Astronomy

Astronomy

 Topic 1 Astronomical Objects

            The Universe contains an amazing array of celestial objects that are also referred to as astronomical objects or celestial bodies. Traditionally the word Nebula is used to refer to all extended astronomical objects. However, most modern astronomers utilize the word nebula to strictly refer dust clouds and gas and not for a group of stars. This section of the paper provides a discussion on the term nebula in its traditional sense. Early in the 21st century, there was a lot of conflicting reports regarding the nature of Galaxies because at the time it was not possible to resolve it into individual stars.

 However, through the Hubble images, it is evident that the galaxies are made up of vast conglomerates of billion of stars and gasses that have been laced with dust. It was also revealed that there exist billions of galaxies in the Universe and our Milky Way Galaxy is just one of them. The Hubble images also revealed that a typical galaxy has a diameter of 10,000 light years .

 The images also provide interesting facts on the birth of a star. By reviewing the Carina Nebula, one learns that a star birth is characterized by scorching ultraviolet radiation and fast out flowing gasses from the stars that inhibit the inferno. Like every other thing that is born, it is evident from the images that stars also die. The Butterfly Nebula, NGC 6302 depicts a star that is dying.

 The dying star is characterized with rolling gas cauldrons that are heated to over 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit and traveling through space at speeds of over 600,000 miles an hour. The dying star is located in the center of the fury and unleashes a stream of U.V radiation that makes the cast off materials to glow. Other interesting Nebula objects that one sees from the images are the globular clusters, open clusters, dark nebulae and emission nebulae.

 Expansion of the Universe

 From a personal perspective, the Universe will expand forever. Scientifically for an object to stop expanding, it has to have a starting point a midpoint and an elasticity limit. Without a definite midpoint, there cannot be an endpoint and thus expansion will continue indefinitely. However, the universe does not have a starting point, and observations from astronomers reveal that every point in the Universe views itself as the center of the (Universe Origins: Hubble: Tools: The Center of The Universe | Exploratorium, 2016). This implies that there is no definite center and thus without a midpoint, the concept of elasticity cannot be applied to the Universe.

 Astronomical studies have revealed that galaxies tend to move away from perceived midpoints and as each point in the universe perceives itself as a midpoint, then the movement of the galaxy away from that midpoint is infinite (Origins: Hubble: Tools: The Center of The Universe | Exploratorium, 2016). The studies have also revealed that the Universe is continuously expanding and that the based on the fact provided it is logical to conclude that the galaxy will expand forever (Origins: Hubble: Tools: The Center of The Universe | Exploratorium, 2016).

 For example, given three points abc to represent the billions of galaxies in the Universe. Point a is perceived as the center of point b and c and thus point b and c keeps moving away from point a. Point b perceived as the center of points a and c and thus points a and c keep moving away from points b. Point c perceives itself as the center of point a and b and thus point a and b keep moving away from point c. Therefore without a definite center, the three points will keep moving away from each other forever.

Topic 3 Life in the Universe

 From a personal perspective, life might exist away from the earth. The universe is made up of billions of galaxies and the different planets in the different galaxies might have the environment necessary for life to exist. Researchers hold that life on earth is dependent on water and the fact that water bodies or evidence of the existence of water bodies have been found in other planets on our milky way suggests that organic life may be present in the life.

The fact that Jupiter’s moon Europa has an expansive ocean of liquid water under an icy shell is evident that there can be life on that planet . This is because studies in the Antarctica have revealed the existence of life beneath the ice. Life can also be found in the other planets located in the other galaxies.

 The Cosmic Horizon

 One of the most important aspects of the cosmic horizon is that the universe is so expansive that we are not able to view it in its entirety. We can only observe the light that has traveled for 13.7 billion light years. It is important to point out that the universe itself is 13.7 billion years old. Therefore we can only observe light that was emitted when the universe was created, and any other part of the universe beyond this point cannot yet be observed since there is no light. It is also evident that objects that we observe objects that are further away from as young objects and those that are closer to as old objects because the light has to travel billions of years to reach us and the further away an object is from us the further it the light has to travel.