An innate sense of adventure in some people gets them wondering what's out in space, while others are terrified of it. Something about the vast dark and unknown can cause crippling fear even to the bravest person. If you have dreams about traveling to space one day, here are facts that might change your mind.
1. Black Holes That Can Hurl Through Space
According to Ranker, there is a giant black hole out there being manipulated by gravitational waves. It weighs as much as one billion suns, and it has reached speeds of five million miles per hour. The Hubble Space Telescope located it back in 2017.
The good news is, it is eight billion light years away from earth. The bad news is that it can devour anything in its path, and will eventually break free of the galaxy that holds it and roam the universe. Yikes.
2. Tragedy of a Modern World
Earth experienced a massive disruption before, in 1859. British astronomers, Richard Carrington and Richard Hodgson saw a cluster of spots in the Sun, which was unusual. As it turns out, it's the biggest geomagnetic storm the planet has experienced ever. This caused a collision with Earth's magnetosphere at very high speeds, and produced auroras that can be seen all over the world, as mentioned in Life Hacker.
It caused telegraph machines to fail and reports say some of them even burst into flames. Imagine that happening now when the world has adopted a life of technology. An event like that would cut off all communications, and maybe even cause all devices to fail. We will see a glimpse of what a post-apocalyptic world would look like.
3. Be Not Afraid
There is a theory that extraterrestrials already know about the existence of other races from planets that can sustain life. However, they might be hiding due to the assumption that alien races might want to kill them. Technically, it's a smart move, since we can't really know for sure what the intentions of potential races from other planets.
People from Earth have different ideas, though. We have been sending out broadcast messages in space, like a gazelle skipping about in the open not knowing if predators are hiding somewhere.
4. Lunar Exit
The moon is actually moving away from the Earth every year, for about an inch and a half. That may be a minuscule shift compared to the scale of space, but think about how it will affect us. It's the moon's gravity, after all, that's responsible for the tides on Earth's waters.
5. Into the Unknown
Between the constellations Centaurus and Vela, there is something that is pulling at portions of the Milky Way. It's spine-chilling to think that such a great force can pull clusters of galaxies toward it.
It doesn't help that scientists named the phenomenon "dark flow" in reference to dark matter and dark energy.
6. The Cornucopia of Space
Black holes destroy everything that gets sucked into it. However, there are theories that white holes exist. Nothing can enter and everything and anything can come out of it. Scientists think that white holes are what create the universe, by spewing everything at once.
It makes you wonder where it comes from or what it will decide to spit out next. What if, hear me out, white holes and black holes are one-way portals? I mean, one lets you enter but not leave, and the other does the opposite, but I'm no scientist. Maybe they just exist independently.
