Scientists theorise that the universe could actually be ‘pixelated’


There's so much we don't know about our universe. It wasn’t until last month that we finally explored The Sun. Scientists are always coming up with new theories, the latest claiming that the universe is pixelated.

Scientists and the Pixelated Universe

Physics scientist Rana Adhikari, a professor at Caltech, believes that the construction of the universe could be made up of little squares. Just like a digital image, Adhikari believes that spacetime is built with an unfathomable number of pixels.

Adhikari claims that spacetime pixels would be more than miniscule. They claimed: “a spacetime pixel is so small that if you were to enlarge things so that it becomes the size of a grain of sand, then atoms would be as large as galaxies.”

Pixelated spacetime is a theory tied to quantum gravity, a collective of theories that connect every force to known gravity. These theories include quantum mechanics such as string theory; ideas far too complex for us to explain thoroughly.

For example, scientists are trying to discover whether or not the forces of gravity can be split. Just like how light is split into different wavelengths, could be the forces of gravity be split into individual pixels? Or would gravity take on a different shape?

Read More: Simulation Theory: What is Simulation Theory?

Is spacetime pixelated? Is there any proof?

Adhikari's comments are all theory, at least until they're found proven or unproven. The pixelated makeup of gravitational forces is just one take on a mystery that has been stumping the world's greatest minds for decades.

The scientist admits that this is all part of discovering what exactly gravity is. He says, “It may be that something that arises out of the pixelation of spacetime has just been given the name gravity because we don’t yet understand what the guts of spacetime are.”

Of course, using the term “pixelated” immediately strikes as bizarre. Pixels are associated with digital images, videos, video games. Unless... we're in a video game! Oh no, the simulation is breaking down!

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