Mysterious gravitational waves discovered, scientists suspect they come from a parallel universe

Scientists have detected a gravitational wave signal called GW190521 that doesn't fit the conventional black hole model and proposed a bold hypothesis: it comes from a universe parallel to ours.

Currently, science has no evidence of parallel universes, but it does not confirm that they are impossible, because the universe still holds many mysteries.

According to Science Alert, in May 2019, the LIGO (US) and Virgo (Europe) gravitational wave observatories detected an event lasting less than 0.1 seconds, named GW190521. Instead of the familiar long and increasing waveform when two black holes spiral and merge, this time the signal was just a brief flash.

At that time, scientists explained this phenomenon as two black holes accidentally passing each other, falling into the same gravitational well and merging into a new black hole.

Recently, a research team led by Qi Lai (Chinese Academy of Sciences University) proposed a bolder hypothesis: GW190521 could be an echo from a parallel universe, transmitted to us through a wormhole.

Black holes and wormholes: two confusing concepts

Black holes are regions of space with such strong gravity that not even light can escape. They form when massive stars collapse.

A wormhole is a structure that only exists in physical theory, like a "tunnel" through space-time. It can connect two very far points, even two different universes.

While black holes "swallow" everything, wormholes are envisioned as "cosmic gateways". So far, there is no direct observational evidence to confirm their existence.

Why does GW190521 suggest a wormhole?

In typical black hole mergers, gravitational waves take the form of “bird chirps” that increase in amplitude as the two black holes get closer. But GW190521 lacks this phase entirely.

Qi Lai’s team hypothesized that after the two black holes merged, instead of creating a new black hole immediately, a short-lived wormhole might have formed and then quickly collapsed. This event left behind only a single burst of waves that LIGO and Virgo were able to record.

When comparing mathematical models of the two scenarios, black hole merger and wormhole collapse, the results showed that both matched the data. The black hole scenario was slightly better, but not enough to rule out the possibility of wormholes.

More recently, the largest black hole merger ever detected, GW231123, which created an object 225 times more massive than the Sun, also showed a similar short signal to GW190521. Comparing these events in the future will help scientists test the wormhole hypothesis.

Are we touching another universe?

The wormhole hypothesis opens up the tantalizing prospect that humans may have briefly “heard” echoes from a parallel universe. Confirming this requires new physical theories and richer observational data.

Researchers stress that it is too early to declare that wormholes or parallel universes actually exist. But GW190521 shows that the universe still holds many mysteries, and that sometimes just a brief flash is enough to shake current understanding.

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MINH HAI

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/phat-hien-song-hap-dan-bi-an-khoa-hoc-nghi-ngo-den-tu-vu-tru-song-song-20250929094930066.htm