Strange Stars We all know there are a heck of a lot of stars in the sky. What has recently been announced is the fact since 1950, over 800 stars we know about have disappeared. What does this mean? It means we can no longer see them so maybe the word disappeared is not appropriate. I say this because while they may have indeed vanished you would think there would be some kind of trace. When a star explodes it turns into a nova or supernova for awhile and then disappears from view. I remember seeing one which lasted about 10 days and that was with the naked eye. This is not how things always work. The first thing we have to realize is when we look at stars, we are looking at the light from their past. If we take their distance into account in light years, this is how many years in the past the light we are looking at comes from. For argument’s sake let’s assume a star is 10,000 light years away. It could have exploded or disappeared 10,000 years ago because light travels at about 186,000 miles per second. All the old stars we are looking at could have vanished many millions and billions of years ago. The question here is if a star disappears from view, does this mean it is no longer there and is destroyed? Maybe yes, but also maybe no. Perhaps we just can no longer see it for some reason. Maybe its view is being blocked and we don’t realize it. There is a lot we probably do not know about space and this problem could be one of those things. If a star does really just disappear, we don’t seem to have the technology yet to know why. The answer among the people who believe the universe is a computer simulation is the program changed or there was a glitch in the program. Needless to say, I am not a believer in this computer generated universe theory. One question which comes to my mind is can light somehow become invisible to us? Maybe there is a process taking place we are unfamiliar with which makes us think a viable star is not there. Could a black hole be affecting it in some strange way which effectively hides the star from view but hasn’t destroyed it? Speaking of black holes, is it possible a rogue black hole traveling through the universe could have just gobbled up these stars? If not, could they have just gotten between the star and our telescopes and blocked out the light from the star? If we look at the other side of the spectrum and ask the question how many new stars were created in the same time period, the answer seems to be none. There are plenty of places in the heavens where it seems new stars are being born, but an actual new star appearing hasn’t seemed to have happened. A prediction has been made by a couple of astronomers which state a collision between two stars will occur in 2022 and create a new star. They also claim the new star will only be visible for two to three years. A researcher said, "If the prediction is correct, then for the first time in history, parents will be able to point to a dark spot in the sky and say, 'Watch, kids, there’s a star hiding in there, but soon it's going to light up." If we take all the facts available about disappearing stars and appearing stars, it looks like they certainly disappear over time, but the time space for a new star is so long we never see a completed new star appear. This is the problem, we have limited knowledge about the heavens, even though it could be far more that we had even a hundred years ago. We can thank several things for this knowledge. Telescopes are far more powerful than they were and having them in space away from the turbulent atmosphere of earth makes viewing clearer. The probes we have sent out into space have beamed back invaluable information about planets, the sun, asteroids and comets, but have yet to reach a star other than our own. Landers and rovers are beaming back valuable information and as we get further out into space, we will gain even more information. We have discovered some very strange stars in space. We used to think all stars were the same, but as time went by and telescopes improved, we realized there were not only different ones, but there were some mighty strange ones. The Pulsar is the remains of a star which had gone supernova. It is still very bright even though it is a remnant of its original self. It also rotates very fast. You might ask the question how fast do they spin? The fastest one we know of spins at the incredible speed of 716 complete revolutions every second. One star we discovered is one of the hottest. It is 8.7 million times brighter than our sun. It is the most massive star discovered. Its designation is R136a1. You have to wonder how a star can be this hot and still continue to stay intact. If I was to pick the strangest star of all it would be the one known as the Mesothelia's Star, HD 140283. The reason I would pick this star is it was measured to be so old; it was older than the universe we know. Is there something wrong with the way its age was measured or is it proof there were other universes here which have gone and left some remnants? Neutron stars have a strange property. If we take a sugar cube size of material from the star it will weigh millions of tons. One neutron star, designated RX J1856.5-3754 is so small it is only about the size of Central Park in New York City. It has gravity which is two million time stronger than our gravity on earth. Scientists believe time is different on the surface of this star and eight years would equal ten years on earth. This is said to be caused by gravitational time dilation. The last type of unusual star I would like to mention is the Magnetar. It is basically a neutron star but differs because it has a powerful magnetic field. SGR0418+5729 is said to be the most powerful magnetar found. All this magnetic power if sent through only 525 feet of surface area.
|
