People have been wondering about the universe since we became aware of the big black hanging above our heads. We did the best we could through speculation and rudimentary tools. But the thing that has taught us the most is the Hubble telescope. And, as hosted exchange can boost your employees performance and productivity, with its clear view, unobstructed by ozone and wide field cameras, the pictures and data the Hubble has given us has help us unlock the mysteries of the Universe. It has also let us find some mindbogglingly awesome stellar phenomena. Here’s just a peek at 10 of the coolest things the Hubble has shown us.
Vampire Stars
Not only do these stars have a name more badass than badass but they may have helped scientists understand dark energy, the energy that occupies most of our “empty” universe. And, according to scientists this is expanding the universe at an accelerated rate. Vampire stars are stars that have collapsed and are almost dead that start sucking the hydrogen off of one of its healthy neighbours. Scientists use vampire stars to measure the increasing size of the universe by comparing the strength of the light they measure over time.
Grand Star-Forming Region
And you thought all stars were born in Hollywood. This swirling mass of interstellar gas punctuated with super-massive white hot stars is one of the universe’s star nurseries. Every single one of those bright blue points is an enormous star—some as much as 100 times larger than our sun—many of which will probably supernova in the near future (say in the next million years or so), returning their cosmic components back to the cloud from which they were born. Pictures like this one have helped scientists learn all about the life cycles and behaviours of stars.
Stellar Death
For a long time we knew that stars appeared and stars disappeared, but we knew very little of the particulars of what went on. The mystery of Johannes Kepler’s “new star” haunted and teased us for 400 years. That is until the Hubble appeared. With our lovely space telescope we’ve been able to witness the births of stars, their spectacular ends and everything in between.
The age of the universe
Humans have put forth some pretty wacky theories concerning the age, size and nature of the Universe. From the idea that all objects in space were painted on a giant globe surrounding Earth, to the idea of the Universe as moving but fundamentally static and unchanging, to the now popular framework of the universe as an expanding dynamic system, our understanding has leapt forward. But one of the greatest leaps came when scientists paired the Hubble with the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe. Using these two pieces of technology scientists were able to determine the age of the universe to one per cent accuracy (results so impressive they put them in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Hyperactive galaxies
It’s pretty easy to assume that all galaxies form in pretty much the same way and at pretty much the same rate. But you know what happens when you assume. This year, scientists found what they’ve dubbed “hyperactive galaxies.” These galaxies are way smaller than our Milky Way and it’s estimated that the stars inside them rotate at speeds up to a million miles an hour.
Other planets
Well, it took us a couple hundred years to find all of the planets in our own solar system but only a couple of decades to start discovering them in other solar systems. As early as 2001, scientists began spotting planetary masses around far away suns. It got them so excited that NASA launched the Kepler project, a mission designed to find other habitable Earth-like planets in the galaxy.
Deepest visible-light pictures
Standing on the earth’s surface, humans only get a glimpse of what the cosmos have to offer—even when they’re not standing in a light polluted city. But all that changed when we sent the Hubble into space. As the technology on the massive space telescope has advanced, humans have been able to see deeper and deeper into space. Recently, a newly outfitted Hubble took the deepest visible-light pictures of the universe ever, showing people that what we’ve thought for centuries was just vast empty black is actually full of galaxies and stars.
Blackholes
If you think the theory that all galaxies revolve slowly around a supermassive black hole at its centre was always a given, think again. It was the Hubble telescope that helped scientists spot those monsters. We’ve also recently spotted much smaller stellar mass black holes gobbling their way through the galaxy.
Runaway Stars
A lot of people are crushed when they hit a certain age and discover that shooting stars are just bits of cosmic debris colliding with our atmosphere and burning up. The stars aren’t moving at all! Well, if you number among the disappointed, prepare to have the magic and wonder of your childhood reinstated. Turns out that the Hubble has located fourteen runaway stars careening through the universe kicking up cosmic gas and taking names. All of these stars are young, only a few million years old. Scientists estimate that they move at about 112,000 miles an hour.
Brown Dwarfs
Brown Dwarfs aren’t very bright, are horribly anti-social and very difficult to find. If they were human beings, they’d probably be a lot like that kid that in your fifth grade class everyone voted most likely to turn up on the FBI’s most wanted list. Brown Dwarfs are protostars that never quite made it to being real stars (couldn’t flame on). And while scientists haven’t been able to find many of these wannabes—only 12 in all the space we’ve been able to investigate—the ones they’ve found seem to hang out exclusively with each other, like the three grouped off to the corner of this picture. While they won’t be seen near a real star, clusters of two or three Brown Dwarfs have been spotted colluding in the corners of the universe.
I didn’t knew about the vampire stars .. thanks for enlightening me. Do we have any such star in our galaxy?
The vast majority of these ten occurrences have been found within our own galaxy. The article is a little deceptive when it says things like, “Brown Dwarfs have been spotted colluding in the corners of the universe”, for example, when they are in fact within our own galaxy. Same with the Runaway Stars. That’s all happening here at home, not at “the edge of the universe”.