A parallel universe running backward? NASA experts say upside-down cosmic ray shower may be potential evidence
Everyone loves a good conspiracy theory and when there's science involved, you know you're in for a trip. For years, a theory that has dominated the world science is the existence of a parallel universe and it is so talked-about that it has seeped into popular culture, from films and music to anime. Now, researchers at NASA believe they have found evidence that could prove parallel universes are not just made-up scientific theories.
According to New Scientist, researchers at NASA were left dumbfounded when they discovered "a fountain of high-energy particles erupting from the ice" and the rules of physics are in stark contrast to our own. A cosmic ray detection experiment that they conducted found these particles and researchers think it could be from a parallel realm that was also a result of the Big Bang.
The NASA experts used Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA), a stratospheric balloon designed to detect cosmic-ray showers through radio-waves while they bounce off the ice. It turns "an entire continent... into a gigantic neutrino telescope." The US aeronautical and space research agency's ANITA was carried high above Antarctica, with the glacial, arid air serving as the perfect environment to conduct the experiment, since there is barely any radio noise to interfere with their findings.
But instead of finding these particles coming from save or reflecting off the ice, ANITA discovered them to be coming from the ice. Low-energy, subatomic neutrinos arrive from outer space and have a mass close to zero. They can completely penetrate the solid mass of the earth, which on the contrary, the high-energy tau neutrinos cannot do. The inferences from the findings imply that these heavier particles are actually traveling backward in time, hunting at the evidence of a parallel universe, per Daily Star. Peter Gorham, a principle ANITA investigator and physics and astronomy professor, University of Hawaii, suggested that the only way the tau neutrino could be capable of this is if it changed into a different type of particle before passing to and fro through the Earth.
Amid the research process, ANITA has detected this "fountain" of high-energy particles coming up from the earth's surface, twice — the first time being 2016. Gorham said the rays resemble an "upside-down cosmic-ray shower."
"What we saw is something that looked just like a cosmic ray, as seen in reflection off the ice sheet, but it wasn't reflected," he said in a press release on the University of Hawaii website. "It was as if the cosmic ray had come out of the ice itself. A very strange thing." He even described it as an odd phenomenon, noting that he and his team of researchers have witnessed several similar "impossible events" which they have also been skeptical about.
“Not everyone was comfortable with the hypothesis,” Gorham reportedly told New Scientist. "We don't know how to represent it yet, but we've got something," he added.
However, the simplest explanation for the phenomenon is that the Big Bang from 13.8 billion years ago birthed two universes — the one we live in and another one, which from our perspective is functioning in reverse with time running backward.
What is a parallel universe?
There are several definitions of parallel universe that adhere to both science and popular culture. In popular culture, it refers to "a realm of existence and experience that is fundamentally different from the one that most humans share; a separate reality".
In a nutshell, the concept suggests that there could be other universes out there besides our own, that runs in reverse. All the choices you made in this life play out in alternate realities. It is an aspect of the astronomical theory of a multiverse.
Popular culture
The astronomical concept has been a part of popular culture since the late 1950s. Books like 'The Wizard of Oz', 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'The Chronicles of Narnia' are based on the parallel universe concept. Prominent cinematic examples of the use of parallel universes in science fiction include 'The Twilight Zone', the Marvel Comics franchise, DC Comics franchise, 'Star Trek', 'Doctor Who', and more. Furthermore, it is also extremely popular in the manga and anime world, with shows like 'Digimon', 'Orange', 'Sonic, the Hedgehog', 'Dragon Ball Z' etc, championing the concept in its plotlines.
What are people saying about the discovery?
Since it is a part of popular culture, people irrespective of age, know all about the parallel universes. Evidently the internet went into a total meltdown after NASA's discovery was made public and the reactions to it are nothing short of entertaining.
This Twitter user has been doing a lot of thinking with NASA's recent breakthrough discoveries, and put it all together into a single conspiracy theory tweet: "I've been thinking about the @NASA discovery of the parallel universe and then the government releasing ufo proof what if the UFOs are from the parallel universe and they are coming to our time with there advanced technology and there is some secret under the ocean 5% discovered."
Here's another user who's comprehended the information enough to confuse the rest of us: "Everybody thinking about parallel universe them & where they are rn but actually a universe where time goes backwards wouldn’t necessarily mean you are even alive right now it would depend on when our universe ends and go back from there which by the way means we have an end date."
Here's the biggest conspiracy of all: "But guys, what if We are the ones stuck in the #paralleluniverse and the other place is normal?" Something to think about for sure.
But at the end of the day, this user gives us the reality check we need: "U guys talking about a parallel universe but can’t even parallel park. let’s focus on this universe first."