Random Theories About the Universe That Will Keep You Up at Night (13 items)

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  (#3) Here's What Happens When You Fall into a Black Hole

  Black holes are pretty freaky things. The closer you get to the center, the more space and time become completely meaningless. It's been theorized you would be hanging in nothingness for all eternity or shredded apart into the smallest possible pieces. Either way, it's pretty certain you it won't go as well for you as it did for Matthew Mcconaughey in Interstellar.
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  (#13) There's an Equation for How Alone We Are in the Universe

  Dr. Frank Drake wanted to know how many extraterrestrial civilizations we could possibly communicate with, so in 1961 he wrote the Drake Equation, which estimates the number of civilizations with which we could possibly make contact. The equation itself has come under scrutiny for using "educated guesses" as parameters, so it's impossible to get an accurate measurement. 
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  (#8) The Universe Is So Big, We'll Never Meet Another Civilization

  There are a lot of planets out there. So many that, statistically speaking, alien life simply has to exist in one form of another. But if that's true... where they heck are they? Well, the Fermi Paradox sees that discrepancy and theorizes that it's either much harder for life to exist than we thought, or more life has existed and simply been destroyed over time. Either way, we'd be very alone. 
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  (#4) Time Is Literally Running Out

  While some scientists believe the expansion of the universe is accelerating, some theorize that distant celestial bodies only seem that way because we're looking back in time to see them (remember, it takes a while for their light to reach us). So, that means that they were moving faster in the past than they are in now... which means time is slowing down. 

  How much is it slowing down? We don't know - but if the theory is correct it may just slow to a stop. 
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  (#10) The Big Bang Came from Already-Existing Universes

  String theory says that there shouldn't be just one universe, but a whole lot of them floating out there. How was ours crafted? Well, speculation is that the Big Bang came from other universes splitting apart or crashing together. Does it make us less unique? Sure. But look on the bright side - if that's true, that means we're not as alone as we thought. 
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  (#11) The Universe Will Collapse In On Itself

  According to a paper published in the Physical Review Letters, the existence of dark energy in the universe could mean that we only have a few tens of billions of years left before the universe will collapse in on itself. Apparently, the expansion of the universe is much larger than we thought... which means eventually it'll become too big and come crashing down. Bummer. 

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