"Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people." The late astronomer Carl Sagan wrote and narrated those humbling words for his PBS Television series "Cosmos: A Personal Voyage." According to NASA, millions around the world saw the series. And millions more have read his book, "Contact" which was made into a motion picture.
Supernova SN 2006gy
In my previous article, "New Planet, Red Star," I wrote about headline news in the cosmos-the discovery of a planet in the constellation of Libra that might support life and therefore be habitable. Now NASA reports their space-born Chandra X-Ray Observatory and ground-based optical telescopes have discovered an exploding supernova, a massive star they call SN 2006gy. Is it as important? Yes and here's why.
The Universe Makes No Mistakes
The universe acts in accordance with natural law. Brainy humans figured out that physics is a good way for the concrete material brain to follow the logic of it. There's no hit and miss in the universe; matter and antimatter act and react in the same orderly fashion all the time. The planets orbit our sun in the same systematic trajectory. No alarm clock warns, "Hey, time to get moving, stay in your lane, don't bump into anything along the way." All space matter know exactly what to do, how and when to do it-which is more than you can say about us.
Since an exploding star like SN 2006gy is a dying star, astronomers hope to learn answers to how the first generation of stars died. Depicted by scientists as cataclysmic, these observers say explosions of stars the magnitude of SN 2006gy probably occurred often while the universe was forming. I get chills just thinking that at this moment astronomers are looking at the collapse of the largest supernova in the universe ever seen by man. Pretty awesome.
To put things further into perspective, Dr. Nathan Smith of the University of California, Berkeley said that unlike most supernovas that fade quickly, "the light from the explosion of SN 2006gy has remained bright since it began its disintegration in September of last year (2006)." That galaxy far, far away is called NGC 1260, some 240 million light years from earth. Yet its dying supernova is bright enough for us to see it happening.
Closer to Home
But a similar energy force may be ready to light up our own galaxy soon. A massive star called Eta Carinae, which is only about 7,500 light years distance from earth resides in our own Milky Way. Working together as a team, astronomers from the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Texas, Austin expect Eta Carinae to explode as a supernova. Earthlings will have front row seats to the greatest show on or off the earth when we witness the death of one of our own galaxy's stars-far enough away to not affect us with radiation.
Said one astrobiologist, "Eta Carinae's explosion in our own galaxy could be the best star-show in the history of modern civilization."
Explosions vs. Black Holes
Until the discovery of SN 2006gy, scientists thought supernovas collapsed into black holes. But with the new data coming in, Dr. Nathan Smith at Berkley posits another view. "We have runaway thermonuclear reactions, the star explodes, spewing what's left into space. In terms of the effect on the early universe, there's a huge difference between these two possibilities. One pollutes the galaxy with large quantities of newly made elements, and the other locks them up forever in a black hole."
Does it Matter When You're the Matter?
If you have read science fiction or watched the television series Star Trek you are familiar with the term antimatter. But antimatter is not just science fiction. Since I'm no physicist, the best way I know to describe it is sort of like looking in a mirror and then meeting your reflected self in person and killing one another. When a particle and its antimatter particle meet, they destroy each other and in the process create a tremendous explosion. Antimatter is created and destroyed in stars all the time, including our own sun. In fact here on earth that kind of energy is harnessed for brain scans.Depending on advances in physics, according to Washington State physicist Kelvin Lynn, antimatter if harnessed in significant quantities at unimaginable cost, could propel space rockets to the farthest reaches of the universe. Its energy potential is inconceivable, beyond any nuclear explosion. In the past the government made it know that research was underway. Then came the gag order from the U.S. Air Force and silence. "I think," Dr. Lynn said, "we need to get off this planet, because I'm afraid we're going to destroy it." Apparently Lynn is not the only one with similar thoughts.
**The results of Dr. Nathan Smith and his colleagues' studies on supernovas will appear in a forthcoming issue of "The Astrophysical Journal." NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama manages the Chandra program for the agency's Science Mission Directorate. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls science and flight operations from the Chandra X-ray Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
My website is under reconstruction until 2010. Meanwhile, you can find me at newagejournal.com/2007/spirituality/the-eternal-search-for-who-am-i newagejournal.com/2007/spirituality/the-eternal-search-for-who-am-i
You can also read two chapters of my novel, The Sword and the Chrysanthemum, Journey of the Heart at samurai-archives.com/guestart.html samurai-archives.com/guestart.html
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