Has NASA Found A Parallel Universe ‘Where Time Flows Backwards’? The Truth Behind The Headlines
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No, NASA has not found a “parallel Universe”.
Note: this article has been updated to include details of the research paper that discusses the “CPT symmetric universe” where time would run backwards from the Big Bang.
The internet has done it again. Today it abounds with stories from tabloids like the New York Post, Express and the Daily Star—mostly quoting each other—that major on claims that NASA scientists have evidence that could prove the existence of parallel universes.
It’s all way overblown and misrepresents what the research in question is about. Scientists actually found evidence (signals) of fundamental particles that may defy our current understanding of physics. It might even just be an issue with how particles interact with ice.
To be clear, there is zero evidence of what the Daily Star says is “a parallel universe, right next to ours, where all the rules of physics seem to be operating in reverse.”
The many, many articles now online appear to be rooted in a six-week old story published by the New Scientist in which the admittedly alarming headline—We may have spotted a parallel universe going backwards in time—is backed-up by a well-written and thought-provoking article about some puzzling results from studies conducted in Antarctica of cosmic rays (high energy charged particles) arriving from outside Earth’s atmosphere. Along with some far-out “what if” musings about the hard-to-explain origins of these particles. Cue the parallel universe chat.