Birth
Of The Universe
How Did It
All Begin ?
There are by now dozens of quite different theories which are believed to explain
how the universe itself was formed, an event which occurred some 13 - 20 billion
years ago.
To accurately predict such an incredibly "powerful" event is one of the goals to which science has of yet, offered very little in the way of working theories. There are many highly sophisticated hypotheses and suggestions from all over the world as you would expect, but none have yet managed to prove themselves as being the one true, working solution. Some of the most likely theories in this debate have been discussed and tested ever since they were devised - but with very little in the way of results, even when using the very latest methods that advanced technology has to offer. For the time being, the formation of the cosmos has remained a dominant gap in the annals of modern science and our understanding of the universe.
The very best and most probable theory that has yet been devised is known throughout science as the "Big Bang Theory", which is based generally on the idea concerning the continual Expansion Of The Universe, but in recent years even this has become questionable. The theory states that in the very beginning, all the matter in the universe was condensed into an absolutely minute area of space, a bit like the effects consistent with the forces of a Black Hole. At a specific time in history ( some 13 - 20 Billion years ago ), the density of matter became at last greater than that of the surrounding radiation, thus resulting in the beginning of the universe's expansion. Even so, the galaxies did not begin to form from the Hydrogen and Helium clouds until over two billion years later !!
However, based on some other more obvious branches of modern physics, there must have actually been something there to form the matter to begin with ! There is no guarantee as to whether this is actually the first incarnation of the universe either - some people suggest that the universe may collapse in on itself every trillion years or so and the whole process is repeated. If this is the case then even broader questions arise - how did such a cycle start up to begin with? The depth of the ultimate theory is almost never-ending.
There are many other - almost fantastic theories the world over which are believed to hold the key to the formation of existence. Many of these involve some form of divine intervention - although there are many others out there who have strived even deeper to find a solution. There are literally thousands of suggestions and theories in this matter, so much so that to include them all in this site would be almost completely impossible.
For
the time being it is generally best if we let the universe take it's course.
One day when the human race has developed the technology to find the answers
to so many more such fantastic mysteries - we will maybe be able to discover
all of the universe's secrets.
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Could There Be Other Life Forms Out There ?
One of the single most commonly debated philosophical ideas, is that whether
or not life exists elsewhere in the universe beyond our own terrestrial sphere.
A huge number of people in the world, including many professors, scientists
and philosophers all believe that the chances of earth being the only life-giving
planet in the infinity of the universe are almost nothing - they ridicule the
notion that we are the only life forms in existence. A much smaller percentage
of the population actually believe there to be no such things as Aliens in any
size, shape or form. In general, it would be completely ludicrous to suggest
that we are alone in the cosmos, mainly because of the huge vastness of our
universe. There are even signs of life in our solar systems - Europa may harbor
an entire ocean of creatures under it's icy shell, while Mars has evidence of
an atmosphere many millions of years ago which may have hosted life forms of
all kinds. The search for conclusive proof of life elsewhere in the Universe
is a huge undertaking, and to the best of public knowledge, no signs have yet
been found of Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (Though Alien & UFO encounters
are being generally denied by many world governments - Do they know that Aliens
exist but are covering up the facts ?? ) If signs of life were discovered in
our own solar system, then it would revolutionize mankind and what we know the
universe - if 2 planets in the same system could independently generate life,
then the entire cosmos would be absolutely teaming with life in every conceivable
way. Until such evidence is found however, we must live with the slight, but
existent possibility that we are indeed alone in the universe, surrounded by
an abyss of infinite emptiness. The vast variety of places in which can develop
is extortionately amazing in itself - life forms on earth can even exist miles
under the deepest ocean, using nothing more than the heat generated by underwater
volcanic activity to stay alive. In the hottest and driest of deserts, thin
green layers of algae can be found underneath rocks, while various types of
plant matter can stay dormant for centuries under sheets of ice in the artic
wastelands. Imagine what kind of life could develop on other planets - and what
conditions would be able to support them ! Until science does find that crucial
piece of evidence, this millennia long debate concerning our place in the universe
remains in effect. But when we finally have mastered our place in the universe,
all of mankind will probably have gained a greater awareness of our role in
the passage of eternity.
