The universe is full of wondrous things, but it’s also filled with things we can’t
fully explain.
Join me as I show you 8 of the weirdest and abstract things found in outer space.
8.
THE HOT-COLD PLANET
When it comes to exploring space, one thing many scientists look for are planets that
humans could eventually inhabit.
One planet that would be a potential option if it weren’t 20 light years away is Gliese
581 c, which was discovered in 2007 and is what’s known as a “super-Earth” planet:
an exoplanet with a mass that’s greater than Earth, but is much lower than the ice
giants Uranus and Neptune.
Theoretically, Gliese 581 c could maybe support life.
However, due to its position relative to its sun, the planet is one of extremes, with one
side that’s burning hot, and one that’s intolerably cold.
This happens because the planet doesn’t spin.
Instead, one side of it always faces its sun, while the other constantly faces away from
the sun.
There is a small strip of temperate territory between these two extreme zones, and that’s
probably where humans would have to live.
Life on Gliese 581 c would be rough due to being confined to that strip of land, and
diverting too far from it would potentially be lethal.
Plus, in recent years, scientists have become less optimistic than they initially were about
the potential of the planet to support life, due to new findings suggesting that its proximity
to its sun may result in a runaway greenhouse effect.
Either way, if humans ever try to inhabit Gliese 581 c, it won’t be during this lifetime:
getting there would require traveling at the speed of light for 20 straight years and unimaginably
advanced technology that we won’t figure out how to develop anytime soon.
7.
BLACK WIDOW PULSAR
Pulsars are binary systems containing rapidly spinning neutron stars, which are the compacted
core remnants of massive stars that have exploded as supernovas.
Neutron stars are typically only as wide as a city, such as Manhattan or Washington, D.C.,
but weigh around twice as much as the Earth’s sun.
One type of pulsar, known as the “black widow,” is named as such because its neutron
star consumes its brown dwarf star companion.
The brown dwarf star is tidally locked to the highly magnetic neutron star - this means
that unlike the rapidly-spinning neutron star, the brown dwarf doesn’t spin at all.
Due to their close proximity, the brown dwarf is repeatedly blasted with radiation from
the neutron star as they orbit around one another, and eventually, that brown dwarf
will be a goner.
The black widow pulsar was first discovered as a type of binary system in 1988, and at
least 18 of them have been discovered in the Milky Way galaxy.
In 2012, scientists discovered one black widow pulsar with a record-setting orbit of just
93 minutes and a neutron star that spins 390 times per second - although some black widow
pulsars contain neutron stars that spin upwards of 600 times per second!
As fast as a neutron star spins, and as rapidly as a black widow pulsar orbits, it still takes
millions or billions of year for the neutron star to fully vaporize its brown dwarf mate.
6.
RUM-AND-RASPBERRY CLOUD
In 2009, scientists discovered a massive dust cloud that had formed 390 light years from
the center of the Milky Way galaxy, and they deduced that it smells like rum and tastes
like raspberries.
Yum!
Of course, the cloud, which spans across 150 light years and is named Sagittarius B2, isn’t
made of actual rum and raspberries; rather, it’s comprised of elements of both.
Primary among them is ethyl formate, which gives raspberries their smell.
Ethyl formate is also added rum to improve its taste, and is the chemical responsible
for the liquor’s distinct smell.
The cloud is several million times the mass of the sun and contains billions upon billions
of liters of this element.
Unfortunately, even if we could get to this cloud - which, let’s face it, we can’t
- it would not be safe to consume.
In addition to ethyl formate, the cloud contains propyl cyanide and other chemicals that are
fatally toxic to humans.
Scientists have yet to figure out how the cloud was formed, as it’s a little bit more
complicated than mixing a cocktail.
5.
3753 CRUITHNE
The possibility of an asteroid hitting Earth - potentially for the second or third time,
depending on how you interpret history - is one of humanity’s biggest fears.
Despite what movies have led you to believe, it’s doubtful we could stop such a colossal
chunk of space rock from colliding with us.
But asteroids can be neat to learn about - from afar, of course - and in terms of weirdness,
the asteroid known as 3753 Cruithne is more than a little odd.
3753 Cruithne was discovered in 1986 by Scottish astronomer Duncan Waldron.
It’s 3 miles in diameter and has a nearly identical orbit time to that of Earth.
On average, it takes 365 days for Earth to circle the sun, and 3753 Cruithne takes 364
days, which is less than a 1% difference between the two.
That’s quite a coincidence!
Despite their similar orbit times, the two are on quite different paths, with 3753 Cruithne
following a more ovular route, versus the circular orbit of our planet.
It won’t hit Earth due to its path, but you have to wonder how it got such a perfectly
timed route that is so similar to our own.
4.
HYPERVELOCITY STARS
When you think about “shooting stars,” you probably envision streaks of light dancing
across the sky; and, depending on your beliefs, you might make a wish.
