Journey Through The Cosmos

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Black Hole

A black hole is a region of space in which the gravitational field is so powerful that nothing, including light, can escape its pull. The black hole has a one-way surface, called the event horizon, into which objects can fall, but out of which nothing can come out. It is called "black" because it absorbs all the light that hits it.

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Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation

Cosmic microwave background radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation filling the universe. With a traditional optical telescope, the space between stars and galaxies (the background) is pitch black. But with a radio telescope, there is a faint background glow, almost exactly the same in all directions, that is not associated with any star, galaxy, or other object. This glow is strongest in the microwave region of the radio spectrum, hence the name.

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Galactic Collison

Interacting galaxies (Colliding galaxies) are the result of one galaxy's gravity disturbing another galaxy. Astronomers have estimated that our galaxy, the Milky Way, will collide with the Andromeda galaxy in about 2 to 3 billion years.

Below are the Antennae Galaxies the nuclei of which are colliding & merging to form one giant galaxy.

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Gamma Ray Burst

A Gamma Ray Burst is the most powerful explosion in the Universe. The ultra-violent death cry of a massive star as it collapses in on itself and spews matter & energy outwards in twin beams at the speed of light.

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Nebula

A nebula is an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen gas and plasma. Nebulae often form star-forming regions. The 3 images below show the Crab Nebula, the famous 'Pillars of Creation', part of the Eagle Nebula, and NGC 604 part of the Triangulum Constellation.

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Neutron Star

A Neutron Star is the exotic remnant of a supernova that was too small to form a black hole. Instead, the leftover gas and dust compacts into a glowing, incredibly dense body only a few miles wide and consisting almost entirely of neutrons. It is so incredibly dense that just a single teaspoon of its material would weigh 100 million metric tons.

The image below is an artist's impression of an explosion that orginated from the surface of SGR 1806-20 in 2004. The explosion released more energy in 1/10th of second than our sun has released in the past 100,000 years. The burst was so powerful that it had effects on Earth's atmosphere at a range of over 50,000 light years.

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Pulsar

Pulsars are highly magnetized, rotating neutron stars that emit a beam of electromagnetic radiation. The fastest spinning Pulsar is PSR J1748-2446ad that is spinning at a rate of 716 times a second.

The Crab Pulsar which is the central star of the Crab Nebula.

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Red Dwarf

A red dwarf star is a small and relatively cool star of the main sequence. They constitute the vast majority of stars and are very low mass with no more than 40% of the mass of the Sun. Consequently they have relatively low temperatures in their cores and energy is generated at a slow rate through nuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium. These stars emit little light, even the largest red dwarf has only about 10% of the Sun's luminosity.

Artist's impression a red dwarf.

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Solar Flare

A solar flare is a violent explosion in a star's (like the Sun's) atmosphere. Solar flares affect all layers of the solar atmosphere (photosphere, corona, and chromosphere), heating plasma to tens of million Kelvin and accelerating electrons, protons and heavier ions to near the speed of light.

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Supernova

A supernova is a stellar explosion. Supernovae are extremely luminous and cause a burst of radiation that often briefly outshines an entire galaxy. During this short interval, a supernova can radiate as much energy as the Sun could emit over its life span. The image below is of Supernova 1604, also known as Kepler's Supernova.