This whole body of solutions of string theory has been called the landscape string theory.

Each peak in the landscape represents a different solution — a different possible universe.

With each one just as likely to exist as the next.

Most of these solutions would describe universes which are completely absurd.

The typical ones would be the ones, which came into being and either ceased to exist after a very, very short time or exploded in such a way that matter exploded apart and never formed galaxies in the first place.

The fact that our universe has existed for long enough for galaxies to form and evolve and planets to form and for life to form and us to exist tells us that we are living in a very untypical universe.

If they could find the right solution — the right one out of 1 followed by 500 zeros, we'd have a neat explanation for everything in our universe.

So the fascinating thing is the multiverse idea has been around for some time in astrophysics, but they didn't have a theoretical way of understanding it.

And then along came string theory and then the two got wedded.

Whichever way you look — whether up to the largest scale or down to the very smallest, our universe may not be alone.