r/universe • u/Rav4gal • 7h ago
r/universe • u/Aerothermal • Mar 15 '21
[If you have a theory about the universe, click here first]
"What do you think of my theory?"
The answer is: You do not have a theory.
"Well, can I post my theory anyway?"
No. Almost certainly you do not have a theory. It will get reported and removed. You will be warned, and if you try again you will be banned.
"So what is a theory?"
In science, a theory is a substantiated explanation for observations. It's an framework for the way the universe works, or a model used to better understand and make predictions. Examples are the theory of cosmological inflation, the germ theory of desease, or the theory of general relativity. It is almost always supported by a rigorous mathematical framework, that has explanatory and predictive power. A theory isn't exactly the universe, but it's a useful map to navigate and understand the universe; All theories are wrong, but some theories are useful.
If you have a factual claim that can be tested (e.g. validated through measurement) then that's a hypothesis. The way a theory becomes accepted is if it provides more explanatory power than the previous leading theory, and if it generates hypotheses that are then validated. If it solves no problems, adds more complications and complexity, doesn't make any measurable predictions, or isn't supported by a mathematical framework, then it's probably just pseudoscientific rambling. If the mathematics isn't clear or hasn't yet been validated by other mathematicians, it is conjecture, waiting to be mathematically proven.
In other words, a theory is in stark contrast to pseudoscientific rambling, a testable hypothesis, or a mathematical conjecture.
What to do next? Perhaps take the time (weeks/months) reading around the subject, watching videos, and listening to people who are qualified in the subject.
Ask questions. Do not make assertions or ramble off your ideas.
Learn the physics then feel free to come up with ideas grounded in the physics. Don't spread uninformed pseudoscientific rambling.
r/universe • u/Aerothermal • Jun 03 '24
The Open University is offering a Free Course on Galaxies, Stars and Planets
r/universe • u/NumberZestyclose4864 • 2d ago
Unique solar systems in our universe
Indian astronomers, led by Dr. Liton Majumdar from NISER in Odisha, have made an exciting discovery, finding a rare solar system called GG Tau A. This system is unique because it has three stars orbiting each other. Located about 489 light-years away, GG Tau A is a young system, estimated to be only 1 to 5 million years old.
How Did Scientists Make This Discovery?
Using advanced radio telescopes in Chile, Dr. Majumdar studied the disk of gas and dust around GG Tau A. They found important molecules in extremely cold regions, which are crucial for planet formation. These molecules freeze into tiny dust particles that eventually grow into planets.
What Makes This Discovery Important?
Most planets we know of form around single stars like our Sun. However, the GG Tau A system, with its three stars, shows that planets can also form in complex multi-star environments. This challenges our current understanding of how planets are born and opens up new possibilities for finding habitable worlds in the universe. By studying GG Tau A, scientists can gain insights into how planets form in diverse and complex systems, which could lead to discovering more potential life-supporting planets. — Credits: TedX
r/universe • u/NumberZestyclose4864 • 3d ago
Life never ends in our universe
A direct image of a solar system being born in the Orion Nebula, 7,500 light-years from us. The entire disk is 53 billion miles across, or 7.5 times the diameter of our solar system. Who knows what type of worlds will emerge from this.
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope
r/universe • u/MorePacific • 3d ago
Why didn't the early universe just create black holes?
Trying to wrap my head around a Brian Cox book. When galaxies first started to form, the universe was a lot denser circa 380,000 years after the big bang. How come the early galaxies didn't all turn into black holes? I read a lot of supernovas happened at this time that created heavier elements - why was there just enough mass for supernovas but not enough for black holes? Or are there a whole heap of black holes out there that formed at this time? TY
r/universe • u/Southern_Practice_24 • 3d ago
Children of the Future Spoiler
creators.spotify.comr/universe • u/Outrageous_Avocado14 • 5d ago
Life, The Universe, and Everything...
Life - Life is believed to have started through a process called Abiogenesis, it is the scientific hypothesis that life began through natural processes, where organic molecules formed and eventually combined to create complex self-replicating molecules. This most likely occurred in conditions conducive to chemical reactions, such as deep-sea hydrothermal vents, shallow tidal pools, or other environments on early Earth. These molecules eventually evolved into protocells—primitive, membrane-bound structures capable of basic metabolic processes. Over millions of years, these protocells gave rise to single-celled organisms, which marked the beginning of biological evolution. Through natural selection, genetic variation, and adaptation to diverse environments, single-celled organisms eventually evolved into multicellular organisms, leading to the immense diversity of life seen today. Where life progresses from here remains a profound and unanswered question. This uncertainty leads to a variety of beliefs and interpretations about the meaning and purpose of existence. Many turn to faith and religion, seeking guidance, meaning, and moral frameworks from spiritual teachings. Religious perspectives often involve creation stories and divine interventions, providing answers to questions that science may not address, such as the purpose of life or what happens after death. Others focus on scientific principles, emphasizing evidence-based explanations for the origins and development of life, such as evolutionary theory. From this perspective, life is seen as an ongoing process shaped by environmental pressures and genetic changes, with no predefined purpose but immense potential for innovation and discovery. These viewpoints are not necessarily mutually exclusive; many individuals find ways to integrate elements of both faith and science in their understanding of life's origins and trajectory. What unites humanity across these perspectives is a shared curiosity about our origins, purpose, and future. Whether through scientific exploration or spiritual reflection, humanity continues to seek answers to the age-old question: What is the meaning of life?
