This intense explosion, called a supernova, is one of the most violent events in the universe. The force of the explosion generates a blinding flash of radiation, as well as shock waves similar to sonic booms.
The collision of two supermassive black holes is the most violent event that can occur in the universe; experts explore where a black hole's energy originates and what really happens when the two most powerful objects in the cosmos clash.
Space can be a violent place. Asteroids and comets slam into planets, stars explode – or they are ripped apart by black holes. But in terms of scale, perhaps nothing is as violent as the collisions between huge clusters of galaxies.
(A light-year is the distance light travels in one year.) So that means if you could see the core of the Milky Way, you'd be observing light that possibly left Earth before humans first settled in North America. At the center of the Milky Way is one of the strangest and deadliest things in the universe: a black hole.
They keep their youthful spiral shapes, but their star formation fades over many billions of years. “We call these zombie galaxies,” Schawinski says.
Is it possible for a black hole to "eat" an entire galaxy? No. There is no way a black hole would eat an entire galaxy. The gravitational reach of supermassive black holes contained in the middle of galaxies is large, but not nearly large enough for eating the whole galaxy.
Highly Electric Hyperion. The title of weirdest moon in the solar system could go to many celestial objects — Jupiter's overly volcanic Io, Neptune's geyser-spewing Triton. But one of the strangest looking is Saturn's Hyperion, a pumice-stone-like irregular rock pockmarked with numerous craters.
We are in absolutely no danger from black holes. They're a bit like tigers – it's a bad idea to stick your head in their mouth, but you're probably not going to meet one on your way to the shops. Unlike tigers, black holes don't hunt. They're not roaming around space eating stars and planets.
Other astronauts have described it in similar yet varying ways: "burning metal," "a distinct odor of ozone, an acrid smell," "walnuts and brake pads," "gunpowder" and even "burnt almond cookie." Much like all wine connoisseurs smell something a bit different in the bottle, astronaut reports differ slightly in their " ...
The ultimate fate of an open universe is either universal heat death, a "Big Freeze" (not to be confused with heat death, despite seemingly similar name interpretation ; see §Theories about the end of the universe below), or a "Big Rip" – in particular dark energy, quintessence, and the Big Rip scenario – where the ...
Radioactive decay that takes place over trillions of years.
A dark-matter detector buried under 1500 metres of Italian mountain has recorded what is arguably the most uncommon phenomenon in the universe – the decay of a Xenon-124 atom.
An odor that is distinct and weird: something, astronauts have described it, like "seared steak." And also: "hot metal." And also: "welding fumes." Our extraterrestrial explorers are remarkably consistent in describing Space Scent in meaty-metallic terms.
A succession of astronauts have described the smell as '… a rather pleasant metallic sensation ... [like] ... sweet-smelling welding fumes', 'burning metal', 'a distinct odour of ozone, an acrid smell', 'walnuts and brake pads', 'gunpowder' and even 'burnt almond cookie'.
In 2009, astronomers were able to identify a chemical called ethyl formate in a big dust cloud at the center of the Milky Way. Ethyl formate happens to be responsible for the flavor of raspberries (it also smells like rum). Space tastes like raspberries!
The possibility that a black hole could actually impact Earth may seem straight out of science fiction, but the reality is that microscopic primordial black holes could actually hit Earth. If one did, it wouldn't just impact like an asteroid, it'd pass straight through the entire Earth and exit the other side.
Black holes are dark, dense regions in space where the pull of gravity is so strong that nothing can escape. Not even light can get out of these regions.
Almost every galaxy can be classified as a spiral, elliptical, or irregular galaxy. Only 1-in-10,000 galaxies fall into the rarest category of all: ring galaxies.
Black holes are the darkest things in our universe because they emit no light whatsoever in any wavelength.
The Red Rectangle Nebula
Throughout the Galaxy, gas clouds take on weird and wonderful forms, but one nebula in particular is baffling astronomers with its oddly geometric shape. Located in the constellation of Monoceros (The Unicorn), the Red Rectangle Nebula sits 2,300 light-years away.
Near a black hole, the slowing of time is extreme. From the viewpoint of an observer outside the black hole, time stops. For example, an object falling into the hole would appear frozen in time at the edge of the hole.
When the star gets close enough, the black hole's gravitational grasp violently rips it apart and sloppily devours its gases while belching out intense radiation. Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have recorded a star's final moments in detail as a black hole gobbled it up.
As black holes evaporate, they get smaller and smaller and their event horizons get uncomfortably close to the central singularities. In the final moments of black holes' lives, the gravity becomes too strong, and the black holes become too small, for us to properly describe them with our current knowledge.
No, they don't believe there's an end to space. However, we can only see a certain volume of all that's out there. Since the universe is 13.8 billion years old, light from a galaxy more than 13.8 billion light-years away hasn't had time to reach us yet, so we have no way of knowing such a galaxy exists.