ASTRONOMY - THE MYSTERY YOU DON’T KNOW

- Animesh Ghosh

Mathematics, UG-1

INTRODUCTION

Nonsense will fall of its own weight, by a sort of intellectual law of gravitation. Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another. And know the place for the first time. That all the world will be in love with night.

Space is full of science. every cosmic thing has an question for us to answer. so, in this article we can learn about astronomy’s some top unsolved mysteries that yet to be solved.

The Most Fascinating Astronomy Facts

1. Our Sun is one of over 100 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, and the Milky Way is one of over 100 million galaxies in the universe.

2. The planet Saturn would float on water—it’s the only planet in our solar system that would.

3. The black hole in the center of the Milky Way galaxy is millions of times the mass of the Sun.

4. The planet with the hottest surface temperature is not Mercury, but Venus, because of the Greenhouse Effect of its atmosphere.

5. Earth is the only known planet with plate tectonics.

6. The Sun’s core releases energy equivalent to 100 billion nuclear bombs per second, and that energy travels thousands of years through its layers before it is emitted as heat and light to power the solar system.

Astronomy's Greatest Mysteries

Explore the latest research on the biggest questions in the universe.

We all love to explore the unsolved. And if you love to explore space science then this article is just for you.

1.What is dark energy?

In the 1920s, astronomer Edwin Hubble discovered that the universe is not static, but rather is expanding. In 1998, the Hubble Space Telescope, named for the astronomer, studied distant supernovas and found that the universe was expanding more slowly a long time ago compared with the pace of its expansion today.

This groundbreaking discovery puzzled scientists, who long thought that the gravity of matter would gradually slow the universe's expansion, or even cause it to contract. Explanations of the universe's accelerated expansion led to the bizarre and hotly debated concept of dark energy, which is thought to be the enigmatic force that is pulling the cosmos apart at ever-increasing speeds.

While dark energy is thought to make up approximately 73 percent of the universe, the force remains elusive and has yet to be directly detected.

"Dark energy might never reveal its nature," Science staff writer Adrian Cho wrote. "Still, scientists remain optimistic that nature will cooperate and that they can determine the origins of dark energy."

2.How hot is dark matter?

In the 1960s and 1970s, astronomers hypothesized that there might be more mass in the universe than what is visible. Vera Rubin, an astronomer at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, studied the speeds of stars at various locations in galaxies.

Rubin observed that there was virtually no difference in the velocities of stars at the center of a galaxy compared to those farther out. These results seemed to go against basic Newtonian physics, which implies that stars on the outskirts of a galaxy would orbit more slowly.

Astronomers explained this curious phenomenon with an invisible mass that became known as dark matter. Even though it cannot be seen, dark matter has mass, so researchers infer its presence based on the gravitational pull it exerts on regular matter.

Dark matter is thought to make up about 23 percent of the universe, while only 4 percent of the universe is composed of regular matter, which includes stars, planets, and humans.

"Scientists still don't know what dark matter is, but that could soon change," Cho wrote. "Within years, physicists might be able to detect particles of the stuff."

But while astronomers may soon be able to detect particles of dark matter, certain properties of the material remain unknown.

"In particular, studies of runty 'dwarf galaxies' might test whether dark matter is icy cold as standard theory assumes, or somewhat warmer — essentially a question of how massive particles of dark matter are," Cho explained.

3.How do stars explode?

When a massive star runs out of fuel and dies, it triggers a spectacular explosion called a supernova that can briefly shine more brightly than an entire galaxy.

Over the years, scientists have studied supernovas and recreated them using sophisticated computer models, but how these gigantic explosions occur is an enduring astronomical puzzle.

"In recent years, advances in supercomputing have enabled astronomers to simulate the internal conditions of stars with increasing sophistication, helping them to better understand the mechanics of stellar explosions," Bhattacharjee wrote. "Yet, many details of what goes on inside a star leading up to an explosion, as well as how that explosion unfolds, remain a mystery."

4.Why is the sun's corona so hot?

The sun's ultrahot outer atmosphere is called the corona, and it is typically heated to temperatures ranging from 900,000 degrees Fahrenheit (500,000 degrees Celsius) to 10.8 million degrees F (6 million degrees C).

"[F]or the better part of a century, solar physicists have been mystified by the sun's ability to reheat its corona, the encircling wispy crown of light that emerges from the glare during a total solar eclipse," Kerr said.

Astronomers have narrowed down the culprits to energy beneath the visible surface, and processes in the sun's magnetic field. But the detailed mechanics of coronal heating are currently unknown.

"Just how the magnetic field transports the energy is much debated, and how the energy gets deposited once it reaches the corona is even more mysterious," Kerr wrote.

Thus there are many unsolved questions that are still to be answered.

But if you want to learn more about it then you can click on the link given below and read the full magazine here⤵⤵

https://astronomy.com/magazine/greatest-mysteries

The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.

– Muriel Rukeyser, poet