The truth behind claims NASA has discovered a parallel universe next to ours

A recent report from New Scientist states that ‘strange particles’ found in an experiment in Antarctica could be evidence of a reality ‘where everything is upside down’.

I took a deep dive to find out whether we really should believe everything we see on the internet. Short answer is no. 

The plausibility of the statement has been amplified for ‘sensational reasons’ according to particle physicist Peter Gorham from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa.

What has essentially happened is a report has explained that scientists have concluded a rare event from very rare particles that defy our current understanding of physics.

We currently do not have the knowledge of parallel universes to determine definitively whether this new research is indeed a parallel universe.

There is also, according to Forbes, zero evidence to support the Daily Stars report of a ‘parallel universe, right next to ours, where all the rules of physics seem to be operating in reverse’.

Many articles have surfaced, mostly quoting each other, referring to a pay-walled post from New Scientist on April 8 that says ‘we may have spotted a parallel universe going backwards in time’ in its headline.

The article gathers a collection of information from three different scientific papers that essentially all point towards us needing to potentially consider alternative explanations behind the science.

So what is the experiment that has caused everyone to go cuckoo?

This is where it gets really science-y. The original research paper from the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA), found ‘upward pointing cosmic ray-like-events’ from its balloon-based experiment.

ANITA is a stratospheric balloon-based experiment that has a radio antennae pointed back at Earth that detects radio waves emitted by very high-energy and very rare neutrinos as they strike an atom of ice.

These ‘new’ headlines are reporting on an experiment from 2016 whereby ANITA detected some signals that were best described as ‘anomalous’ that, according to New Scientist, ‘seemed impossible’.

The article went on to state: “Explaining this signal requires the existence of a topsy-turvy universe created in the same big bang as our own and existing in parallel with it. In this mirror world, positive is negative, left is right and time runs backwards.”

There were three main hypotheses for the detections: astrophysical explanation, systematic error or physics beyond the Standard Model.

Scientists at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory tried to search for the source of those signals, ruling out ANITA’s Standard Model explanation of the anomalous neutrino events in January 2020.

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is in the South Pole and is made-up of 5,160 optical detectors buried in the ice that detect neutrinos passing through, reacting with hydrogen or oxygen atoms in the ice.

Essentially, Icecube and ANITA are detecting similar things, however IceCube is a remarkable tool to follow up ANITA. For each anomalous event ANITA detects, IceCube should detect many, many more.

In this instance, IceCube did not. The idea that these events recorded by ANITA came from some intense point source should be ruled out as the chances of ANITA seeing an event and IceCube not are very slim.

The paper concluded that: “An astrophysical explanation of these anomalous events under standard model assumptions is severely constrained regardless of source spectrum.”

This translates to us lot who are definitely not physicists as: ‘we don’t know where these signals come from’. It does not translate to: ‘they come from a parallel universe’.

A mathematician has explained the science behind this experiment in a nicely condensed Twitter thread that you can read here.

The reports of a parallel universe comes from a paper that reads: “In this scenario, the universe before the Big Bang and the universe after the Big Bang is reinterpreted as a universe/anti-universe pair that is created from nothing.”

Forbes reports the only real conclusion from this experiment is that the ‘Standard Model concerning neutrinos—fundamental particles—doesn’t explain the detection of a rare kind of event by ANITA.’

A scientist who specialises in Neutrinos and dark matter who works on IceCube Neutrino Observatory responded to the tabloid news reports of a parallel universe, clearing up that their words have been twisted in a list of tweets.

Safa writes: “NASA has discovered that y’all should not be getting your news from the new york post”.

He also states in a tweet that: “ANITA’s events are definitely interesting, but we’re a long ways away from even claiming there’s any new physics, let alone an entire universe.”

The release regarding the research paper mentions that ‘other explanations for the anomalous signals – possibly involved exotic physics – need to be considered.’

One of the leads from the paper, who has been investigating these detections for the last two years, took to Twitter to further clarify a few things. You can read the full thread here.

Essentially, Alex Pizzuto states that ANITA detected strange signals that are ‘hard (but not impossible) to remedy with our current models of physics’.

He also goes onto explain that although scientists have to come up with ways of modifying our understanding of physics, that may ‘require bizarre beyond the standard model ideas’, that there are also some ‘COMPLETELY non-exotic explanations as well’ such as astrophysics.

So while the experiments could be due to physics beyond our current understanding, a lead from the paper, Safa explained that: “it looks like we’ll have to wait for the next generation of experiments, which will increase exposure and sensitivity, to get a clear understanding of this anomaly.”