3 of the greatest mysteries that science still hasn't managed to explain

Why is the sky blue? How do the northern lights form? These are just some of the questions to which science has provided precise, objective and verifiable answers. Every day, new discoveries and advances help us to better understand the world around us. And yet, there are still some grey areas. And we're not talking about questions asked by professional scientists, but by ordinary mortals. Here are the 3 greatest unsolved mysteries of the universe.

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Are we alone in the Universe?

A classic among classics. An issue that unleashes the passions of governments, the scientific community and the general public. Every day brings its share of stories, mixing hope, conspiracy and fear, about encounters of the third kind. For some, flying saucers and aliens populate the far reaches of our Universe, for others it's poppycock. And where does science stand in all this? It still has no rational answer. Oxygen, but above all liquid water, considered a prerequisite for life as we know it on Earth, are found throughout the Universe. In our Solar System (Europa satellite, Enceladus satellite), but also in more distant zones, such as around the star PDS70, 400 light-years from Earth. Water yes, other traces of life no. Sounds in space, Fermi's paradox, Drake's and Seager's equations - attempts at explanations in either direction abound, but there's nothing concrete, leaving the scientific community and the world without a consensus.

Avi Loeb, a Harvard astrophysicist, says that material recovered from the seafloor could be from an extraterrestrial spacecraft. But his peers see the announcement as the latest example of him making an outlandish declaration that is too strong and hasty. https://t.co/6CxRaWiCMw
— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 24, 2023

What happens after death?

Human beings may live longer than ever before, but the Fountain of Life has still not been found, and without it, one certainty persists: each and every one of us will experience death. Scientists are only just beginning to shed more light on the feelings and physiological mechanisms at the moment of death, but what about afterwards? Experts are able to document the stages through which the body goes into decomposition, but can't say with any certainty what happens afterwards. Does the soul disappear at the same time as the physical body? Is this the beginning of a new life form? Nobody knows...

What was there before the Big Bang?

The Big Bang. The creation of the Universe from a singularity; a point of infinite density and inscrutable heat. But what was before this singularity? Prior to the Big Bang there was no space and time, absolutely nothing. But what is nothing? A profound, mind-boggling question. pic.twitter.com/xHbFryIxlP
— Exo-Earth (@Exo_Earth1) July 22, 2023

The Big Bang corresponds to the moment of expansion of our Universe. A Universe so vast, in fact, that to date, we've only explored a tiny fraction of it. The Big Bang is also when physics began, with the appearance of the first long-lived particles of matter (protons and neutrons). Before that, they didn't exist. So what was there instead? A 'before' that our current knowledge doesn't allow us to materialize. So it's a case of the snake biting its own tail. Some theories, stemming from quantum physics, attempt to fill this gap, but to date they remain only at the stage of speculation and cannot be validated. The mystery remains.

This article has been translated from Gentside FR.