Sometimeswhen I'm on a longplaneflight, I gazeoutatallthosemountainsanddesertsandtrytogetmyheadaroundhowvastourEarthis.
Andthen I rememberthatthere's anobjectweseeeverydaythatwouldliterallyfitonemillionEarthsinsideit: thesun. Itseemsimpossiblybig.
Butinthegreatschemeofthings, it's a pinprick, oneofabout 400 billionstarsintheMilkyWaygalaxy, whichyoucanseeon a clearnightas a palewhitemiststretchedacrossthesky.
Theymakeup a single, giantedificeobeyingthesamephysicallawsandallmadefromthesametypesofatoms --electrons, protons, quarks, neutrinos -- thatmakeupyouandme.
However, recenttheoriesinphysics, includingonecalledstringtheory, arenowtellingustherecouldbecountlessotheruniversesbuiltondifferenttypesofparticles, withdifferentproperties, obeyingdifferentlaws.
Mostoftheseuniversescouldneversupportlife, andmightflashinandoutofexistencein a nanosecond.
Butnonetheless, combinedtheymakeup a vastmultiverseofpossibleuniversesinupto 11 dimensions, featuringwondersbeyondourwildestimagination.
Theleadingversionofstringtheorypredicts a multiversemadeupof 10 tothe 500 universes.
That's a onefollowedby 500 zeroes!
A numbersovastthatifeveryatominourobservableuniversehaditsownuniverse.
Andalloftheatomsinallthoseuniverseseachhadtheirownuniverse, andyourepeatedthatfortwomorecycles, you'd stillbeat a tinyfractionofthetotal.