UNIVERSE- GOD'S MOST MONUMENTAL ARTWORK
The Universe, in simple words, is a vast and infinite expanse that contains everything that exists — from the tiniest subatomic particles to the largest clusters of galaxies. It is home to billions of galaxies, and each galaxy itself contains billions of stars, many of which have their own planetary systems. Our solar system, for example, is just one tiny neighborhood inside the Milky Way Galaxy.
Apart from stars and planets, the universe also hosts asteroids, meteoroids, comets, and even dwarf planets like Pluto. It doesn’t stop there — there are also black holes, mysterious regions where gravity is so strong that not even light can escape. And then there are white holes, which are hypothetical (but fascinating!) objects that might act as the "opposite" of black holes, spitting out matter and energy instead of pulling them in. Sounds wild, right?
If that wasn’t enough, the universe also contains exotic objects like neutron stars, which are the collapsed cores of massive stars, so dense that a sugar-cube-sized piece of neutron star could weigh as much as a mountain. There are also quasars, extremely bright and energetic objects powered by supermassive black holes at the centers of distant galaxies.
And here’s the craziest part — scientists believe that all the visible stuff, the stars, planets, and galaxies, makes up only about 5% of the universe! The rest is made of mysterious substances called dark matter (which has mass but does not emit light) and dark energy (a mysterious force causing the universe to expand faster and faster).
''Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying''
Human beings have always shown a fascinating curiosity about understanding the universe — a curiosity that eventually led to one of the greatest milestones in human history: the launch of Sputnik 1. Launched by the then Soviet Union on October 4, 1957, Sputnik 1 became the world’s first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth. This tiny metal sphere, equipped with four long antennas, continuously beeped as it circled the planet, marking the dawn of the space age.
The launch of the Apollo series of satellites paved the way for a new era of human endeavor in the field of space research. Soon, space research and astronomy became the cornerstone of scientific development, and many countries began diverting significant resources into space exploration. Nations started establishing their own space agencies — for example, Russia has Roscosmos, the U.S. has NASA, India has ISRO, and Japan has JAXA.
''Mathematics is the language with which God has written the Universe''
- Galileo Galilei
The origin and evolution of the universe have been interpreted in different ways by cultures and civilizations across the world. However, the most widely accepted scientific explanation is the Big Bang Theory.
According to the Big Bang Theory, all matter and energy in the universe was once concentrated into an extremely compact region with infinite density. This incredibly hot and dense state is referred to as a singularity. Suddenly, this singularity began to expand rapidly, leading to what we now call the Big Bang.
As the universe expanded, it also cooled down, allowing the formation of subatomic particles like electrons and protons, which later combined to form the first atoms. This process marked the beginning of the cosmic journey that ultimately led to the formation of galaxies, stars, planets, and life as we know it.
The image above clearly illustrates how science has evolved alongside the evolution of the universe. Among all branches, Mathematics and Physics remain the most fundamental sciences of nature. These two subjects are dedicated to uncovering the absolute truths of the universe, which is why they come with their own unique difficulties and challenges — after all, there is no shortcut to understanding the truth.
As human understanding progressed, Chemistry and Biology emerged as essential scientific disciplines, helping us decode the complex processes that govern matter, life, and ecosystems. Today, these sciences — though rooted in fundamental physics — have grown into deeply specialized fields that humans have come to understand profoundly.
Have you heard about black holes?
Most of you might be familiar with the term 'black hole' from the works of Professor Stephen Hawking. A black hole is a region in the universe where an enormous amount of mass is packed into a very small space, creating an extremely powerful gravitational field. This gravitational pull is so strong that nothing can escape it — not even light!
One of the most fascinating phenomena associated with black holes is the way they influence time. If you were alive and standing near a black hole (somehow!), just look at your watch — you would see it ticking slower and slower as you move deeper into its gravitational field. In fact, if you were to venture very close to the black hole’s event horizon, one minute on your watch could correspond to more than 700 years passing by for someone watching from Earth! Mind-blowing, right?
Of course, all of this remains mostly theoretical, because in reality, if you cross the event horizon — the boundary of the black hole — you would be pulled in and crushed by its immense gravity. Sadly, that means you’d never make it back to Earth to celebrate your next birthday with your family…
Now, imagine if our schools were placed near a black hole — time would slow down dramatically! A 3-hour exam on Earth could feel like 66,22,56,00,000 Earth minutes inside the black hole! That’s over 126,000 years — talk about an endless exam nightmare!
GALAXY
Galaxies are large clusters of stars. Our Solar System is situated in Milky Way Galaxy, likewise we have the Andromeda Galaxy, Whirlpool Galaxy etc.
If we take our Milky Way Galaxy, it contains millions upon millions of stars, and our Sun is just one among them — nothing too special in the grand cosmic scale. In fact, there are many stars much larger than our Sun, including Sirius A, Pistol Star, Dog Star, and the gigantic UY Scuti, which is one of the largest known stars in the galaxy. While the Sun is the largest object in our Solar System, we must remember that there are countless other solar systems scattered across the Milky Way.
For context, our Sun is more than 100 times the diameter of Earth, and Earth itself is nearly 4 million times larger than a typical human being.
Yet, despite all our achievements and the pride we take in calling ourselves the most powerful species on Earth, just look at how tiny we really are when compared to the vastness of the universe. If we were to compare the size of the universe to a human being, the universe would be at least a trillion trillion trillion… and more times larger than us!
And here’s where things get even more mind-bending — if you ask a theoretical physicist, they might even explain the existence of parallel universes, each existing just like our own. Some scientists even theorize that black holes could be the 'key' or gateways leading to these parallel universes.
''Look again at that dot. That's here, That's home. That's us''
-Carl Sagan, in his book Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space, after seeing the above image
The story of the universe doesn’t end there. According to modern physics, the universe is constantly expanding, growing larger every second. However, theories like the Big Crunch suggest that this expansion will eventually slow down and reverse, leading to a collapse where the universe shrinks back into a singularity — only to explode again, giving birth to a new universe. In short, the universe might be in a never-ending cycle of birth, death, and rebirth — a cosmic rhythm that has been playing out for eternity.
REFERENCES:
Image Credits:
1. Wikimedia Commons: Sputnik 1, Black Hole, Milky Way Galaxy, Andromeda Galaxy and Whirlpool Galaxy
2. Pale Blue Dot: NASA, from solarsystem.nasa.gov
3. Evolution of various Sciences: ktwop.com
*All the media published in this blog belongs to their original creators and 'Knowledge Through Science' does not claim any right over it.
Comments
Post a Comment