If you’ve been scrolling through social media recently, you may have come across the sensational claim that NASA has discovered a parallel universe in Antarctica.

This parallel universe is said to have formed alongside ours during the Big Bang and would run in reverse from our perspective.

But is there any truth to these claims? Has NASA really found a double universe where time flows backwards?

NASA has found a parallel universe

Let’s get this straight: NASA has not found a parallel universe. The claims circulating on social media are not based on new scientific knowledge, but rather a distorted interpretation of older research.

The origins of this controversy date back to 2020, when researchers working with the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) experiment discovered the unusual behavior of neutrinos – small, nearly massless particles that rarely interact with matter.

ANITA’s findings were truly puzzling, prompting scientists to theorize about potential explanations. One such hypothesis, published in a paper in response to the findings, proposed the possibility of a “symmetric CPT universe” where time could flow in the opposite direction to our own.

“In this scenario, the pre-Big Bang universe and the post-Big Bang universe are reinterpreted as a universe/antiverse pair that is created out of thin air,” the paper’s authors wrote.

The findings were originally covered The new scientist in a piece titled “We May Have Seen a Parallel Universe Going Back in Time.”

From there, the Internet took off. Stories appearing in Daily Star, New York Post and other sources began to claim with alarming certainty that this was evidence of a parallel universe.

However, these papers missed a crucial fact: the ANITA results required further investigation and provided no conclusive evidence for any such universe.

At the time, Alex Pizzuto, a researcher involved in analyzing the ANITA detections, took to social media to refute the claims.

“ANITA, the detector flying in Antarctica, has detected some strange signals. These signals are hard (but not impossible) to correct with our current physics models,” Pizzuto wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

“Scientists are trying to figure out ways to adjust our understanding of the physics to make these detections more plausible. SOME of them require outlandish beyond standard model ideas like the one in the news. But there are some COMPLETELY non-exotic explanations, e.g. well.”

It’s not clear why these claims have now resurfaced, other than an odd quirk of internet hype commemorating what got this ball rolling in the first place.

How many universes are there?

So how many universes are there? We can only confirm this one for now.

Even though no evidence of a parallel universe has been found, that doesn’t mean the idea is off the table. Several scientific theories, such as cosmic inflation, suggest the possibility of a multiverse—a collection of universes, including our own.

These universes may have different physical laws, histories, or even entirely unique realities.

However, science is based on evidence. There is currently no empirical data to support these theories, but that hasn’t stopped physicists from exploring them as fascinating possibilities.

What is a parallel universe?

A parallel universe, often referred to as an alternate universe or multiverse, is a theoretical concept suggesting the existence of multiple universes alongside our own.

These universes may differ in fundamental ways—for example, they have alternative laws of physics.

While this idea captures our imagination and inspires everything from scientific inquiry to popular science fiction, it remains a theoretical construct until evidence says otherwise.

Reference

Gorham, PW, Nam, J., Romero-Wolf, A., Hoover, S., Allison, P., Banerjee, O., Beatty, JJ, Belov, K., Besson, DZ, Binns, WR, Bugaev, V., Cao, P., Chen, C., Chen, P., Clem, JM, Connolly, A., Dailey, B., Deaconu, C., Cremonesi, L., . . . Wu, F. (2016). Characteristics of four upward cosmic ray-like events observed with ANITA. Physical inspection letters, 117(7). https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.117.071101

Anchordoqui, LA, Barger, V., Learned, JG, Marfatia, D., & Weiler, TJ (2018). ANITA upcoming events as proof of CPT’s symmetric universe. Letters in High Energy Physics, 1(1), 13–16. https://doi.org/10.31526/LHEP.1.2018.03