What if the Big Bang—the cosmic event that birthed our Universe—wasn’t the beginning at all?
For decades, physicists have struggled with the idea that the Universe emerged from a singularity—a point of infinite density where the known laws of physics break down.
But here’s something most people don’t consider: there’s another place in the Universe where singularities exist.
Black holes.
And according to a fascinating hypothesis first proposed in 2014 by physicists at the Perimeter Institute and the University of Waterloo, the two might be connected in a way that rewrites everything we think we know.
Mathematically speaking, it’s possible that our entire Universe exists as the three-dimensional “wrapping” around the event horizon of a black hole in a higher-dimensional space.
It sounds outrageous—but here’s the kicker: no one has been able to disprove it.
The Problem With the Big Bang Theory
For nearly a century, the Big Bang theory has been the best explanation for the origins of our Universe.
According to this model:
- Around 13.8 billion years ago, the Universe emerged from a singularity—an incredibly hot, dense, and energetic point where all of space-time was compressed.
- It then underwent a rapid period of inflation, expanding at an unimaginable rate.
- Over time, it cooled, allowing matter to form, stars to ignite, and galaxies to take shape.
But here’s the problem: we don’t actually know what happened at the singularity.
The laws of physics completely break down under such extreme conditions.
- Quantum mechanics, which governs the behavior of particles, doesn’t explain it.
- General relativity, which describes space-time and gravity, also fails.
Despite our best efforts, we can’t see past the singularity to figure out what triggered the birth of our Universe.
However, there’s one other place where the laws of physics seem to fail in a similar way—inside black holes.
What We Know
Black holes are cosmic objects so massive that their gravity warps space and time to an extreme degree.
Anything that crosses the event horizon—the invisible boundary around a black hole—can never escape.
Key facts about black holes:
- They are formed when massive stars collapse under their own gravity.
- In our three-dimensional universe, black holes create two-dimensional event horizons—a boundary where light and matter are trapped.
- At their cores, black holes contain a singularity—a point where matter is infinitely compressed, just like the one at the Big Bang.
This raises a wild question: what if our Universe was born from the singularity of a black hole?
A Universe Inside a Black Hole? The Radical Idea That Makes Sense
Physicist Ethan Siegel explains that, from a mathematical perspective, there’s no reason why our Big Bang couldn’t have been the result of a star collapsing into a black hole in a four-dimensional universe.
This idea, first introduced in 2014, suggests:
- In a four-dimensional universe, collapsing stars would form three-dimensional event horizons—just as stars in our universe form two-dimensional black holes.
- Our Universe could be the three-dimensional “surface” of one such event horizon, existing inside a black hole in a larger, higher-dimensional reality.
It might sound absurd, but the math checks out.
What If We’ve Been Thinking About Black Holes All Wrong?
Most people assume that when something falls into a black hole, it’s crushed into oblivion. But what if that’s not what happens?
Consider this:
- We know that black holes expand as they consume matter.
- The event horizon grows larger as more material falls in.
- The expansion rate slows down over time.
Now, compare this to what happened after the Big Bang:
- The Universe expanded rapidly at first.
- Over time, the expansion slowed down as matter spread out.
See the similarity?
If our Universe is actually the event horizon of a black hole in another reality, then:
- The Big Bang wasn’t the beginning, but rather the formation of an event horizon in a larger universe.
- The reason we can’t see beyond the Big Bang is because we’re inside this cosmic boundary.
And here’s the biggest twist—if this is true, then black holes in our universe might be creating new universes, too.
The Science Behind the Hypothesis
One of the key pieces of supporting evidence for this idea is that, while we can’t describe what happens inside a black hole’s singularity, we can calculate what happens along its event horizon.
Siegel explains:
“As the black hole first formed, from a star’s core imploding and collapsing, the event horizon first came to be, then rapidly expanded and continued to grow in area as more and more matter continued to fall in.”
If we map the expansion of an event horizon and compare it to our Universe’s expansion, the similarities are striking.
This supports the idea that our Universe could be the outer shell of a higher-dimensional black hole—one whose singularity we mistakenly call the Big Bang.
What Would This Mean for the Universe?
If this hypothesis is true, it raises some mind-blowing possibilities:
1. Our Universe Has a Parent Universe
- If our Big Bang was really the birth of a black hole in another universe, then that parent universe still exists.
- This suggests a much larger, possibly infinite multiverse.
2. Black Holes Might Be Birthing New Universes
- Every time a black hole forms, it could create a new universe inside it.
- This means our Universe could be just one of many created by a never-ending cycle of cosmic birth and destruction.
3. The Big Bang Wasn’t the Beginning
- If the Universe emerged from a black hole, then time didn’t start at the Big Bang—it simply marked a new phase in an ongoing cosmic process.
Can We Prove It? The Search for a Theory of Everything
The biggest problem with this idea? We still lack a complete theory of quantum gravity—the missing piece that could unite:
- Quantum mechanics (the rules for small things like atoms).
- General relativity (the rules for big things like stars and black holes).
Until we have a “theory of everything,” we can’t test whether black holes truly birth new universes.
But if we ever figure it out, we might redefine the very nature of reality—proving that we are, in fact, living inside a cosmic event horizon.
A Universe Born from a Black Hole? It’s Possible.
At first glance, the idea that our Universe was born from a black hole in a higher-dimensional reality sounds like science fiction.
But when you break it down mathematically, it starts to make sense.
- The Big Bang and black holes share key characteristics.
- The expansion of the Universe mirrors the growth of an event horizon.
- The laws of physics break down in the same way at both singularities.
And the most exciting part? If this is true, then our Universe might not be alone.
Instead, we could be part of a never-ending cycle of universes, each born inside a black hole.
So, what do you think? Could our entire existence be the byproduct of a cosmic collapse in a higher dimension? Let’s discuss.