r/universe

Former Harvard physics professor and science communicator Dr. Michael Guillén has sparked controversy with a bold new claim.According to Guillén, Heaven may physically exist beyond the observable universe’s boundary the cosmic horizon at an unimaginable distance of approximately 273 billion trillion miles (about 439 billion trillion kilometers) from Earth.

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The Theory:

Drawing on Edwin Hubble’s discovery of the expanding universe (Hubble’s Law) and Einstein’s theory of relativity, Guillén argues that at the cosmic horizon, galaxies are moving away from us at nearly the speed of light (186,000 miles per second). This makes reaching that boundary physically impossible.He suggests that at this horizon, time effectively stops while space continues to exist, potentially hosting “light-like beings.” Guillén connects these properties with Biblical descriptions of Heaven: unreachable, timeless, and the dwelling place of God.He presented this idea in a January 2026 Fox News article.Dr. Guillén holds PhDs in physics, mathematics, and astronomy, taught at Harvard, and served as ABC News’ science editor for many years.

Scientific CriticismMany scientists dismiss this interpretation as metaphysical speculation rather than science. They point out that the cosmic horizon is not a physical “place” but simply the limit of what we can observe due to the age of the universe and the speed of light. Beyond it, ordinary galaxies and space are believed to continue.What do you think? Is this a creative attempt to reconcile science and faith, or is it an overreach?

Source:
Dr. Michael Guillén – Fox News Op-Ed (January 2026): “Is heaven real? Science may reveal where God’s eternal kingdom exists”

Humans can move an object from one hand to another in just a few seconds.

Now imagine a being so huge that one hand is in one galaxy and the other in another galaxy.

Would it also take just a few seconds for that being to move an object between its hands from its own perspective?

If yes, then wouldn’t the object, or even signals inside its body, have to travel faster than light?

So I’ve been reading through the Cassini mission data for the past few weeks, and there’s one detail that genuinely keeps me up at night.

Enceladus is smaller than the UK. It’s so far from the Sun that, by every model we had, it should be a completely frozen, dead rock. Nothing should be happening there.

But it has geysers. Active ones. Shooting water 400 km into space from cracks at its south pole. And in 2005, Cassini flew directly through one of those geysers.

It basically flew through an alien ocean.

What it found inside was extraordinary: molecular hydrogen — which on Earth comes from hydrothermal vents reacting with rock — silica nanoparticles, which only form when water above 90°C mixes with colder water, meaning there are hot vents on the ocean floor, and in 2018, scientists detected complex organic molecules: ring-shaped carbon compounds, precursors to amino acids.

Liquid water. A rocky seafloor. Hydrothermal vents. Organic molecules. Chemical energy.

Those aren’t just conditions similar to where life started on Earth. Those are the conditions where life started on Earth.

And Enceladus may have had them for billions of years.

The part that really gets me is what happens when Europa Clipper arrives at Jupiter in 2030 with an instrument suite remarkably similar to Cassini’s. If Europa’s plumes show the same chemical signatures…

That’s two separate oceans. Two separate data points. In the same solar system.

I don’t know what that means statistically, but it feels enormous.

Anyone else think about this a lot?

And genuinely curious — if microbial life gets confirmed on Enceladus, does that make the Fermi Paradox better or worse for you?

Since we have these huge telescopes and can look back in time even see the cosmic background radiation why don’t we see where the universe started?

Any explosion has a center. Even atomic bombs in space expand outward in a sphere. So why do scientists say the universe is “flat”?

Is it flat like a sheet (---) but so enormous that it looks round to us because we can see stars in every direction out to about 13 billion light years away?

And also, any explosion fades at the edges — there’s usually less material at the outer edge than near the center. Couldn’t we just find where matter is densest and assume that’s the center of the universe?

Imagine you were inside an atomic bomb explosion in space about one minute after it exploded. If you looked around, you could probably tell where the explosion started, because the center would still be hotter and denser than the outer regions. The explosion would look spherical, not flat.

And then there’s the question that seems to make astrophysicists mad:
what is the universe expanding into?

If the singularity started somewhere, then wasn’t there already something outside it? Or not?

I don’t understand why scientists don’t try harder to solve or explain this.

Would an extremely powerful telescope for example, one placed on the dark side of the Moon be able to look back so far that it eventually sees just nothing?

And have we already observed stars or galaxies at the edge of the observable universe fading away because they moved so far that their light can no longer reach us?

