Space Missions That NEVER Happened

 

space is scary don't worry about ghosts  goblins and ghouls  you should be more worried about the  incredible unseen forces throughout the  universe  so dust off that high school science  textbook put on your astrophysicists tap  and be prepared to jump into a world far  stranger than fiction  welcome to fact nominal today we're all  aboard the mystery machine in  spooky space mysteries no one can  explain  along came a spider dark matter isn't a  new concept  it was first theorized in 1922 and a  century later we still have next to no  idea how it all works  we're literally guessing think of it  like a huge spider's web spread out  across the universe  holding the stuff we can see together in  a way that we can see  if you're confused don't worry it's  confusing  planets stars galaxies all that good  stuff  only makes up around 5 of the total  stuff in all of existence  dark matter makes up another 25  according to our calculations  its filamentous network like a  stretching silken web  holds entire galaxies together we  literally  wouldn't exist if it weren't for this  mysterious substance that sings a  gravitational tune so loud  it can distort the space time around it  it's now thought that all  or at least some dark matter is made up  of primordial black holes  just nanometers wide  rearranging furniture so what on earth  makes up the rest  the answer is a bit convoluted but in  short we think the remaining 70  is dark energy this is an entirely  undetectable and non-classifiable force  that has the potential to rip the fabric  of the universe itself  scared yet you should be dark energy is  like a cosmic poltergeist  knocking the books off your shelves and  rearranging your furniture in a demented  pile in your living room  all it wants to do is pull and push  things apart the complete opposite to  the sticky nature of dark matter  universal expansion seems to be speeding  up not slowing down  and dark energy is likely the culprit  it suggests that the phenomenon is  caused by collision between quantum  particles  which is pretty worrying should the  universe reach its limit and suddenly  rip apart  torn asunder so we have this dark energy  accelerating universal expansion  faster and faster what happens when  enough is enough  the big rip we think the end of the  existence and the world as we know it  bring popcorn this phenomenon is exactly  like blowing up a balloon  it's all fun and games when you pump  lung full after lung full of air into  its colorful rubbery skin  until suddenly disaster  it can't take it any longer explodes  with a loud bang  waking the baby and scaring the dog the  other side of the coin describes what  would happen if expansion started to  lose momentum  taper off and be suddenly overcome by  its opposing force  gravity the big crunch where the end of  our universe starts to get dragged  kicking and screaming back to the source  the singularity  think of it as the big bang but in  reverse  the wicked witch yo where's all the  barons at  it's like some cosmic sorceress some  wicked witch  has banished the barians to some unknown  dimension or  eating them for her dinner quote unquote  regular matter makes up that five  percent of all stuff  but in reality half of it is missing  baryonic matter is the building blocks  of the universe including protons and  neutrons  but excluding things like electrons that  only contribute to 0.0005 percent of the  total mass  as well as things like neutrinos and  other leptons  astrophysicists can calculate the total  amount of baryons created during the big  bang  but then that number suddenly drops  without explanation  and steadily decreases throughout cosmic  history  for over 20 years scientists have been  searching for the missing 2.5 percent  it's a bit like finding a matching sock  in a messy sock drawer  studies of cosmic microwave background  radiation  left over from the big bang tell us that  the numbers are correct  but the search still continues you have  an evil twin  the universe exists in some semblance of  balance  what goes up must come down for every  white  there is a black same deal for matter  itself it has  an evil twin in its most basic bits an  atom of matter is made up of subatomic  particles  the positive protons and neutral  neutrons cuddle up nice and cozy in the  central nucleus  with fields of negative electrons  circling them at varying yet controlled  distances  antimatter particles have the exact same  mass as normal particles  but the electric charge has been  reversed anti-protons and anti-neutrons  with orbiting positrons  the frightening part comes when matter  and anti-matter meet  they cancel each other out in an  annihilation reaction  it's simplistic yet beautiful as the  equal but opposing electrical charges  perform a perfect addition  that sums up in nothingness it gets  better  if the big bang produced each in equal  amounts  why is there a quadrillion or 10 to the  15th power  times more matter than antimatter  spooky action big brained boffin albert  einstein actually coined this term  when he described a head-scratchingly  confusing phenomenon as  spooky action at a distance he didn't  have an answer then  but we now know it as quantum  entanglement  get ready for the knowledge bond two  particles in completely different parts  of the universe are linked to each other  each mirroring the behavior and state of  its partner it's a central concept in  quantum physics that's the bane of a  classical physicist's existence  stay with us here this concept breaks  fundamental laws previously thought  unbreakable for these linked particles  to be able to stay connected  over such astronomically large distances  the signals sent between them much  travel faster than the speed of light  but isn't that impossible there is no  doubt that  quantum entanglement exists but we don't  fully understand how it works  though it could become the new framework  for next-gen computing  and communications the living shadow  we've had twins but what about  doppelgangers  it's entirely possible that there are  other universes apart from our own  in a concept called the multiverse  that's how  why and what is up for contention though  with a myriad of proposed ideas  attempting to  explain the ins and outs of multiverse  theory  it's just like having one or more living  shadows something that copies your every  move  is identical to you but somehow  strangely different  think peter pan's shadow as it attempts  to detach itself  run away and generally do its own thing  and cause a little havoc  that's the multiverse for you it gets a  bit mind bendy when you consider  that there could theoretically be an  infinite number of other universes  each containing an infinite number of  universes and so on and so forth  parallel universes could contain endless  versions of you  and even instances where your parents  never even met  otherworldly visitors no it's not the  martians or et  the other worldly visitors that come to  earth from the deep reaches of space are  cosmic rays yes the heliosphere of  ionizing radiation shot out by the sun  does keep them at bay to an extent and  then there are earth's magnetosphere and  ozone layer that acts as a last line of  defense  but a few still get through just like a  ghost walking through a wall  these cosmic rays are high-energy  nasties that bombard the earth on the  regular  people at high altitudes such as  airplane passengers and astronauts in  orbit  cob many times the normal background  radiation  compared to those of us on the ground so  much so that special radiation  protection is a requirement for all  aircrafts and spacecrafts the biggest  losers  are electrical circuit boards and  integrated ships  often all it takes is one big energy  photon to completely crash a system  the teeth and jaws of monsters don't  worry about checking under your bed for  monsters  they're real and they're in every one of  the over 2 trillion galaxies in the  universe  you may know these ravenous beasts by  another name black holes  there could be as many as 100 million of  them in our milky way galaxy alone  at its center lurks a supermassive black  hole  with a mass 10 million times that of the  sun  a hungry colossus that sucks in  everything around it  even light matter that is unfortunate  enough to find itself being sucked  towards the one-dimensional singularity  at the heart of a black hole  becomes spaghettified stretch out to  become  infinitely high infinitely wide but with  no depth  it's thought that there may be a place  where all that digested electromagnetic  radiation and matter goes  called an einstein rosen bridge or  wormhole  but where the black hole poops out its  cosmic meal is anyone's guess  little green men tens of thousands of  claimed abductees  sell their stories to tabloid magazines  every year  but they wouldn't lie would they well  make up your own mind about those little  green men from outer space  there is a bit of a conundrum according  to the drake equation  extraterrestrial life must exist based  on sheer numbers alone  there are so many habitable earth-like  planets that it would be scientifically  negligent to not concede that it's not  only possible  but a certainty that life would spring  from organic molecules  somewhere else in the universe not only  that but there should be many many  other forms of life out there if that's  the case then  where are they the answer is distance  and time the fermi paradox alien  civilizations are likely so rare and  short-lived  that by the time communications reach  another civilization  intelligent enough to receive them  either one or both  are gone