ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Nonsymmetric gravitational theory

Well, kiddo, you know about gravity, right? It's the force that pulls things down to Earth and keeps the planets in orbit around the sun. But did you know that some scientists think there might be a different way to explain gravity that doesn't work exactly the same way in all directions?

It's called nonsymmetric gravitational theory, and it's a bit like a puzzle. Imagine you have a jigsaw puzzle with pieces that are all different shapes, and you try to fit them together to make a picture. That's like what scientists are doing with gravity. They're trying to fit together a bunch of different ideas about how gravity works to make a new picture that explains things better.

In the old way of thinking about gravity, called Einstein's theory of general relativity, gravity is like a big rubber sheet that curves and twists in response to the mass of objects on it. It's a bit like a trampoline with weights on it. The more mass you put on it, the more the trampoline stretches down. But nonsymmetric gravitational theory says gravity might actually be more like a chessboard with different rules for different directions.

Imagine you're playing chess on a board where the pieces can move differently in different directions. That would be pretty confusing! But in nonsymmetric gravitational theory, it actually makes sense. It means that the force of gravity might be stronger or weaker depending on which direction you're looking from.

So why do scientists think nonsymmetric gravitational theory might be a better way to explain how gravity works? Well, there are some things that don't quite make sense in the old theory. For example, if the universe is expanding at a certain rate, then there should be a certain amount of matter in it to keep it from collapsing in on itself. But when scientists count up all the matter they can see, there doesn't seem to be enough to explain the expansion rate.

Some scientists think that maybe there's matter out there that we can't see, like dark matter or dark energy, that's making up the difference. But others think that maybe the old theory of gravity just isn't quite right, and that nonsymmetric gravitational theory might be a better fit for the puzzle pieces they have.

It's still a big mystery, and there's a lot more research to do to figure out if nonsymmetric gravitational theory is really the answer. But it's exciting to think about all the possibilities, and who knows? Maybe you'll grow up to be a scientist who helps to solve the puzzle!