IN THE Antarctic, issues occur at a glacial tempo. Just ask Peter Gorham. For a month at a time, he and his colleagues would watch a large balloon carrying a assortment of antennas float excessive above the ice, scanning over a million sq. kilometres of the frozen panorama for proof of high-energy particles arriving from area.
When the experiment returned to the bottom after its first flight, it had nothing to indicate for itself, bar the odd flash of background noise. It was the identical story after the second flight greater than a yr later.
While the balloon was in the sky for the third time, the researchers determined to go over the previous knowledge once more, significantly these indicators dismissed as noise. It was fortunate they did. Examined extra rigorously, one sign gave the impression to be the signature of a high-energy particle. But it wasn’t what they had been on the lookout for. Moreover, it appeared unimaginable. Rather than bearing down from above, this particle was exploding out of the bottom.
That unusual discovering was made in 2016. Since then, all kinds of solutions rooted in identified physics have been put ahead to account for the perplexing sign, and all have been dominated out. What’s left is stunning in its implications. Explaining this sign requires the existence of a topsy-turvy universe created in the identical large bang as our personal and present in parallel with it. In this mirror world, optimistic is damaging, left is true and time runs backwards. It is probably probably the most mind-melting concept ever to have emerged from the Antarctic ice – however it may simply be true.
The ambitions…