At Newsweek last Monday science writer Tom Howarth threw cold water last week on the idea that NASA had discovered a parallel universe:

Let’s set the record straight: NASA has not found a parallel universe. The claims making the rounds on social media are not based on new scientific findings but are instead 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 detected unusual behavior in neutrinos—tiny, nearly massless particles that rarely interact with matter.

The ANITA findings were indeed perplexing and prompted scientists to theorize potential explanations. One such hypothesis, published in a paper in response to the findings, suggested the possibility of a “CPT symmetric universe,” where time might flow in the opposite direction to ours.

“Why Do People Think NASA Has Discovered a ‘Parallel Universe’?,” December 23, 2024

The open access paper interpreted this as “a universe/anti-universe pair that is created from nothing.” The sci-fi possibilities are endless.

But Howarth comments: “However, these articles glossed over the crucial fact: the ANITA results required further investigation and provided no conclusive evidence for any such universe.”

The trouble is, whether we are talking about parallel universes, a multiverse, or ET, they will all always be Out There, willed into existence by the power of belief.

We can’t and wouldn’t try to tell you that They are not out there. Or that there could not be a parallel universe. All we would say is that, in this case, the strength of belief is unrelated to the existence — or otherwise — of hard evidence.