What are the greatest mysteries in the universe?

One of the great paradoxes of astronomy is that the more technology expands our ability to observe the Universe, the more mysterious it becomes. Many star mysteries have been solved over the centuries, but others are even more interesting. as the nature of the cosmosstill remains unanswered.

After all, who hasn’t wondered why space is dark despite so many stars? Or what if our solar system is unique and what is the origin of life inside and outside the Earth? Amidst many mysteries that have no answers yet, we have chosen The five biggest riddles that continue to intrigue scientists. Check it out below!

The greatest mysteries of the universe

What caused the Big Bang?

Talking about the “cause” of the Big Bang is a paradoxical issue, as it indicates the existence of an event before the founding element of the Universe, according to today’s scientific understanding. But there was nothing before this primordial singularity, astrophysicist Stephen Hawking said on Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Startalk program.

According to the author of A Brief History of Time, the Universe is a space-time continuum without boundaries or an infinite closed surface in the form of a sphere. And he made an analogy with the Earth. Assuming that normal time and real time begin at the South Pole, Hawking said: “There is nothing south of the South Pole, so there was nothing before the Big Bang.”

Like this, The Big Bang was not only the creation of matter and energy, but may also have been the origin of space and time..

Where are the aliens?

This question, posed by Italian physicist Enrico Fermi, is called the Fermi Paradox, and it is claimed that there is a high probability of finding planets with conditions suitable for life in a Universe as large as ours, with approximately one hundred billion galaxies. However, no alien technological signature has been found so far.

There are 400 billion stars in our galaxy alone, 20 billion of which are similar to our Sun, and a fifth of them have Earth-like planets in the habitable zone. In the absence of a single extraterrestrial, Fermi asks: Are there factors preventing interstellar contact or expansion, or are we an anomaly in the Universe?

What is the universe really made of?

The question of the composition of the Universe, perhaps the greatest mystery of astronomy, cannot be solved by any scientific method. mainly due to the unknown nature of dark matter and dark energy. The nature of these components, which cover approximately 95% of the universe, is not yet known.

Of this total, 27% are unknown dark matter particles that, because they do not reflect light, can only be detected through their gravitational effects on visible objects and other indirect signatures such as gravitational lenses that distort light.

In the case of dark energy, The mystery is even greater since empty space represents 68% of the universeIts main known effect is a supposed cosmic expansion caused by its (also unproven) repulsive effect. Therefore, this model, called the “harmony model of cosmology”, still has a lot to explain.

How will the universe end?

While we have managed to identify some admirable properties with what we know about the 5% of matter in the universe, such as the relationship between protons and electrons, the behavior of gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces, no one else can do this. Explain why these values ​​are the way they are.

And the scariest thing is, A small change in this delicate interdependence of the fundamental constants of physics could eliminate all stars, planets, and life from the Universe.

So, if these basic features came about through a random process, why did this coincidence lead to such a special balance? This “specialization” focusing on life continues to attract the attention of scientists and philosophers. Were we lucky enough to live in a proper world in the multiverse?

Was life born on Earth?

Although the scientific community supports theories of abiogenesis (from inorganic matter) that life arose on Earth and the theory that life emerged in space, called deep thermal hydrogenesis It was brought to our planet by meteors or comets and progress was experienced.

The discovery of the two basic nuclear bases of DNA, cytosine and thymine, in meteorites was announced in April 2022., completed the set of nucleobases necessary for the transfer of genetic information in all existing living organisms.

Five other organic molecules (adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine and uracil) had been discovered previously.

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