“95% of everything in the universe is unknown.” This shocking statement gives meaning to the talk of astrophysicist Miguel Ángel Sabadell in Homo Curiosus. We do not know how the universe is organized, how certain megastructures work … Even, continues Sabadell, we do not know if life is something frequent in the universe: “We do not know if we are a cosmic imperative or we are here as a fluke”. And, of course, we also do not know what the end of the cosmos is going to be like, if at all.
Regarding the unknown matter and energy of the universe (dark matter and dark energy), Sabadell explains: “Dark matter is something that we know is there because it ‘pulls’ on galaxies, but we don’t know what it is. The only thing we know is that it is not ordinary matter, as we know it. And dark energy accelerates the universe, but we don’t know what it is, or what it does there, and we don’t really understand how it works. “
With our feet more grounded on the ground, the threats that come from the sky have inspired many films, and they worry many. Sabadell also tells us about this. The last massive destruction event caused by a large meteorite took place 66 million years ago. In astronomical ages, this was “the day before yesterday.” “There is a greater chance that a ‘doomsday’ meteorite will hit Earth than it will win the lottery in the next 100 years.”
About Miguel Ángel Sabadell
Miguel Ángel Sabadell collaborates as the science editor of Muy Interesante and is director of the Albireo Cultura Científica Foundation. He is the author of 14 books, more than 300 articles and the creator of some thirty scientific dissemination projects, several of them classified as innovative practice by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology. He teaches courses in Spain and Latin America, regularly collaborates with the media and is a museum consultant. He was an advisor to the Councilor for Science, Technology and University of the Government of Aragon, responsible for scientific culture at the Astrobiology Center and one of the experts of the ESA History Project of the European Space Agency.
He has won the Prism of La Casa de las Ciencias de La Coruña three times -the most prestigious of the prizes for scientific dissemination-, the III City of Benicarló International Literary Award and the Professional Excellence Award from the Official College of Physicists.
In his intervention in Homo curiosus, Sabadell introduces us to a fabulous space exploration project: the challenge of mapping the universe. He has been accompanied by the documentary Flujos cosmicos, the cartographers of the universe.
Documentary Cosmic flows, the cartographers of the universe
An international team of astrophysicists, led by France’s Hélène Courtois, has embarked on an exploration project to map the universe. This new type of explorers, called cosmographers, managed for the first time in 2014 to map Laniakea, the supercluster of galaxies to which the Milky Way belongs, locating our direction in the cosmos with unprecedented precision. We accompany Hélène Courtois and her team in their exploration of Laniakea, a navigation through cosmic waves that revolves around the most powerful telescopes in the world.
