badbobby Loc: texas

hould the search for alien life in our universe come up empty-handed, it might be worth checking in on a neighboring universe instead.

According to a new pair of studies in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, there’s a decent chance that life-fostering planets could exist in a parallel universe — even if that universe were being torn apart by dark energy.

The idea that our universe is just one of many, perhaps infinite, other universes is known as the multiverse theory. Scientists have previously thought that such parallel universes, if they exist, would have to meet an extremely strict set of criteria to allow for the formation of stars, galaxies and life-fostering planets like those seen in our own universe. [5 Reasons We May Live in a Multiverse]

In the new study, researchers ran a massive computer simulation to build new universes under various starting conditions. They found that the conditions for life might be a little broader than previously thought — especially when it comes to the mysterious pull of dark energy.

Dark energy
Dark energy is a mysterious, invisible force thought to exist in the empty spaces of our universe. You could think about it as the archnemesis of gravity; while gravity pulls matter closer together, dark energy flings it apart — and dark energy is winning this cosmic tug-of-war handily.

Not only is our universe expanding, thanks to the constant, invisible push of dark energy, but the rate of that expansion is also getting faster and faster every day. It's thought that, as more empty space appears in the universe, even more dark energy appears to fill it. (Dark energy is not the same as dark matter, which is an abundant, invisible form of matter thought to be responsible for some very weird gravitational phenomena around space.)

Scientists don't know exactly what dark energy is or how it works; some think it's an intrinsic property of space — what Einstein called the cosmological constant — while others attribute it to a fundamental force called quintessence, with dynamic rules all its own. Others don't even agree that it exists. But whatever it is, everyone can agree that there's a whole lot of it: According to the best current estimates, nearly 70 percent of the mass-energy of our universe may be made of dark energy.

This quantity, for whatever reason, is in the right range to allow galaxies to grow and foster life. It is thought that if we lived in a universe with too much dark energy, space might expand faster than galaxies could possibly form. Too little dark energy, and runaway gravity could cause every galaxy to collapse in on itself before life ever had a chance to appear.

But the question of how much dark energy is "too much" or "too little" is a topic for debate — and it's this issue of quantity that the authors of the new studies hoped to narrow down.

Life finds a way
Across several experiments, an international team of researchers from England, Australia and the Netherlands used a program called Evolution and Assembly of Galaxies and their Environmentsto simulate the birth, life and eventual death of various hypothetical universes. In each simulation, the researchers adjusted the amount of dark energy present in that universe, ranging from none to several hundred times the amount in our own universe.

The good news: Even in universes with 300 times as much dark energy as ours, life found a way.

"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," study co-author Pascal Elahi, a research fellow at the University of Western Australia, said in a statement. "Even increasing dark energy many hundreds of times might not be enough to make a dead universe."

That's good news for fans of extraterrestrial life and the multiverse theory. But a bigger question remains: If galaxies could still thrive on so much dark energy, why did our universe get handed such a seemingly small amount?

"I think we should be looking for a new law of physics to explain this strange property of our Universe," co-author Richard Bower, a professor at Durham University's Institute for Computational Cosmology, said in the statement.

Of course, finding new laws of physics is easier said than done. Scientists won't give up easily — but perhaps, to hedge their bets, they should also look for a parallel universe where some intelligent life has already done it for them.

Originally published on Live Science.

bahmer

I think that the dark energy eventually ends up as a dark hole.
I draw this conclusion from watching the democrat party.
Nancy Pelosi once start out as dark energy and as she has
aged she has become a dark hole where no intelligence can
be said to have escaped. This is just an observation you understand.

badbobby Loc: texas

observation huh??

bahmer

That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

karpenter Loc: Headin' Fer Da Hills !!

Indeed.
Let's See Observable Evidence Of A Parallel Universe, Worm Holes And Extra Dimensions
Let's See Some Evidence Of Any Kind
That Any UFO Phenomena Is Outside Of Terrestrial Origin

We Are Not Being Visited By Beings From Across The Galaxy
And We Will Never Visit Them Either
Because Flesh And Blood Interstellar Travel Is Not Only Impossible
It's Pointless

Manning345 Loc: Richmond, Virginia

I am all for evidence, proof, and coherent theories. We may not be visited by ETs, but the very existence of ETs somewhere in this universe seems quite probable to me, as scientists have found many planet systems (hundreds as I recall it) that are in the golden zone of life. On the question of interstellar travel, unless there is something to the warping of space somehow that allows travel faster than light, I must agree that it is not possible for us...not today, anyway! On the question of travel being pointless, I can think of a number of reasons for it, such as technology exchanges, general information exchanges, potential medical cures, etc. etc. given the existence of ETs and the means of travel.

karpenter Loc: Headin' Fer Da Hills !!

