‘Brahman’ is not only the ultimate reality, but also the very essence and foundation of the universe. How limitless is our universe? Are there eight or nine planets out there? If a nineth exists, can it explain our solar system? Does it have something to do with the Kuiper Belt? Is it not fascinating to understand the dynamics of the outer regions of our cosmic neighbourhood through a ‘Kuiper darshan’ and hence our universe?
Did you know that the Kuiper Belt is a fascinating place in our solar system located beyond the orbit of Neptune, the eighth planet? For a start, it is way beyond anything we know in terms of distances. Situated typically at a distance of around 30 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun, it’s often called a ‘celestial junkyard’ because it’s home to a vast population of small, icy objects, including dwarf planets, asteroids, and comets, preserving clues about the conditions and materials present during the formation of the solar system over 4.5 billion years ago. Incidentally, one AU is the average distance from Earth to the Sun, or about 150 million km. The Aditya L1 will be going as close as 1.5 million km. Miles to go before I sleep like Robert Frost said.
The universe itself is a vast and incomprehensibly large expanse of space that contains everything that exists, including all matter, energy, galaxies, stars, planets, and even the empty spaces between them. ‘anantam vaasudevam cha sarvam satyaparaatparam, sukhadam duḥkhadam dvandvaateetam gagana-sadṛssam’ It is the limitless ‘Vasudeva’, who is the ultimate truth, the source of happiness and sorrow, beyond dualities, that I worship. Kuiper is that limitlessness of the ‘Brahmand’ or the universe.
Kuiper is a treasure trove of the early solar system and can provide valuable insights into its formation and evolution. The nineth planet, Pluto was discovered in 1930 as existing in the Kuiper Belt, though its status as a planet is disputed to this day for, it is technically a dwarf planet. Halley’s Comet is another that originated in the Kuiper.
Human spirit is indomitable. Typically, in 2015, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft made a historic flyby Pluto and its complex geology, providing the first close-up images and data of that distant dwarf planet. Future missions, like the proposed ‘New Horizons 2’ mission, will be even more daring in deciphering the enigma of the universe.
If Kuiper is fascinating, our universe is even more fascinating. For a start, it is unimaginably vast and extends in all directions without end. Its observable size is estimated to be about 93 billion light-years in diameter, but it may be even larger. A light-year is the distance that light travels in one year, approximately 9.5 trillion km. For Science, ‘galaxies’ are a mix of stars, gas, dust, and dark matter bound together by gravity. Incidentally, our own ‘Milky Way’ galaxy is one of billions of galaxies in the observable universe.
There are other mysterious substances in the universe, known as dark matter and dark energy. ‘Dark Matter’ does not emit or interact with light but exerts gravitational influence, while ‘Dark Energy’ is responsible for the acceleration of the universe’s or cosmic expansion. These substances make up the majority of the universe’s mass and energy content. Black holes are even more mysterious and extreme objects in the universe. Current science virtually has no answers to their nature or the singularity at their core.
The Universe is certainly expanding though its ultimate fate is uncertain. Will it continue to expand indefinitely, or will it eventually collapse in a “Big Crunch,” or will something else entirely happen, no-one knows. But the human mind will continue to pursue the secrets of the universe. This essence is so succinctly captured in the shloka,
‘Brahmaaṇḍam brahmaṇo brahmaiva sarvam. aatmaanam cha jagad-yonau sthitam yaḥ, sa yogii yoganija-yoga-vittamaḥ, sarva-kriyaa-kriyaa vissuddhatmaa’ ‘The universe is Brahman, and Brahman alone is everything. The one who realizes the Self as the foundation of the universe and as the essence of all existence is a true yogi, and possesses a pure soul free from all actions’
There are many profound questions and mysteries that scientists are actively researching and trying to solve. The “biggest secret” of the universe may be something we haven’t even discovered yet. Our pursuit of knowledge will however, continue to drive scientific exploration and discovery.