The Universe accelerates by devouring infant worlds ✦
Our Universe may be expanding by swallowing tiny 'daughter' universes—like a large droplet absorbing smaller ones. This explains the accelerating expansion of the cosmos without mysterious dark energy. What's more, in the distant past, the expansion was even more unusual. Where do these baby universes go?
In the 1920s, Edwin Hubble noticed: distant galaxies are fleeing, the faster the farther they are — the Universe is expanding. The acceleration was attributed to dark energy. But a new model offers an alternative: our world is a cosmic predator, consuming infant universes from quantum foam. Each absorption adds volume, speeding up growth — like a predator bulks up with each prey.
This naturally explains the change in expansion rate: it shows in the reddening light of galaxies (redshift), supernova explosions, and the afterglow of the Big Bang (cosmic microwave background). The 'Hubble tension' — the discrepancy between local measurements by Adam Riess and predictions from the early Universe — is resolved. The idea isn't new: Stephen Hawking pondered quantum birth of worlds; now the model rests on quantum field theory and string theory. Gravity — mere spacetime curvature — describes motion in this feast. Even dark matter doesn't clash.
A surprising detail: calculations show mergers may occur every few seconds, each event imperceptibly stretching space.
🎯 According to calculations, right now somewhere in the depths of space our Universe is swallowing yet another microscopic world — and this happens every few seconds.
🎬 The idea echoes Isaac Asimov's novel 'The Gods Themselves,' where an interaction with another universe alters the laws of physics.