green-eyed, I looked upon the picture of 5-year-old me, my covetous wit envies the smile draped all over her face. I adore how her eyes close as she grins with exhilaration. Her eyes twinkle as if someone had plucked the stars and held them within her.

Those eyes are not heavy; her gaze does not hide any tears.

She clenches her wrist to keep all that happiness within her.

A smile pleats her in every picture as she hugs her father tight, knowing within his arms, the ache and hardships of the world could not lay a finger on her.

Yet, there exists no picture of her mother holding her up in her arms, promising to give in all the love she could share; perhaps it has never happened,

Perhaps it never will happen.

1. Planetary-Mass Microlensing (Galactic Bulge): Observations suggest microlensing events toward the Galactic bulge generated by planetary-mass objects, accounting for approximately 1% of the dark matter density—a value significantly higher than expectations for free-floating planets.

2. Quasar Microlensing Misalignment: Quasar microlensing has been observed in configurations where the lenses are so misaligned with the lensing galaxy that the probability of a stellar lens is statistically negligible.

3. The 2–5 M⊙​ Mass Gap: An unexpected abundance of microlensing events toward the Galactic bulge is caused by dark objects in the 2–5 solar mass (M⊙​) range, a gap where standard stellar evolution typically fails to produce black holes.

4. X-ray/Infrared Background Correlations: Unexplained spatial correlations exist between the source-subtracted X-ray background and cosmic infrared background fluctuations, suggesting a common underlying source.

5. Ultrafaint Dwarf Galaxy Critical Radii: Standard dark matter models do not account for the non-observation of ultrafaint dwarf galaxies below specific critical radii.

6. High-Redshift Galaxy Tensions (z>10): Recent detections of galaxies at redshifts above z=10 (extending potentially to z≈18) represent an increasing tension with standard hierarchical structure formation in particle dark matter cosmologies.

7. Supernova Population Distributions: Recent observations indicate a supernova population that tracks the expected distribution of dark matter/white dwarf interactions rather than stellar density.

8. LIGO/Virgo Merger Rate/Spin Anomalies: The mass, spin, and coalescence rates of black hole mergers, including events within the lower and upper mass gaps, are difficult to reconcile with purely stellar progenitors.

9. Galaxy/Central Black Hole Mass Relationship: The consistent relationship between the mass of a galaxy and its central supermassive black hole remains unexplained in standard models.

I was four, or perhaps five, when I used to sit on the terrace, gazing upon the night sky, my eyes landing upon the twinkling stars; from here, they look very small, very insignificant, but I wonder if they, too, look down on me, thinking the same. I stand here, under this vast universe, I realise how insignificant and tiny humans are, and I, in particular, am.

My problems, my thoughts, my worries—they shrink against the scale of it all. So, in the late of night, I ask the universe if it keeps a place amongst the stars for me, hoping it reaches a place where an answer remains. I ask it frequently, yet it remains still, but this quiescence hides an answer in itself, like it’s telling me to earn that place myself.

I stood there in a cosmic reverie, trying to understand the vastness of this universe; how it keeps changing, never staying still long enough to be fully known. It doesn't wait for anyone, ever-changing, it remains there, yet never the same. That’s when I realised that I am the universe trying to understand itself in another form. There’s a universe in my bones, star dust in my soul, I’m the cosmic child.

And so, I will not wait for answers to arrive in silence.

I will search. I will learn. I will reach.

So let me take a broad leap towards the end of the universe, for to know yourself is to know the universe.