A government official confirms the scariest thing in 'Stranger Things' may actually be real

While viewers the world over have fallen in love with Netflix's original sci-fi series "Stranger Things," there's some comfort in the fact that the eerie story is fiction. But what if one of the scariest aspects of the show were real?

On Wednesday's episode of "Chelsea," host Chelsea Handler had United States Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz on to discuss the very real threat of climate change. But the host also had something else she wanted to ask the high-ranking government official about the streaming giant's hit.

"On ['Stranger Things'], they have a department of energy and they spend a lot of time investigating a parallel universe. What can you tell us about that?" Handler asked, referring to the Upside Down that some of the characters occupy in "Stranger Things."

"I can tell you first of all that I have never seen it, but I'm aware of it," Moniz said. "Secondly, I believe this fictional D.O.E. laboratory was operating in the 1980s. You can draw any inference you need from that. Third, I will note that actually we do work in parallel universes."

Now we weren't expecting him to confirm that. But Moniz went into a little more detail about how the real US Department of Energy oversees such efforts.

"We are also a big supporter of very basic science and that includes trying to understand the basic particles of nature and the structure of the universe," he said. "Theoretical physics ... looks at things like higher dimensions than three dimensions, and parallel universes."

As we previously learned from a theorical physicist, it looks like the science in "Stranger Things" isn't such a crazy work of fiction after all.

Watch the "Chelsea" interview below: