OTHER WORLD(OUTER SPACE)

It's no secret that space is full of mysteries

Our species has barely gone past our own planet's moon, and only one of our probes, Voyager 1, has even left the solar system. Much of what we've learned about deep space has been pieced together from falling objects and views from telescopes.

Some of the famous (and chilling) space mysteries, like the face on Mars (it was shadows), or the black knight satellite "UFO" (it's satellite debris), have been solved.

But space is rife with unexplained phenomena that put those two mere optical illusions to shame.

And some of the seven included in this slideshow could hold the key to understanding the universe.

Unlike a black hole, the Giant Void isn't a hole in space — instead, it's curiously empty of both matter and dark matter. And also different from a black hole, light can pass through the void, though scientists believe it contains dark energy.

It's not the only void in space, either, although it is the largest, with an estimated diameter of 1.3 billion light years.

Dark matter is still a mystery, but we're relying on it to help explain some of the unknowns of our universe — cosmologists believe as much as 27% of the universe is dark matter.

We're more certain of what dark matter isn't rather than what it is. It's not made of black holes (the light warping that they'd cause isn't present).

One theory: the dark matter of the universe is made up of primordial black holes.

NASA, ESA, CFHT, CXO, M.J. Jee, A. Mahdavi

In addition to the 27% of the universe that's believed to be dark matter, a lot more is in the form of dark energy, which makes up about 68% of everything around us (the "normal" matter we all know and love is only 5% of the universe).

And like dark matter, we don't know much about dark energy, but the current hypothesis is that it's what's behind the increasing expansion of the universe (whereas dark matter slows it).

Much of our understanding of dark matter and energy comes from the Cosmic Microwave Background, a snapshot of thermal radiation "soon" (380,000 years) after the Big Bang, when hydrogen atoms were first formed.

There's something really attractive 220 million light years away, and it's dragging our whole galaxy towards it.

Ever since the Big Bang, the entire universe has been expanding, so it makes sense that our galaxy would be moving. But not in the direction it's headed.

The cluster pointed out above is a gravitational anomaly known as the Great Attractor, and its brightness is due to its gravitational attraction. Some point to dark matter as the cause of this. And others claim that our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is blocking our view of whatever it is that's pulling us towards it at 1.4 million mph.

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7 space mysteries that scientists can't explain

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Sean Kane, Tech Insider Jul 15, 2016, 2:54 PM

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It's no secret that space is full of mysteries.

Our species has barely gone past our own planet's moon, and only one of our probes, Voyager 1, has even left the solar system. Much of what we've learned about deep space has been pieced together from falling objects and views from telescopes.

Some of the famous (and chilling) space mysteries, like the face on Mars (it was shadows), or the black knight satellite "UFO" (it's satellite debris), have been solved.

But space is rife with unexplained phenomena that put those two mere optical illusions to shame.

And some of the seven included in this slideshow could hold the key to understanding the universe.

Black holes

black hole

Alain Riazuelo of the French National Research Agency, via Wikipedia

Black holes are the ultimate cosmic quicksand. They're formed when a giant star collapses, imploding into a tiny area of such intense gravity, even the surrounding light is sucked in.

This means that although we've got a sense of how black holes work, we've still never actually seen one — they're invisible to telescopes that pick up electromagnetic radiation, light, or X-rays. We can only guess what they look like on the inside.

The Giant Void

Giant Void

SIMBAD

Unlike a black hole, the Giant Void isn't a hole in space — instead, it's curiously empty of both matter and dark matter. And also different from a black hole, light can pass through the void, though scientists believe it contains dark energy.

It's not the only void in space, either, although it is the largest, with an estimated diameter of 1.3 billion light years.

Dark Matter

dark matter

The foggy haze is astronomers' interpretation of where dark matter is located in this galaxy cluster. NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center

Dark matter is still a mystery, but we're relying on it to help explain some of the unknowns of our universe — cosmologists believe as much as 27% of the universe is dark matter.

We're more certain of what dark matter isn't rather than what it is. It's not made of black holes (the light warping that they'd cause isn't present).

One theory: the dark matter of the universe is made up of primordial black holes.

Dark Energy

dark energy

NASA, ESA, CFHT, CXO, M.J. Jee, A. Mahdavi

In addition to the 27% of the universe that's believed to be dark matter, a lot more is in the form of dark energy, which makes up about 68% of everything around us (the "normal" matter we all know and love is only 5% of the universe).

And like dark matter, we don't know much about dark energy, but the current hypothesis is that it's what's behind the increasing expansion of the universe (whereas dark matter slows it).

Much of our understanding of dark matter and energy comes from the Cosmic Microwave Background, a snapshot of thermal radiation "soon" (380,000 years) after the Big Bang, when hydrogen atoms were first formed.

The Great Attractor

Great Attractor Skitch

NASA/ESA/Hubble Space Telescope

There's something really attractive 220 million light years away, and it's dragging our whole galaxy towards it.

Ever since the Big Bang, the entire universe has been expanding, so it makes sense that our galaxy would be moving. But not in the direction it's headed.

The cluster pointed out above is a gravitational anomaly known as the Great Attractor, and its brightness is due to its gravitational attraction. Some point to dark matter as the cause of this. And others claim that our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is blocking our view of whatever it is that's pulling us towards it at 1.4 million mph.

Saturn's mystery moon, "Peggy"

Saturn Moon Peggy

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute/Wikimedia

For a brief moment, Saturn had a tiny, mysterious little moon, named Peggy.

Back in 2013, NASA's Cassini took this snapshot of Saturn's rings, and caught a disturbance that astronomers believed was a new, little moon forming. The discovery shed light on how Saturn's 67 other satellites developed.

Unfortunately, as NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab pointed out in a press release announcing the satellite, "the object is not expected to grow any larger, and may even be falling apart." Peggy's current status is unknown.

The star KIC 8462852 doesn't just have a snappy, memorable name, it's also an unsolved anomaly 1,500 light years away.

There's something big in the way of KIC 8462852, also known as "Tabby's Star." About 20% of the light the star emits is blocked from our vantage point. And it's probably not a planet — even one as large as Jupiter would only block 1% of a star the size of KIC 8462852.

Some have suggested it's a Dyson Swarm, a less complete version of a megastructure known as a Dyson Sphere, which surrounds a star and harvests its energy output. We'll probably get a better idea of what's going on with the star when NASA launches the James Webb Space Telescope in 2018, but until then, "unknown alien megastructure" sounds like a pretty cool explanation.

For those who slept through astronomy, here's a refresher: Our sun, a star, is surrounded by nine-ish (more on that later) planets. These star-planet clusters are called solar systems. Clusters of solar systems are called galaxies. The Milky Way—that's the galaxy we're in—is widely believed to have about 200 billion solar systems. Researchers have pegged the observable universe—that's what we can tangibly see—at about 150 billion galaxies. Honestly, though, it could go on, and on, and on, and on, and, well, you get the point.

In fact, a team of researchers at Oxford recently deployed a model that suggests the universe is at least 250 times larger than that. To put that the resulting figure in context, that's more zeroes than we can get away with typing without crashing your web browser. And that's just galaxies. Thinking about how that number applies to solar systems, let alone planets, is enough to melt anyone's brain. And for more brain-melting science, read up on the 20 Types of Artificial Intelligence You Use Every Single Day And Don't Know It.

Yes, those staggering numbers indicate that we should've stumbled across alien life by now. Even if you take the most hesitant, even-keeled estimates—which come courtesy of recent Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences research—about 1 percent of all planets in the universe are at the very least capable of fostering sustainable biological life. The folks at Wait But Why put it this way: For every single grain of sand on every single beach on Earth, there are 100 of these planets; in the Milky Way alone, there should be 100,000 intelligent civilizations. So, again, where is everybody?

