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Science Mysteries - Blog Posts
Galactic Ghouls and Stellar Screams
A quiet, starry night sky might not seem like a very eerie spectacle, but space can be a creepy place! Monsters lurk in the shadowy depths of the universe, sometimes hidden in plain sight. Many of them are invisible to our eyes, so we have to use special telescopes to see them. Read on to discover some of these strange cosmic beasts, but beware — sometimes fact is scarier than fiction.
Monster Black Holes ⚫
You know those nightmares where no matter how fast you try to run you never seem to get anywhere? Black holes are a sinister possible version of that dream — especially because they’re real! If you get too close to a black hole, there is no possibility of escape.
Just last year our Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope traced an otherworldly ghost particle back to one of these monster black holes, providing additional insight into the many signals we’re picking up from some of the most feared creatures in the cosmic deep.
But it gets worse. Our Hubble Space Telescope revealed that these things are hidden in the hearts of nearly every galaxy in the universe. That means supermassive black holes lurk in the shadows of the night sky in every direction you look!
A Hazy Specter 👻
This fiendish specter lives in the center of the Milky Way, haunting our galaxy’s supermassive black hole. But it’s not as scary as it looks! Our SOFIA observatory captured streamlines tracing a magnetic field that appears to be luring most of the material quietly into orbit around the black hole. In other galaxies, magnetic fields seem to be feeding material into hungry black holes — beware! Magnetic fields might be the answer to why some black holes are starving while others are feasting.
Bats in the Belfry 🦇
The universe has bats in the attic! Hubble spotted the shadow of a giant cosmic bat in the Serpens Nebula. Newborn stars like the one at the center of the bat, called HBC 672, are surrounded by disks of material, which are hard to study directly. The shadows they cast, like the bat, can clue scientists in on things like the disk’s size and density. Our solar system formed from the same type of disk of material, but we can only see the end result of planet building here — we want to learn more about the process!
Jack-o-lantern Sun 🎃
A jack-o-lantern in space?! Our Solar Dynamics Observatory watches the Sun at all times, keeping a close eye on space weather. In October 2014, the observatory captured a chilling image of the Sun with a Halloweenish face!
Skull Comet 💀
On Halloween a few years ago, an eerie-looking object known as 2015 TB145 sped across the night sky. Scientists observing it with our Infrared Telescope Facility determined that it was most likely a dead comet. It’s important to study objects like comets and asteroids because they’re dangerous if they cross Earth’s path — just ask the dinosaurs!
Halloween Treat 🍬
Trick-or-treat! Add a piece of glowing cosmic candy to your Halloween haul, courtesy of Hubble! This image shows the Saturn Nebula, formed from the outer layers ejected by a dying star, destined to be recycled into later generations of stars and planets. Our Sun will experience a similar fate in around five billion years.
Witch’s Broom Nebula 🧹
Massive stars are in for a more fiery fate, as the Witch's Broom Nebula shows. Hubble’s close-up look reveals wisps of gas — shrapnel leftover from a supernova explosion. Astronomers believe that a couple of supernovae occur each century in galaxies like our own Milky Way.
Zombie Stars 🧟
Supernovae usually herald the death of a star, but on a few occasions astronomers have found “zombie stars” left behind after unusually weak supernovae. Our Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) has even spotted a mysterious glow of high-energy X-rays that could be the “howls” of dead stars as they feed on their neighbors.
Intergalactic Ghost Towns 🏚️
The universe is brimming with galaxies, but it’s also speckled with some enormous empty pockets of space, too. These giant ghost towns, called voids, may be some of the largest things in the cosmos, and since the universe is expanding, galaxies are racing even farther away from each other all the time! Be grateful for your place in space — the shadowy patches of the universe are dreadful lonely scenes.
