Page 21 - 200812 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - December 2008

Top 10 Strangest Things In Universe 21 Top 10 Strangest Things In Universe 21 TOP 10 STRANGEST False-color depiction of dark matter around a TOP 10 STRANGEST THINGS IN THE star cluster. Image Credit: J.-P. THINGS IN THE Kneib/ESA/NASA UNIVERSE If you put all of the energy and matter of UNIVERSE By Dave Mosher for The the cosmos into a pie and divvy it up, the result By Dave Mosher for The Discovery Channel is shocking. Discovery Channel All of the galaxies, stars, planets, comets, asteroids, dust, gas and particles account for just 4 percent of the known universe. Most of what we call "matter" -- about 23 percent of the universe -- is invisible to human eyes and instruments. The sun spins about once every 25 days, For now. gradually deforming its magnetic field. Scientists can see dark matter's Well, imagine a dying star heavier than gravitational tug on stars and galaxies, but are the sun collapsing into a wad of matter just a searching feverishly for ways to detect it first- dozen miles in diameter. hand. They think particles similar to neutrinos Like a spinning ballerina pulling his or yet far more massive could be the mysterious, her arms inward, this change in size spins the unseen stuff. neutron star -- and its magnetic field -- out of 10. Hypervelocity Stars control. 5. Dark Energy If you've ever gazed at the night sky, Calculations show these objects possess you've probably wished upon a shooting star temporary magnetic fields about one million (which are really meteors). billion times stronger than the Earth's. That's But shooting stars do exist, and they're powerful enough to destroy your credit card as rare as one in 100 million. from hundreds of thousands of miles away, and In 2005, astronomers discovered the deform atoms into ultra-thin cylinders. first "hypervelocity" star careening out of a galaxy at nearly 530 miles per second (10 times 7. Neutrinos faster than ordinary star movement). We have ideas about what flings these rare stars into deep space, but aren't certain; anything from off-kilter supernova explosions to supermassive black holes might be responsible. Computer simulation of dark matter filaments. 9. Black Holes Image Credit: Science Magazine What really has everyone on the planet confused -- including scientists -- is dark energy. To continue with the pie analogy, dark Construction of the NuMI neutrino source energy is a Garfield-sized portion at 73 percent underway. Image Credit: BNL of the known universe. It seems to pervade all of space and push galaxies farther and farther Pull out a dime from your pocket and away from one another at increasingly faster hold it up for a second... guess what? About 150 speeds. billion tiny, nearly massless particles called Some cosmologists think this expansion neutrinos just passed through it as though it will leave the Milky Way galaxy as an "island didn't even exist. universe" in a few trillion years with no other Scientists have found that they originate galaxies visible. Conception of a black hole pulling gas off of a in stars (living or exploding), nuclear material Others think the rate of expansion will nearby star. Image Credit: ESA/NASA and from the Big Bang. The elementary become so great that it will result in a "Big Rip." particles come in three "flavors" and, stranger In this scenario, the force of dark energy Speaking of black holes, what could be still, seem to disappear on a whim. overcomes gravity to disassemble stars and stranger? Because neutrinos occasionally do planets, the forces keeping particles sticking Beyond a black hole's gravitational interact with "normal" matter such as water and together, the molecules in those particles, and border -- or event horizon -- neither matter nor mineral oil, scientists hope they can use them as eventually the atoms and subatomic particles. light can escape. Astrophysicists think dying a revolutionary telescope to see beyond parts of Thankfully, humankind probably won't be stars about three to 20 times the mass of the sun the universe obscured by dust and gas. around to witness to cataclysm. can form these strange objects. At the center of galaxies, black holes about 10,000 to 18 billion 6. Dark Matter Continued on Page 25 times heavier than the sun are thought to exist, enlarged by gobbling up gas, dust, stars and MORE ‘X’ TRIVIA..... small black holes. What about mid-sized types? Perhaps - Woof! Holland is the only country with a surprisingly, evidence is both scarce and national dog. questionable for their existence. - One in three Taiwanese funeral processions includes a stripper. 8. Magnetars - Constipation kills more fruit flies than any Artist's rendition of a magnetar with magnetic other ailment. fields shown. Image Credit: NASA - U.S. women over 55 watch more TV than anyone else.