However, those aren’t stars you’re seeing - they’re fragments of meteors.
Which is why, when many of them fall at at the same time, it’s called a “meteor shower.”
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t shooting stars out there in the universe.
There are - well, sort of - and they’re both fascinating and confusing.
They’re called hypervelocity stars, and are named after the ultrafast speed at which
they dash throughout the Milky Way.
Hypervelocity stars were discovered in 2005 by Smithsonian astronomers, and are formed
when the massive black hole at the center of our galaxy consumes one star in a binary
system and regurgitates its partner.
Keith Hawkins, an astronomy student at Ohio University who authored a study on the topic
in 2013, explained at the 221st annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society that
the ejected contents that spew forth from the Milky Way’s central black hole at up
to two million miles per hour are “gravitationally unbound” to the galaxy.
Scientists aren’t fully clear about how these stars actually get out of a black hole.
After all, nothing is supposed to escape a black hole once it’s been fully formed - not
even light.
Scientists are still looking for answers, but the discovery of hypervelocity stars represents
a major step toward bettering our understanding of black holes.
3.
THE MOST MASSIVE AND BRIGHTEST OF STARS
Stars fill the galaxy, but just as there are many types of people, there are many different
types of stars.
There are small stars, big stars, colossal stars - the list goes on.
And, then there are plain old heavy stars like R136a1, which isn’t the biggest star
by measurement of radius or volume, but by mass and luminosity.
Its mass is 256 times that of Earth’s sun - double what astronomers thought was possible
previous to its discovery.
And if that doesn’t impress you, the light emitted from this star is 7.4 million times
brighter than our sun.
These epic proportions have earned R136A1 the first-place prize for the most massive
and brightest star ever discovered.
R136A1 is from a rare class of massive stars known as Wolf-Rayet stars that represent a
final burst of activity before the star begins to die out, which is why they’re so bright.
According to NASA, Wolf-Rayet stars “live fast and die hard” - in other words, they
form quickly and they die quickly.
They only live for about five million years, as opposed to the approximately 10-billion-year
lifespan of our sun.
2.
GALAXY X
One of the biggest mysteries of the universe is the presence of dark matter.
Scientists know it’s out there, but have struggled incessantly to catch a glimpse of
it.
However, they may be closer to achieving this goal.
While speculated upon for years, the first true “evidence” of the existence of a
dark matter galaxy came in 2009, when ripples of energy were detected in the Milky Way’s
outer disk without any clear source.
In early 2015, a group of astronomers led by Sukanya Chakrabarti of the Rochester Institute
of Technology located evidence of Galaxy X, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way that is
believed to be dominated by dark matter.
Through their analysis of infrared records collected by the European Southern Observatory’s
survey VISTA, the team was able to “look” at regions that are cannot be seen using visible
light, including unexplored areas near the galaxy’s plane.
Some 300,000 light years away, they found four 100-million-year-old Cepheid variable
stars, which are associated with dark matter galaxies, and therefore might mark the location
of Galaxy X.
The whole concept of Galaxy X is difficult for most of us to wrap our minds around, especially
since it’s considered a “hypothetical form of matter” that scientists have been
trying to prove for quite some time.
But if they can truly find this galaxy, and if they’re able to use its location to truly
prove dark matter, it could change how we look at the universe.
1.
ROGUE PLANETS
All of our solar system’s planets are bound by the gravity of our sun.
Most of the universe’s solar systems are based on a similar model.
Yet, there are some planets out there that aren’t bound by the gravity of stars.
They’re called rogue planets, and they move throughout the galaxy after being evicted
from their star system, or never having actually belonged to one.
Scientists believe that there are many rogue planets out there, and they also think CFBDSIR2149
may be one of them.
The object, which is twice the size of Jupiter, was first spotted in 2012, and at first glance,
it seemed to fit the qualifying criteria for a rogue planet.
Scientists were particularly excited about this possibility, because at just a little
over 100 light years away, it stood to be the closest rogue planet ever discovered.
However, the scientific community widely rejected the notion that the mysterious object might
be a rogue planet, especially since it hadn’t been kicked out of any identifiable star system,
and there was no evidence to indicate it had formed as a planet.
The object was also ruled out as part of the AB doradus Moving group, a collection of objects
that orbit around the galaxy together and were formed around the same time.
For now, scientists remain stumped about what the object is.
In a March 2017 article for ScienceAlert, the website’s CEO, Fiona MacDonald, pointed
out a few theories, based on its characteristics and the findings of the experts.
It could be an older and highly metallic brown dwarf, or it could be an extremely young rogue
planet.
Still, with how much is unknown about the object, other, more unknown possibilities
haven’t been ruled out.
Thanks for watching!
What do you think of these cosmic oddities?
Let me know in the comments below!
Be sure to subscribe, and I’ll see you next time!