Stellar Life Cycles
Stars undergo dramatic life cycles. They're born in nebulae, live through nuclear fusion, and die as white dwarfs or supernovae. The Sun will swell into a red giant in about 5 billion years, eventually shedding its outer layers.
Neutron Stars' Secret Lives
After supernovae, some stars become neutron stars, so dense a teaspoon weighs a billion tons. Pulsars, a type, emit radio waves detectable across the galaxy. Two colliding neutron stars likely produced the heavy elements like gold on Earth.
Galactic Supermassive Black Holes
Most galaxies harbor a supermassive black hole at their center. Our Milky Way's is Sagittarius A*, with 4 million times the Sun's mass. Black holes can influence galaxy formation, and their gravitational waves open new cosmic research avenues.
Dark Matter Enigma
Invisible dark matter binds galaxies together, outweighing visible matter five to one. Its gravitational effects are crucial for galaxy formation and rotation rates. Without dark matter, the observable universe's structure would be inexplicably different.
Galaxies Colliding Spectacle
Galaxies often collide and merge over billions of years. The Milky Way will merge with Andromeda in 4 billion years. These cosmic events are surprisingly gentle, with few stellar collisions, reshaping the galaxies and igniting new star formations.
Mysterious Fast Radio Bursts
Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-long cosmic flashes of radio waves, first discovered in 2007. Their origin is unknown, with theories ranging from neutron stars to extragalactic civilizations. Each burst releases energy equivalent to the Sun's 80 years output.
Expanding Universe Acceleration
The universe's expansion is accelerating, driven by dark energy, a mysterious force that defies gravity. This discovery, made in 1998, changed our understanding of cosmology, leading to questions about the universe's ultimate fate.
What will Sun become in 5 billion years?
A supermassive black hole
A white dwarf
A red giant
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