How many universes are there

on occasion while i am on a protracted aircraft flight,

I gaze out in any respect those mountains and deserts

and attempt to get my head around how full-size our Earth is.

after which I remember the fact that there may be an object we see each day

that might literally fit one million Earths inside it.

The solar seems impossibly large,

however in the wonderful scheme of factors, it is a pinprick,

one in all approximately 400 billion stars within the Milky manner galaxy,

which you could see on a clear night

as a light, white mist stretched across the sky.

And it gets worse.

There are maybe one hundred billion galaxies detectable via our telescopes,

so if every megastar became the size of a single grain of sand,

just the Milky manner has sufficient stars to fill

a 30 foot with the aid of 30 foot stretch of beach three feet deep with sand.

And the entire Earth doesn't have enough beaches

to represent the stars inside the standard universe.

this type of seaside might hold for actually hundreds of hundreds of thousands of miles.

Holy Stephen Hawking, that is lots of stars.

but he and other physicists now believe in

a reality that is unimaginably larger nonetheless.

I suggest, to start with, the 100 billion galaxies within variety of our telescopes

are probable a minuscule fraction of the overall.

area itself is expanding

at an accelerating pace. The massive majority of the galaxies

are setting apart from us so rapid

that light from them might also by no means reach us.

nevertheless, our physical truth right here on the earth

is intimately connected to those remote, invisible galaxies.

we are able to think about them as part of our universe.

They make up a single, massive edifice,

obeying the identical physical legal guidelines and all made from the same sorts of atoms, electrons,

protons, quarks, neutrinos that make up you and me.

but, latest theories in physics,

inclusive of one called string principle,

are now telling us there can be limitless other universes,

built on special types of debris,

with distinct houses, obeying distinct laws.

most of those universes should in no way assist life,

and might flash inside and outside of life in a nanosecond,

however nonetheless, blended

they make up a widespread multiverse of feasible universes.

in up to 11 dimensions, presenting wonders past our wildest imagination.

And the main version of string theory

predicts a multiverse fabricated from up to 10 to the 500 universes.

it really is a one followed with the aid of 500 zeroes,

various so significant that if every atom in our observable universe

had its own universe

and all of the atoms in all of these universes

each had their own universe,

and you repeated that for 2 more cycles,

you'll nonetheless be at a tiny fraction of the full --

specifically, 1000000000000 trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillionth.

but even that wide variety is minuscule compared to

another variety: infinity.

some physicists think the space-time continuum

is actually infinite, and that it incorporates an limitless quantity

of so-called pocket universes with various properties.

How's your brain doing?

however quantum concept provides an entire new wrinkle.

I imply, the theory's been confirmed true past all doubt,

but deciphering it's miles baffling.

And a few physicists think you can best un-baffle it

if you believe that huge numbers of parallel universes

are being spawned every second,

and many of those universes could without a doubt be very like the global we're in,

would encompass a couple of copies of you.

in a single such universe, you would graduate with honors and marry the character of your desires.

In some other, now not so much.

There are nonetheless some scientists who would say, hogwash.

The best meaningful answer to the question of how many universes there are is one,

most effective one universe.

And a few philosophers and mystics

may argue that even our very own universe is an phantasm.

So, as you could see,

proper now there may be no settlement in this query,

now not even near.

All we know is, the solution is someplace among 0 and infinity.

well, I guess we realize one more thing:

that is a pretty cool time to be reading physics.

We simply is probably undergoing

the largest paradigm shift in information that humanity has ever visible.