect translation: these high-energy neutrinos came from a parallel universe.

Here’s what Alex Pizzuto of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, one of the leads on this paper, said in the wake of the “parallel universe” story going viral: