Page 32 - 200802 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - February 2008

32 The Known Universe The Known Universe 32 The Known Universe million years, traveling at 220km/sec or [Note: Ancient cultures/societies all believed The Known Universe Continued from Page 30 355mi/sec. Astronomers believe that the large that our solar system was originally a binary star Continued from Page 30 halo enveloping our galaxy's central disc system hosting a total of 12 planets, not the nine contains very old stars and invisible dark matter. we know about.] Each is perhaps the violent nucleus of a Beyond the expansive Milky Way there Light from our sun takes a full eight distant galaxy and may contain a massive black are galaxies stretching out expanding in every minutes to cross the huge gulf of deep space to hole, thought to be a theoretical massive object, direction. Our own system is part of a loosely planet Earth-96 million miles or 150 million once formed at the beginning of the universe or bound cluster containing some 30 galaxies, km. Light travels five hours longer to reach by the gravitational collapse of a star exploding called the Local Group in astronomical terms. Pluto and after about four years--four months, it as a supernova whose own gravitational field is Our galaxy rotates in locomotion like a giant touches Alpha Centauri, our sun's nearest stellar so intense that no electromagnetic radiation can whirlpool and the myriad of stars move around neighbor, 40 trillion km or 4.3 light-years away. escape-a mega-void into which all things vanish its center control point just as the nine If sentient/ET life exists in the universe, the permanently …with no lasting evidence, planets/moons rotate around our sun. Alpha Centauri star system is widely believed lingering traces, history or possible chance of Those stars nearest the center point by many cosmologists to be our nearest recovery. rotate much faster than those located further intelligence-based cosmic neighbor. And as the universe expands-even the out. Our sun, all the visible stars, and billions of Alpha Centauri is a multiple system with farthest quasars appear to be rushing 'away' at other star groups form/design the immense flat three stars locked by gravity in orbit around more than 90 per cent the speed of light, with spiral profile of our galaxy-much of which is each other. Many such stars are binary or their light energy traveling billions of years to seen only through powerful telescopes based on multiple-grouped and our modern-day reach us. These quasars evolved during land and in space. astronomers-the American ("SETI-Project"- countless billions of years; we can only guess at This stupendous star system is believed Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), and the what they are like today. to be about 150,000 light-years in diameter, but Russian group-the ("CETI Project"- Also visible at great distances are radio less than 7,000 light-years thick in our location. Communication with Extraterrestrial galaxies. And unlike quasars, whose dazzling Our sun is close to the equatorial (long) plane of Intelligence), are both currently searching the brightness obscures their stars, radio galaxies the galaxy, but still located well off to one side. heavens for possible stars with planetary reveal enough to allow astronomers to estimate The galactic center or nucleus of this star systems similar to our own and solid ET the numbers and ages of the stars contained system appears to be about 26,000 light-years evidence to support it. within them. To look at such objects is to see away, pointing towards the constellation However, all life-bearing planets must the wonder of the ultimate universe from within Sagittarius. orbit in a biosphere range, not too close and not its youth some 15-20 billion years ago. Our galaxy and the universe itself is so too far from their host suns, or else they won't vast that its absolute limits are virtually have liquid water seas or the proper temperature -OUR COSMIC MYSTERY unknown-a hundred billion stars and suns of range to support life-human or otherwise-(an -OUR COSMIC MYSTERY CONTINUES WITH PART CONTINUES WITH PART many differing types ranging from red absolute gradient ranging from about 100o THREE - supergiants (less dense than the Earth's Fahrenheit below zero to 150o above zero). In THREE - atmosphere) to immense white-hot dwarfs our solar system, only planets Earth and Mars hundreds of times denser than lead, and lastly exist within this specific life zone with planet Our galaxy was thought to be the entire the lesser known variety called red or brown Venus a borderline case and probably much too universe until significant discoveries were made dwarf suns-those unignited/failed stars hot to support life. in the early 20th century. Today we know it is containing a relatively small mass and low or Therefore our 50-billion Sol-like suns in only one of billions of existing galaxies-a average luminosity as our sun. In our book, we the Milky Way would, on the average, render us gravitationally bound rotating congregation of believe Planet-X to be a spent brown dwarf star- a total of say 500 billion planets of which only thousands of billions of stars. The Milky Way's one that is connected to our solar system-but 50 billion (one per sun) would be in an Earth- oval central bulge glows with the light of much little understood nor accepted by most like life-sustaining range. The rest is older, redder stars and may also harbor a astronomers. Brown dwarf stars are discussed astronomical caution, the usual leaning over gigantic hungry black hole. in the complete body of our book (and in our backwards to be ultra-conservative (thereby The Milky Way, its sister galaxy first "X"-Chronicles article for October-2007). unrealistic) and thus display no wild Andromeda (M31) and the smaller M33 are Special emphasis was placed on this one suppositions / estimates / theories. both fast-rotating spirals. M32 and NGC-205 particular 'brown dwarf star' -Planet-X-referred On the average, primary stars are are considered elliptical galaxies consisting to in the Christian Bible as "Wormwood." usually spaced multiple light-years apart. mainly of older stars. The Large and Small (Reference Note: See Book of However, there are some star clusters that Magellanic clouds appear to be irregular shaped Revelation, Chapter 8, verses 10-13.) appear to be more closely packed toward their galaxies, described as haze in the southern sky Conservative astronomical estimates centers that actually contain perhaps half a by Ferdinand Magellan's gallant crew in 1520 place about 200 billion stars in the Milky Way million stars in all. It's now believed a number and noted in detail in the Captain's log book. alone, with half of these systems judged to be of these X-factored life-bearing/sustaining Situated some 150,000 light-years away, these binaries (double stars), which would practically planets may revolve around many of those far- two Magellanic clouds appear to be the nearest preclude the actual presence of an organized distant star groups. galaxies to ours and may well be satellites of system of planets, or for that matter, any kind of Our solar system is located our own local system. Our parent galaxy most planets stable enough to create, foster and approximately half way from the center of our resembles the great spiral nebula M131 in sustain ecological life-support systems as we galaxy. And around our sun revolve the nine Andromeda-a breathtakingly beautiful galaxy know them to function. known planets beginning with: Mercury, some two million light-years away and twice Of the five billion non-binary (single) Venus, Earth/Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the size of our own Milky Way. stars, most, if not all of them, would qualify to Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, with their 32 moon- It should be noted that these two sister become host suns to other large solar systems like satellites, the mysterious Asteroid Belt galaxies are also held together by gravity and with anywhere from one to 25 planets revolving located between Mars and Jupiter and thousands orbit one another, even as the universe around a central luminary body (like our sun). of smaller asteroids with swarms of errant continues its timeless expansion outward Out of the remaining potential of 100 billion comets and meteors. Planet-X-mentioned as towards infinity. suns, about half of these would be classified as "Wormwood" in the Bible, Chapter 8, Verse 11- Globular clusters contain our galaxy's F, G, or K stars (an alphabetical arrangement may be the missing-link component-a failed oldest stars-most estimated to be 10-15 million according to temperature and size). The sun 'brown dwarf star' that was quite possibly a years old. Even now gas and dust condensing in holding together our solar system is a typical G- sister sun to our own. the spiral arms are themselves forming brand- rated ordinary yellowish star, with an absolute new "baby stars." Seemingly located all alone magnitude of 5, and is estimated to be set in a distant outlaying arm-our own sun approximately 4-5 billion years old; F and K- circles the galaxy's center about every 20 rated stars are hotter and cooler respectively. Continued on Page 33