If we really give some thought to space and the universe we notice there are things we have no answer for. One of the very first things is where did the universe come from. We know it is there and we know there have been plenty of theories stating how the universe was created, but every time one of these theories comes along there is some glaring problem with it. Look at the last couple, which were the oscillating universe and the big bang theory. The oscillating universe theory states the universe exploded from a giant atom and will expand to a certain point and then begin to slow down before being drawn together again for the next explosion. One of the major problems with this theory is the fact the expansion is speeding up not slowing down. The big bang theory of the universe states there was an explosion form a giant atom and this is how the universe was formed. The problem is the universe does not react as if there was an explosion,  since an explosion as we know it would have spread the universe out equally, but our universe is not spread out equally it is flat, so this fact hurts the big bang theory.

Science has been talking about black holes ever since they were thought of. While we have never seen one, with the exception of possibly once when something seemed to escape from one, they were predicted to exist. We think we can spot them because of a ring of material circling a deep black hole in space as it falls into the black hole. It has been said nothing can escape from the massive gravity of a black hole, but as mentioned earlier maybe this is not true. Anyway one thing which has puzzled scientists is what happens to matter falling into a black hole, where does it go? There are a couple of possibilities. One is the material falling into a black hole is so crushed it comes out another end as light. It might also be there is no other end to a black hole, contrary to the thought there is a white hole at the end. Possibly a black hole is more like a pocket and crushes material so much it might never get full or if it does it could explode in what might be the most massive explosion ever in the universe. We don’t know what happens to matter after it falls into what we believe is a black hole.

Dark matter has consumed much of the interest of astronomers and physicists. Dark matter is something they believe exists because calculations of the mass of the universe seem to be far short when all observable objects are counted. So far short that the visible universe would only account for about four percent of the universe and there would be about ninety-six percent missing. So where is this missing matter? A few scientists have said there is nothing missing, because electrical forces and gravitation could account for the missing matter. Others have said the calculation are incorrect and there are things missing from them which might correct this. Then there are those scientists, the majority, who believe there is indeed dark matter and there is far more of it than visible matter. The bottom line is we are in a quandary, something may be wrong and we are not sure what.

Just like we used the term dark matter to fill in the blanks in our theory of the mass of the universe we have discovered there might also be missing energy, so scientists decided to throw in the term dark energy to account for the missing energy. Since scientists have calculated they have added up all the sources of matter and potential sources of dark matter and found it didn’t account for enough mass, they decided energy had to be the missing component. They decided dark energy must be powering the expansion of the universe by pushing everything toward expansion. Some have said the opposite, they think there might be an attractive force pulling us toward it. They explain the missing mass by saying dark energy is producing virtual particles of antimatter which come into existence, but then go out of existence. Seems pretty complicated doesn’t it and also a bit contrived? You have to wonder what scientists a hundred years from now will think of these theories. I bet they will have a good laugh before going to the bar and belting down a few. A few days after I wrote this article news was released that a huge void was discovered in space and it was pushing us causing the expansion to accelerate faster.

Sometimes some of what seem to be the simplest things to explain become very hard or impossible to to. Just as we really don’t know exactly what electricity is, even though we know how to use and generate it, we have a very hard time deciding exactly what gravity is. We thought we knew exactly what gravity was until we started investigating the field of quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics is the study of matter at the atomic level. Things do not always behave the same at that level as they do at the macro level or our level. Under many circumstances gravity at the quantum level is almost non-existent, yet these same sized particles are said to have a very powerful gravity at tiny distances when inside a black hole. I have to assume this was found to be true using a mathematical exercise.

Scientists have been wondering if other dimensions exist inside out universe or if other universes exist. It is an intriguing question. There might be more dimensions we are unable to comprehend with our human brains, or maybe what we see is what we get. This may not mean if other beings exist they won’t be able to observe more dimensions. String theory has told us there are about eleven dimensions, even though we have not detected anything above four, the fourth dimension being time. String theorists tell us we can’t see the other dimensions, because we lack the tools to see it.

Will some of the stuff I have talked about just fade out in time? Maybe, but some of it might also prove to be true. We have to wait for more and better tools to determine this.