A new model based on the famous alien-hunting Drake equation suggests that some parallel universes within the hypothetical “multiverse” could have higher chances of containing extraterrestrial life than our universe.
We could be living in the wrong universe, according to a new theory put out by scientists as to why we have never discovered evidence of alien life in the universe.
According to a new theoretical model based on the well-known Drake equation, certain parallel universes that may coexist with ours in an endless multiverse are more likely to support extraterrestrial life. The “optimal universe” for identifying alien civilizations is not where we dwell, if this is true.
American scientist Frank Drake developed the Drake equation in 1961 as a theoretical calculation to address the Fermi Paradox, which is the contradiction between the high likelihood that extraterrestrial intelligence exists and the lack of evidence for such aliens. The likelihood of finding alien life in the Milky Way is estimated by the Drake equation. The number of stars in our galaxy is the main determinant since, in spite of some hypotheses to the contrary, aliens would probably require a star to spawn an exoplanet they could call home and to supply the energy required to launch their development and evolution.
However, in a recent study that was published on Wednesday, November 13, in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, scientists calculated how variations in the density of dark energy, the enigmatic force that propels the universe’s expansion, may impact the number of stars that can form in various parallel universes. This allowed them to extrapolate this concept on a multiversal scale.
According to the model, up to 27% of non-dark matter may become stars in a world with the ideal level of dark energy. However, according to a statement by experts, just 23 percent of such stuff in our universe becomes stars, which means there are fewer stars and, thus, fewer sites for aliens to develop.
The new discoveries are entirely speculative and presuppose the existence of a multiverse, a hypothesis that has not yet been proven. In a separate statement, study co-author Lucas Lombriser, a cosmologist at the University of Geneva in Switzerland, said it will be fascinating to use the model to investigate the emergence of life across various universes and determine whether some basic questions we ask ourselves about our own universe need to be reinterpreted.
Space-time expands rather than collapses in on itself due to dark energy, an as-yet-unidentified material or force that acts against gravity. Although scientists don’t know exactly what dark energy is, astronomers believe it exists since the universe is expanding faster.
By affecting the pace of cosmic expansion, the quantity of this enigmatic energy in various parallel worlds would affect the star creation of those universes: A universe with less dark energy than ours may grow more slowly, which would allow gravity to collapse large-scale formations like galactic superclusters, galaxies, and stellar clusters, reducing the production of new stars. However, by spreading matter more broadly and allowing more big, star-forming structures to develop, a universe with more dark energy than ours may have a higher rate of star formation.
However, a universe with too much dark energy would grow so rapidly that it would spread matter too far, reducing the amount of star formation. The ideal density of dark energy that would optimize the pace of star formation was therefore determined by the new model, and it turns out to be marginally greater than the density that we see in our own universe. This implies that intelligent creatures in different universes could be more successful in locating one another than we have been in our hunt for extraterrestrial life.
Additionally, the researchers believe that the optimal density of dark energy would be more prevalent throughout the multiverse than other potential configurations of the enigmatic force, like the density of dark energy in our world.
“We may not live in the most likely of universes,” the second statement said. Daniele Sorini, a cosmologist at Durham University in England, was the study’s principal author.