Dark matter, what is it anyway? The rival of gravity? A black nothingness? The "space" part of space?
We don't really know, and how can we? After-all, it is rather difficult to analyze something that is invisible and cannot be contained. All we have are theories.
Dark matter, or dark energy, could be the force that pushes apart galaxies in the universe. But if it's not dark matter or its war with gravity then what is it? I doubt we will know any time soon.
But let us migrate to a hypothesis and a theory. Now, I admit, I am no astronomer, nor astrophysicist, nor cosmologist, nor theoretical physicist, so don't blame me if I'm wrong.
This article spawned an interesting idea that I would love to mull over. The article spoke of a mysterious shift, or tug, in the universe and one part caught my eye more than the others:
A twin universe? That brings forth some interesting ideas, does it not? What if there is another universe just outside the reach of our own? What if it's even closer than we could imagine? What if it's coming closer? What if it could merge? It is possible; fantastical, but possible.
"As for what could be exerting such a powerful, pervasive tug, it can't be anything within our universe, since there just isn't anything with remotely enough mass, said Kocevski.The sole possible explanation Kashlinsky offers is that there might be a large, very bulky neighboring part of the universe which is so far away we cannot see it. It could be, if inflationary theories are correct, a twin universe that inflated less evenly than our own did soon after the Big Bang...
It could be, then, that there was another, less effective inflation next door to our observable universe..."
Why stop with just one more universe? What if we are surrounded by universes? What if they are as infinite in number as there are planets, galaxies, and stars in our own cosmos? (As if we could claim a universe.)
What if the Big Bang that created the universe we call home was just one of many? Maybe the BB was more similar to a supernova--a rare, but naturally occurring event. It's like the age old question of whether or not the universe end in fire or ice; perhaps that could be compared to a star either going supernova or becoming a dwarf.
Domes within domes. Body-house-Earth-Sol-Milkyway-Universe--does it stop there? Maybe not. What if the universe lives within an even larger place? A place outside of a place outside of a place? Life is a cycle of birth, growth, destruction, and rebirth. From the ashes of a supernova forms a new star that matures, expands, and explodes only to be born again. What if that is the fate of our universe? Or more so, what if that was the birth of our universe?
That something so infinitely larger than us could be a part of something even bigger is, indeed, an ambitious idea, but what evidence have we found that could deny it? Our technological scope only reaches so far...
Possibilities are truly endless.
-PK