Shouldn’t this be happening constantly in deep field images? Could a long series of deep space images, like a GIF over time, eventually show a galaxy disappearing?

I thought up a theory of the universe a few days ago and I wanted to know how realistic it actually would be and where there would be like issues or gaps in the theory.

Here's the key details:
1 - Singularity begins the universe and it starts in a 0D state

2 - The singularity has infinite potential to become anything since it is infinitely small meaning that 1 gram of hydrogen for example is defined as infinite potential within that singularity because 1 / (1/infinity) = infinity

3 - Time defined as a measurement of change after the singularity

4 - The singularity didn't physically explode but rather we are inside it

5 - Spacetime and quantum mechanics were the first forms of potential created and the co-created the rest of the universe including matter and etc.

My theory is likely similar to other theories because of the fact I am just using the knowledge on other theories and thinking in one of multiple logical ways whether it be correct or not. The 5th point is the most important as I attempted to solve the issue between GR and Quantum mechanics but I don't even know if I actually have because I am still trying to understand the theories behind them.

Try and find as many mistakes as you can as i can guarantee there probably is. Also, mention if there are any parts of the theory that don't make complete sense and I'll try to explain it.

Edit: This isn't a theory I am proposing I am just trying to understand these ideas further through trial and error as well as using the concepts that I am trying to understand.

What is that one thing which you found out about the laws of physics or how universe behaves that has left you startled?

Does anyone else find these things to be absolutely terrifying? As bad as the world can be, you think at least i know where i stand in terms of reality. Certain things can't change or happen. Then you learn some weird thing gets grandfathered in, and you wonder what other rules can be broken. As if it's not enough to handle the fact we live on a tiny orb in an incomprensively vast space which will die out and leave nothing in the way of evidence of us. The only thing that keeps me going mentally is the idea that consciousness is above all of it.

If life on Earth began 3.8 billion years ago, and inevitable changes to our Sun end all life on Earth in 600 million years, that means we are 86% percent along in the total span of life on Earth. Just 14% left on the timeline! Thoughts?

Hi there- I am wracking my head trying to figure out something that is probably astrotomically impossible, but would love to somehow make it work for a story I am writing. I love the idea of the night sky specifically altering in color based on the prominence of two celestial bodies, one red and one purple. Ideally i'd love to have parts of the year where one is more prominent than the other and vice versa, as well as times where their orbits are more similar, and the light from them mix together, perhaps even causing eclipses. I also love the idea of a calendar system based around different points in their orbital patterns (holidays denoted by a predominantly red sky or purple sky, colorless or an equal mix).

I've been playing around with rotation patterns for hours and just can't seem to make it work. The biggest issue is that I want it to happen at night so in my head they act as moons but then they wouldn't produce their own light. I also tried rotating them around a star in order to produce that effect but I don't know if that would work either. In the end I would love to have the image of one or multiple moons in the sky depending on the time of year and a shifting color. If anyone has an idea on how this could math out even slightly I would be so appreciative. Thanks yall.

If Earth isn't the boss of the universe, then where is everyone? Scientists call this the Fermi Paradox — the contradiction between the high chance of alien life and the complete lack of contact.

Here are the most likely reasons no one has contacted Earth yet:

1. We're too far away
   The nearest star is over 4 light-years away. Even at light speed, a round-trip message would take 8 years. With current tech, we couldn't reach another star in tens of thousands of years.
2. They don't know we exist
   Our first radio signals have only traveled about 100 light-years — a tiny bubble in a galaxy 100,000 light-years wide. Aliens just might not have seen us yet.
3. We're not interesting enough
   Advanced civilizations might ignore planets without obvious technology, industry, or signs of intelligence. For most of Earth's history, they'd see only dinosaurs or bacteria.
4. The "Zoo Hypothesis"
   Maybe they know we're here but deliberately avoid contact — like scientists observing an animal reserve without interfering.
5. We're early or late
   Civilizations might be so rare in time that ours doesn't overlap with any others. Or maybe most life destroys itself (or gets destroyed) before becoming interstellar.
6. We're looking wrong
   We assume aliens use radio or light signals. They might communicate in ways we can't detect — neutrinos, gravity waves, or something beyond our physics.

Is it just me or does anyone else also think that our reality is just a high sophisticated computer simulation created and being observed by advanced extra terrestrial beings? As if our universe is just a high pixel computer screen for other advanced personages.

Please let me know about your opinions on this theory.