Ever wondered how actually this universe was formed? How will it end? Why is everything in the universe so distant from each other? Is there any life on other planets? Most probably, the answers to these questions are still yet unknown and no accurate description can be found in any of the present texts.
Many philosophers think of this universe as an "illusion", which means it is not accurate, just a simulation. The things we are seeing are not actually there and not in the state as we see them.
Let's take a look at how we can call this universe an illusion!
The Human Eye Can See Only a Part of the Electromagnetic Spectrum:
We are already familiar with the electromagnetic spectrum, i.e. the division of light into different wavelengths or frequencies. Visible light, gamma rays, radio waves, microwaves, infrared rays, X-rays, and ultraviolet rays are the different regions of the electromagnetic spectrum of light. The strange part here is that the human eye can only see through the visible regions of light, which is only a small part of the light. The real wonder lies in what if we could see through all the regions of light? What is out there in this world that we are not seeing? Forbidden and made curious!
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| The Electromagnetic Spectrum. Here, we can clearly see that visible light is a very, very small part of the spectrum. |
The Colors We See are not Actually There:
The three basic colors that the human eye can perceive are Red, Green, and Blue (RGB). All the other colors are just a mixture of these. The human eye is made to detect these colors because it has three cones for RGB colors. But what we see as the "colorful" world is not actually colorful at all. It is just the different shades of dark and light, more like a black-and-white image that is created in our brains but is converted into different colors for our ease.
It is not a wonder if someone is colorblind, what they see is not so different than what we see. Both are illusions of our brains in some way!
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| A Black and White Image |
When We Touch Something, We Don't Actually Touch It:
The atom consists of electrons, protons, and neutrons. But it is only 0.01% of the mass, the remaining 99.99% is only empty space. Everything in this universe consists of atoms. So that means everything, including us, is only 0.01% mass and the rest is just empty space. The mobile phone you are holding is not actually touching your hand, also because the electrons repel each other. What blows my mind is what would happen if that 99.99% space is also filled?
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| An Atom |
The Sun We See is 8 Minutes Old:
Look at the sky above. The Sun that looks like it's in front of our eyes is actually an image 8 minutes and 18 seconds old. If you want to see the sun of the moment you are seeing right now, come back after 8 minutes and 18 seconds. This is because the time it takes for light to reach Earth from Sun is 8.3 minutes.
The same way can be applied to any astronomical body. The Moon you see is 1.3 seconds old. Sirius is 8.611 years old. Betelgeuse is 642.5 years old! If someone wants to observe how Betelgeuse is right now, that is in 2023, he will need to observe it during the year 2665, exactly after 642 years! If Betelgeuse would explode right now, we would not know and the explosion can be seen in the year 2665.
"Everything we see in the sky belongs to the past." - Timothy Ferris.
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| The Sun |
Light is the Fastest Thing in This Universe, and Yet Not So Fast:
Light, which has a speed of 299792458 m/s, is the fastest thing in the universe. But if we look closely it is still not fast enough for this giant universe. Even if we travel with the speed of light, it would take 12.5 minutes to reach Mars, nearly a hundred thousand years to escape from the Milky Way galaxy, 2.5 million years to reach the nearest galaxy "Andromeda", and 46 billion years to reach the edge of the observable universe! The fastest thing in this universe takes this much time to reach such distances, how can we expect this universe to be more real to us?
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| Speed of Light. Distance from Earth to Sun. |
3-D and Higher Dimensions:
Our universe and everything in it is in 3 dimensions. The mobile phone screen that you are reading this article is 2 dimensional. But this dimension thing is kind of confused in itself. What would happen if we could understand the higher dimensions and could actually live in those? What if we are actually in a 2-dimensional world, fooled to be in 3-D? Think of it this way, you are watching a movie on your computer screen, it is clearly 2-D for you but imagine the characters on the screen, what if you were inside that? Then this 2-D screen would be a whole 3-D world for you!
The Dark Matter and Dark Energy:
Our universe is made up of matter and energy. But there is something else that is also there. The Dark Matter! It makes up most of the mass of the universe. It is not there but is there at the same time. We cannot see it, but we can feel its presence and influence. The story doesn't end here. Dark Energy also makes up most of the energy of the universe. It is the reason our universe is expanding. What are these and why do they take up so much space in the universe? Curiosity will answer these!
See also: Dark Matter and Dark Energy
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| An Illustration of Dark Matter |
The Sound Barrier:
Sound, which is the disturbance in the medium caused by any vibrating body, is perceived by humans through the ears. We think we can actually hear anything close to us but that's not completely true. The human ear can only hear sounds from 20Hz to 20,000Hz. Anything less or more is clearly not bearable. What if we could listen to any frequency range, i.e. from zero to infinity? What would be so different for us then? Mystery and more of an illusion to me!
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