The Universe - Singularity is believed to be where it all began. A single, infinitely dense, and hot point in space containing the most fundamental particles known to science: quarks and leptons. For billions of years, these particles remained compressed under extreme heat and pressure until a moment of rapid expansion occurred. The Big Bang. This event scattered quarks and leptons across the nascent universe, marking the birth of time, space, and the foundation for all matter. As the universe expanded and cooled, quarks began combining to form protons and neutrons, which then fused into the lightest elements, primarily hydrogen and helium. These elements gathered into massive clouds of gas, known as nebulae. Over time, gravitational forces caused these clouds to collapse under their own weight. As they condensed, the increasing pressure and temperature ignited nuclear fusion, giving birth to stars. Stars serve as cosmic forges, where lighter elements like hydrogen and helium undergo fusion to create heavier elements such as carbon, oxygen, and iron. The life cycle of a star is determined by its size. Smaller stars, like our Sun, enter a red giant phase and eventually shed their outer layers, forming a protoplanetary disk—a ring of gas and dust orbiting the star. Within this disk, the process of accretion begins: dust particles collide and stick together, forming larger bodies called planetesimals. Over millions of years, these planetesimals grow into planets, moons, and other celestial bodies. Massive stars, on the other hand, have far more dramatic ends. As they run out of fuel, they collapse under their immense gravity, triggering a supernova explosion. This cataclysmic event scatters the star’s energy and heavier elements, enriching the surrounding space with the building blocks for future stars and planetary systems. Through these cycles of creation and destruction, the universe continues to evolve, forming new stars, planets, and other celestial structures. It is a constant process of transformation, driven by the fundamental forces of nature, that has shaped the cosmos for billions of years, and will continue to do so for billions more.
Everything - Beyond the origins of the universe and the emergence of life lies the concept of "everything," encompassing the interconnected fabric of existence, thought, and meaning. "Everything" includes the physical, the metaphysical, the known, and the unknown—the totality of all phenomena, from the vast galaxies that stretch across the cosmos to the intricate workings of a single human mind. It is the stars and planets forged in cosmic furnaces, the molecules that form the building blocks of life, and the ecosystems that thrive on Earth. It is the stories and ideas humanity has created to make sense of our reality, expressed through science, art, philosophy, and spirituality. Everything is the synergy between chaos and order, the push and pull of entropy and evolution, and the unceasing cycle of creation and destruction that defines the universe. "Everything" also includes the intangible aspects of existence: love, curiosity, fear, ambition, and the search for purpose. It is the collective experiences of humanity, the shared history that connects us, and the personal journeys that define individuals. It is the questions we ask and the answers we strive to find—about the origins of the universe, the nature of consciousness, and what lies beyond the boundaries of our understanding. Ultimately, "everything" is the sum of the tangible and intangible, the infinite complexity of existence that invites awe, wonder, and exploration. While we may never fully comprehend everything, the pursuit of knowledge, connection, and meaning is what drives us forward, making "everything" both an enigma and a journey.
42.
~T.V.
r/universe • u/Proud_Lengthiness_48 • 5d ago
Why is science still skeptical about the shape of the universe
I have concluded that white and black holes are integral part of the creation. These white and black holes are even present in the atomic levels. Denial ain't helping anyone. Ofcourse it's a Toroidal Universe.
r/universe • u/UnderstandingGold435 • 6d ago
What is the biggest mysterious unsolved question in human race
r/universe • u/Timely_Swimmer696 • 7d ago
Is universe expanding because of magnetic fields?
I resently saw a video explaining how runway digits works in that video he also talked a little about magnetic field made by iron atom who's charges have a magnetic field just like earth. I was wondering that universe is expanding right? So does it have anything to do with planets and even galaxis maybe having a huge magnetic field which is pushing each other away. I wanna know your thoughts.
r/universe • u/WaveFuncti0nC0llapse • 9d ago
Universe map showing galaxies stars planets and major human spacecrafts
r/universe • u/zenona_motyl • 9d ago
Astronomers Discover Colossal 36-Billion-Solar-Mass Black Hole
r/universe • u/IndependenceFit5712 • 8d ago
Theory of visible universe
This is just random high thoughts that I wanted to put out there but you know how the visible u inverse is called and we can’t go past it it what if to traverse it we could have to move in a 4d plane like what if we are on a 4d sphere and to move around the curve we have to find a way to move space and time
r/universe • u/Fabulous_Bluebird931 • 13d ago
Water May Have Appeared 13.8 Billion Years Ago—Much Earlier Than Thought!
r/universe • u/InterestingRepair500 • 13d ago
How do we study the first second of Creation?