Enter: The Fermi Paradox. Coined by physicist Enrico Fermi in the 1950s, the Fermi Paradox stages a valiant effort at answering this perplexing conundrum. To date, no one's been able to solve it, but the astrological community largely splits off into two categories: that we're the only intelligent life in existence, or that there's an extremely good reason for why we've yet to discover our celestial cohabitants. For instance, maybe we're in a zoo-like situation, and extraterrestrial life observes us like we would a caged panda. Or perhaps we're just in a "rural" part of the galaxy and have yet to be discovered, sort of like how 15-century explorers had no clue ancient American tribes existed before setting out across the Atlantic. Crazy, right?

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Smarter Living

21 Mysteries about Space No One Can Explain

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE, BUT NO ONE'S FOUND IT YET.

By ALEX DANIEL JULY 19, 2018

Scientists and astronomers spend all day, every day, poring over data in search of answers to the universe's myriad questions, but they'll be the first to admit that outer space is really, really hard—if not entirely impossible, at least for our mortal minds—to figure out.

Hacks: Grocery Bag Garbage Bags

So given that even experts don't exactly know what's going on in the great beyond, it's only natural that us earth-faring folk would have some burning questions. Herein, you'll find the most mind-numbingly confounding. So strap in, and get ready for cognitive blastoff in three….two… one! And if you're actually interested in heading to infinity and beyond, prepare by learning the 27 Insane Things Astronauts Have to Do.

1

Just how big is the universe?

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For those who slept through astronomy, here's a refresher: Our sun, a star, is surrounded by nine-ish (more on that later) planets. These star-planet clusters are called solar systems. Clusters of solar systems are called galaxies. The Milky Way—that's the galaxy we're in—is widely believed to have about 200 billion solar systems. Researchers have pegged the observable universe—that's what we can tangibly see—at about 150 billion galaxies. Honestly, though, it could go on, and on, and on, and on, and, well, you get the point.

In fact, a team of researchers at Oxford recently deployed a model that suggests the universe is at least 250 times larger than that. To put that the resulting figure in context, that's more zeroes than we can get away with typing without crashing your web browser. And that's just galaxies. Thinking about how that number applies to solar systems, let alone planets, is enough to melt anyone's brain. And for more brain-melting science, read up on the 20 Types of Artificial Intelligence You Use Every Single Day And Don't Know It.

2

So, um, where is everybody?

Yes, those staggering numbers indicate that we should've stumbled across alien life by now. Even if you take the most hesitant, even-keeled estimates—which come courtesy of recent Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences research—about 1 percent of all planets in the universe are at the very least capable of fostering sustainable biological life. The folks at Wait But Why put it this way: For every single grain of sand on every single beach on Earth, there are 100 of these planets; in the Milky Way alone, there should be 100,000 intelligent civilizations. So, again, where is everybody?

Enter: The Fermi Paradox. Coined by physicist Enrico Fermi in the 1950s, the Fermi Paradox stages a valiant effort at answering this perplexing conundrum. To date, no one's been able to solve it, but the astrological community largely splits off into two categories: that we're the only intelligent life in existence, or that there's an extremely good reason for why we've yet to discover our celestial cohabitants. For instance, maybe we're in a zoo-like situation, and extraterrestrial life observes us like we would a caged panda. Or perhaps we're just in a "rural" part of the galaxy and have yet to be discovered, sort of like how 15-century explorers had no clue ancient American tribes existed before setting out across the Atlantic. Crazy, right?

3

Where is Planet 9?

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Pluto is technically not a planet. But that doesn't mean our solar system is limited to eight planets. Scientists believe that there may be a ninth, undiscovered planet on the fringes of our corner of space. If you pay attention to orbital trajectories of out-there celestial bodies, like Uranus and Neptune, you'll notice peculiarities.

The reason is likely that there's a massive gravitational body out there—like a planet—pulling things out of whack. According to Konstantin Batygin, assistant professor of planetary science at the California Institute of Technology, the reason we may not have found "Planet 9" yet is "because it is staggeringly dim…With the best telescopes around, we could just barely detect it, we think." And for more brain-twisting science stories, This Is What Life Could Look Like 200 Years from Now.