Mysterious Invisible Force 🕵️♀️
Some forces are a lot creepier than floorboards creaking or a door slamming shut unexpectedly when you’re home alone. Dark energy is a mysterious antigravity pressure that our Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) is going to help us understand. All we know so far is that it’s present everywhere in the cosmos (even in the room with you as you read this) and it controls the fate of the universe, but WFIRST will study hundreds of millions of galaxies to figure out just what dark energy is up to.
Want to learn some fun ways to celebrate Halloween in (NASA) style? Check out this link!
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And that is a wrap!
Get sucked into the black hole excitement? Find out more about these unique objects and the missions we have to study them, here.
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.
What is the most fascinating thing about black hole research for you, personally?
How does time work in a black hole?
What would happen if a Black hole would be near the earth? What would be the consequences to humans?
Science fiction sometimes makes it seem like it’s possible to live in a black hole. What is the truth behind this?
What is the most interesting fact that you discovered about Black Holes? And what is the one you would most want to find out?
What’s your favorite black hole fact that you like to share with people?
What do *you* think is inside a black hole? Or If they sun was a black hole what would we see in the sky? Thanks!
Why are we studying them? What’s purpose of this field for us on earth?
How do blackholes form and how do they move ?
Is it at all possible to send a drone into a black hole and collect the data of what it’s like inside? If not, how close do you we are to possibly achieving that?
uhmm, can you tell me what exactly a black hole is? or what iy does? thanks, just really confused and curious on how it actually works.
What would happen if I go into a black hole? Do you think I would disappear forever or would I still exist inside the black hole?
Got a question about black holes? Let’s get to the bottom of these odd phenomena. Ask our black hole expert anything!
Black holes are mystifying yet terrifying cosmic phenomena. Unfortunately, people have a lot of ideas about them that are more science fiction than science. Don’t worry! Our black hole expert, Jeremy Schnittman, will be answering your your questions in an Answer Time session on Wednesday, October 2 from 3pm - 4 pm ET here on NASA’s Tumblr! Make sure to ask your question now by visiting http://nasa.tumblr.com/ask!
Jeremy joined the Astrophysics Science Division at our Goddard Space Flight Center in 2010 following postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University. His research interests include theoretical and computational modeling of black hole accretion flows, X-ray polarimetry, black hole binaries, gravitational wave sources, gravitational microlensing, dark matter annihilation, planetary dynamics, resonance dynamics and exoplanet atmospheres. He has been described as a "general-purpose astrophysics theorist," which he regards as quite a compliment.
Fun Fact: The computer code Jeremy used to make the black hole animations we featured last week is called "Pandurata," after a species of black orchid from Sumatra. The name pays homage to the laser fusion lab at the University of Rochester where Jeremy worked as a high school student and wrote his first computer code, "Buttercup." All the simulation codes at the lab are named after flowers.
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com
Got a question about black holes? Let’s get to the bottom of these odd phenomena. Ask our black hole expert anything!
Black holes are mystifying yet terrifying cosmic phenomena. Unfortunately, people have a lot of ideas about them that are more science fiction than science. Don’t worry! Our black hole expert, Jeremy Schnittman, will be answering your your questions in an Answer Time session on Wednesday, October 2 from 3pm - 4 pm ET here on NASA’s Tumblr! Make sure to ask your question now by visiting http://nasa.tumblr.com/ask!
Jeremy joined the Astrophysics Science Division at our Goddard Space Flight Center in 2010 following postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University. His research interests include theoretical and computational modeling of black hole accretion flows, X-ray polarimetry, black hole binaries, gravitational wave sources, gravitational microlensing, dark matter annihilation, planetary dynamics, resonance dynamics and exoplanet atmospheres. He has been described as a “general-purpose astrophysics theorist,” which he regards as quite a compliment.
Fun Fact: The computer code Jeremy used to make the black hole animations we featured last week is called “Pandurata,” after a species of black orchid from Sumatra. The name pays homage to the laser fusion lab at the University of Rochester where Jeremy worked as a high school student and wrote his first computer code, “Buttercup.” All the simulation codes at the lab are named after flowers.
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com