The Existence Of ET's Elsewhere Is Irrelevant
The Distances Are So Fantastic We Can't Even Contact Them
Anything We Could See, Hear Or Detect Is Already Thousands Of Years Past
Nothing Can Change That
The Apparent Natural Speed Limit Of The Universe Still Seems To Be The Speed Of Light
And That's The Speed That Everything Gets To Us

So Even If We Could Develop Star Trek Technology
Any Possible Destination We Would Chose
Could Already Be Extinct For Thousands Of Years Before We Even Launch

Manning345 Loc: Richmond, Virginia

Quite so, but then their civilization may have lasted after all, or newer ones may have arisen. It all depends on the physics of spacetime and how it can be made to yield FTL speeds. Cosmologists today have shown that matter in our universe must have traveled faster than light fractional seconds after the big bang occurred, so at least there is one instance where faster than light travel did occur. Somehow, I don't think we could survive in such an instance!

The expansion of our universe appears to be increasing the distance between galaxies, which is yet another obstacle, and I am not certain whether that applies to our galactic members as well. I suppose it should to some degree.
The one thing I am certain about is that I will not see the day we go beyond the solar system, or have visitors from space!

Maybe wormholes are the answer!

Why do you say ETs existence is irrelevant? It may be irrelevant to whether we ever travel beyond our solar system, but there is one possibility: that they broadcast important information we can pick up and decipher. SETI in other words. There is some small chance for that to succeed.

Peewee Loc: San Antonio, TX

If we can't establish peace on this planet why go looking for trouble? We already have enough legal and illegal aliens here.

itsmyjob

I can't believe that I just wasted time reading this drivel.

meridianlesilie Loc: mars

count obama &hellary in to

karpenter Loc: Headin' Fer Da Hills !!

It Is Quite So
And It Is Still Quite Irrelevant
They Can't Get Here, And We'll Never Get There
Play Pretend All The Comic Book Fantasies You Want
It Can't Ever Happen. Not Them, Not Us.

Why Not Just Pretend One Day We'll Be Able To Teleport Ourselves Physically Anywhere In The Universe We Want To Go ??
Using Just The Power Of Our Minds
Why Bother With Mere Technology ??

Know What Else Will Never Happen ??
A Colony On Mars
Doubt There Will Ever Be Even A Continually Manned Station On Mars.
The Spacecraft Is Your One Way Coffin To Your Insanity.
Anyone That Pretends They Want To Go Mars Is Just Fantasising
They Haven't Given It Any Real Thought

Just Like People That Want To Believe Interstellar Space Travel Will One Day Be Possible

badbobby Loc: texas

karpenter
I must agree with you
but
then I recall
most folks said we would never fly
that we would never get to the moon
who knows for sure???

thinksense

"Not only is our universe expanding, thanks to the constant, invisible push of dark energy, but the rate of that expansion is also getting faster and faster every day."

If a train, while blowing it’s whistle is coming toward, and then passing you, and then continuing away from you, you will hear a change in the whistle’s sound. First it will sound more shrill, as it approaches you, than as it passes you it will lower it’s pitch. This “doppler effect” is caused by
the compression of the sound waves as it approaches you and the expansion of the sound waves as it moves away.

The so called “scientists who make a very nice living pottering around in cosmology , first came up with the idea that the universe was expanding because they observed that there is a constant “red shift” observed when examining stars. Since as things move away from you, there is a shift in color toward red, and if they are approaching you there is a shift toward blue, they hypothesized that everything was moving away from everything else in our universe. Which to me seemed somehow wrong and did not make sense. I mean this "moving away from each other" (expansion of the universe) has supposedly been going on for millions of years, yet the stars, relative to each other have stayed the same????

However they now understand that “empty space” is far from empty, and that the matter in space has an effect upon light. In effect it causes a slowing of light, and creates a “red shift” which has erroneously been interpreted as indicating that everything in the universe is moving away from everything else.

Light speed is not constant. It can be slowed (by passing it through a crystal , for example) and it can be speeded..

“Scientists” have believed all sorts of things in the past, which as time passes are found wrong. Like so many things that “scientists believe” today, these theories believed today will be found very wrong in the future.

It is all a dream.

boatbob2

I once had a girlfriend,that had to be an alien,she sure was too uuggllyy to be from our world,Dont ask me why I dated her.-