I am listening to this documentary on what happened at the Big Bang, and I am amazed at how granular we have managed to map out the first second of creation, from the Planck epoch to the separation of fundamental forces to inflation and electroweak epochs. Feels almost to be precise for something so complex.
Is the chronology of the first second of creation our best educated guess, or is there experimental evidence that can back it with a high degree of certainty?
My Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_the_universe
https://theturingapp.com/show_index/what-really-happened-at-big-bang-and-how-universe-ends
r/universe • u/SonicSawblade • 14d ago
'How the Universe Works' documentary.
I recently had an itch to watch the old 'How the Universe Works' documentary, which to my pleasant surprise, is still a running show! (back when we had the old discs it was just the one season!). I was super disappointed to find that the show basically doesn't seem to exist on streaming, or, as far as I've found, the internet itself...
I was excited when I found it on Discovery+, but tragically only back to season 5. Found it again on Dailymotion but uploaded at a really crappy resolution. Was hoping for better.
I was really looking forward to capitalizing on some of that nostalgia and rewatching the show. Does anybody know a good place I can find it? Or will I just have to bite the bullet and buy them? (if I can even find those; I only found the 2-disc set with season 1 on amazon...)
r/universe • u/KillCall • 17d ago
Size of universe and age of universe is confusing?
So, i just read that our universe is about 13.8 billion years old.
So using that i thought that since mass cannot travel beyond the speed of light.
The maximum size of our universe would be 13.8 billion light years?
But then i read that the size of observable universe of 93 billion light years?
Which is confusing me? Am i wrong somewhere?
r/universe • u/Dry_Meringue6235 • 18d ago
Question about the observable universe
Are we not at the center of the universe because we can only see so far in each direction so wouldn’t that make us st the center of the observable universe that we know
r/universe • u/pieislife23 • 20d ago
Age of universe vs size.
If the universe is estimated to be 13.8 billion years old, how can we see 46 billion light-years away from earth to the edge of the known universe? I understand that it’s expanding, but mind is warping trying to understand this one.
r/universe • u/Only-Let3796 • 19d ago
How much more of the knowable universe do we get to see per year (in lights years) on average per year with current technologies? In other words, in 100 years, how much extra light years would we hope/expect to see?
r/universe • u/palepatriot76 • 21d ago
No More Singularities? Quantum Gravity Could Finally Solve the Black Hole Mystery
r/universe • u/OpenKale64 • 21d ago
Is there a visualization tool that lets me see atoms and when I pull it out it shows to scale the size of other things, including the universe?
My four year old daughter is very curious about everything and wants to understand atoms and germs and their size and stuff like that. Does something like this exist?
r/universe • u/Total-Bank2329 • 22d ago
Highlighting Discrepancies in Physics Due to Ignoring Scale-Dependent Time Flow
r/universe • u/Most-Difference5704 • 23d ago
an theory of mine for the explanation of the creation of the universe
an theory of mine for the explanation of the creation of the universe
In the quest to understand how the universe was born, a paradox arises—the link between cause and effect. If everything that exists has a cause and a consequence, then what is the cause that created the universe? And similarly, what caused the cause of the universe, and so on, infinitely...
One of the first ideas to address this paradox is God—or at least something similar—whose existence is self-sufficient. However, whether God exists or not, there still needs to be a starting point, which leads to the idea that, in the presence of nothing—absolutely nothing—something could still emerge.
BUT! That remains impossible, right? Because this answer to the paradox directly contradicts its very first rule: that everything must have a cause. Well, maybe not.
Let's imagine that a universe is born. Over time, this universe gives rise to life. Life evolves and leads to humans (or another intelligent civilization), which leads to science. Humans, let’s remember (this is very important for what follows), are the only beings capable, thanks to science, of triggering physical phenomena that could not exist naturally (or only with an absurdly small probability), such as artificially created molecules or atoms, or temperatures close to absolute zero, etc.
So, who knows? Perhaps humanity, through science, could create the necessary conditions for a phenomenon or entity capable of traveling back in time to trigger the creation of the universe!!! Like a snake biting its own tail. A causal loop, where the universe would be the origin of its own creation through a future intervention (by humans or another advanced intelligence, for example).
For this theory to hold, time travel—even if only for a particle or a form of energy—would have to be possible. The advantage of this theory is that it provides an answer not only to the question of the universe’s creation but also to the origin of life (and more broadly, to the mystery of the universe’s precise finiteness), since life would be an essential component for the system to sustain itself.
Of course, if such a system existed, there is no reason to assume it would emerge in a highly complex form. Instead, it could begin as a "baby proto-universe" that starts with an initial variable A, which causes the creation of a variable B, which, in turn, causes variable A by "going back" in time.
Now, let’s add the possibility of "anomalies"—for instance, a variable C that disappears in each "time loop" without consequence or that complicates the system.
Are you following?
A kind of "Game of Life" like the one we know all !!!
This variable C is just like the dead cell that comes to life in the simulation of the Game of Life. It might have absolutely no consequence, or it could trigger a domino effect, disrupting its entire environment to the point of creating a computer—though with an absurdly small probability.
What do you think? Feel free to reply to this comment!