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Science Fiction has done little to express the true origin and intent of these galactic terrors, not even the most potent space-age disaster can truly extrapolate the extent of a black-hole's scope of destruction. It doesn't just suck up anything that comes anywhere near it so that it can't get out - it violently compresses and condenses the object so much that it is literally reduced to a subatomic particle state within a matter of seconds. Your best defence against a nearby Black Hole ? - Get away from it immediately !!!
Despite the apparent difficulties in determining the location of a black hole, there is actually a perfectly acceptable explanation as to how such an incredible phenomenon is created in the first place. It all begins when a very large star dies and ends up collapsing in on itself, so that a critically large quantity of mass is concentrated into a particularly small region of space. A Black Hole is created when the gravitational pull of this mass is so big, that the escape velocity is greater than that of light itself - thus nothing, not even light can escape from it. Therefore a black hole is genuinely "black" and can only be detected through the observation of the effects that it's gravitational force has on other nearby masses. Anything that is drawn up by the black hole will need to provide a speed greater than that of light to escape, and since exceeding the speed of light is for the moment - impossible, certain doom unavoidably awaits within !!!
Don't
panic though - as far as science can predict, no black holes exist in the vicinity
of our solar system at all. In fact one of the only known locations of a black
hole is somewhere within a constellation known as Cygnus-X - where the huge
concentration of X-Rays being emitted suggests that a Black Hole is present.
As part of other theories and observations, Black Hole's are alleged to be partly
responsible for the exceptionally high energy production in certain active galactic
nuclei and even quasars. There have also been ideas concerning the use of two
black holes to link two points in space together to act as a Wormhole - although
the technology to perform such a maneuver won't be available for many hundreds
of years. In the meantime, science will continue to study this fantastic shrouds
of space-time, and attempt to learn as much as they can before we may encounter
one for ourselves.
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Ever since science perceived it's possibility, the affiliation of time travel has remained one of the most sincerely tantalizing aspects of the future. Is it really possible to travel through time itself ? To some people the idea itself seems ludicrous, however there is a group of people who may have actually developed a method for achieving this incredible goal. Although rather scientific, I will attempt to explain the process as clearly as I can.
Albert Einstein's theory of relativity suggests that time slows down the nearer to the speed of light an object goes - therefore if an object was traveling at the speed of light itself ( 300,000,000 m/s ) then time would stop completely. From there, exceeding this speed would cause the whole process to go backwards, and so you would actually be traveling backwards in time !! Sounds easy ? Well to date, it is impossible to reach the speed of light, generally due to the "infinite mass" brought on as a result of traveling at a speed comparable to that of light. So why not use a type of matter which has no mass ? The only such particles believed to exist in our universe are known throughout science as Tachyons.
In fact as far as I know, Tachyonic Acceleration is the only way of traveling through time that has ever been devised - apart from other far out ideas such as dimensional warp rifts and the like. Accelerating the Tachyons way up past the speed of light would inevitably result in them going backwards in time, but even then it is unlikely that the technology could be ever developed to a stage when a person could get into a "time machine" and fly off to any time period he wanted.
Getting into a car and traveling at 88 Miles Per Hour would do little in the way of time travel - a real life equivalent would need to go at over a million times faster !! And there is also the slight dilemma concerning returning to the future - the above method may take you back in time, but as far as science can tell, there is no way of going back again.
Whether
time travel will ever be successfully devised in the next millennium is very
difficult to say, as there is no real guarantee that it is even possible at
all. Like many other similar aspects of futuristic science, it is best to keep
an open mind concerning such ideas - one day science may surprise us all!
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usher 2000
