Blogpost 4: Stars

Little bright pointed things up there in the sky that we have been seeing in our entire lives. They're the most beautiful things that we were liking to see every night since our childhood. Some people even said that we are made of  them, made of "starstuffs." Could that be possible? Well, we might not know the answer. Why are they so visible to the naked eye? Even though they're millions of light years away from us? It's because they're the brightest things ever existed. It's thanks to them because they are the ones which light up the universe, without them I can imagine the possible darkness in space.

Stars has it's own gravity, and they're sphere like shapes like the planets. Scientists also estimated about "ten billion trillion"(10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000), stars are present in space. But did you actually know in this present time that the stars now aren't producing that much anymore? There's an article I've read entitled, Amid Cosmic Fatigue, Scarcely a Star is Born by Dennis Overbye from nytimes.com, it says here that the stars in our present time are dying, plus, we're not making new ones. An astronomer named David Sobral of Leiden University even said, "You might say that the universe has been suffering from a long. serious crisis: cosmic G.D.P. output is now only 3 percent of what it used to be at the peak in star production." But it also says there that we don't need to worry, because stars can live up to million or billion of years. And also, we should at least be happy because they stated that it means the universe had already made 95 percent of star mass. Who knows what good might happen when it comes to 100? Well, of course when a star crisis might happen, we're surely dead by that time. They said that it's very different when the early protogalaxies were made, before they we're like popping, colliding, and merging and they were producing many bright new stars. But now, like they said, it's not anymore productive than before. For the time being, they still haven't solved the mystery of why are stars declining its production. They would also say that the universe would be darker if other stars died, then others won't produce.

For me, I wouldn't like that kind of situation. Moreover, I don't like seeing much darkness at night. Because losing stars can really produce darkness. Feeling sad? I think many of us won't. It's because stars can still be seen whether they're getting older. Or, it's not our business if it isn't reproducing anymore.


There is also an article I've read still about the "star declining it's making" issue entitled, The Universe Is Almost Done Making Stars written by Rebacca Boyle from popsci.com. Well, they said that the stars back then 11 billion years ago when the universe has just been made, the stars were forming very rapidly, imagine them like popping popcorns in the sky. Then eventually figured out that the stars creation today are "30 times lower" than the past billion years. Or, they said that it may even not increase anymore after some years. The team of an astronomer David Sobral observed these by taking pictures, they've somehow seen it from the stars sizes from the other old ones. To say it specifically, all of the stars back then just formed for 2 billion years. But now, only half of then formed for about 9 billion years. There really is a big difference since then. Of course 2 billion years of making is very far to 9 billion. They also added that only 5% of stars will only be added in space even if we wait forever. David Sobral also stated after his discoveries that:

"We are clearly living in a universe dominated by old stars. All of the action in the universe occurred billions of years ago,"  -David Sobral

So I guess after a million years, people would be living with old stars. Well, who knows? Maybe a miracle in space would happen someday? At least these beautiful things can last for almost forever, I really think I shouldn't be sad or anything.

Knowing that the production of stars are almost done, It doesn't really gave an impact to the life here on Earth, because we exaclty don't know what's the consequence of those events. But let's be thankful that we are still seeing these wonderful creation in our night sky.

Blogpost 3: Galaxy Formation

Galaxies took over the whole cosmos since the beginning, they were like the first beautiful objects that came after the great big bang. But did we know where or how did these things start? How were they formed?

After the big bang, it is said here in the article I've read, Galaxy Formation by Frase Cain from universetoday.com that the universe was entirely hydrogen and helium with other elements. They said that the fluctuations started the process.That the vast cloudswith an increased density started to form. But still Fraser Cain asked, "How did we get from the first particles of hydrogen and helium left over from the Big Bang to the beautiful spiral galaxy structures we see today?" Astronomers thought that the universe was also made by matter, dark matter which outnumbered regular matter. Forming together, they've formed mass with gravity, then soon creating larger mass to form a "proto-galaxy." Proto-galaxies are the clouds of gases which will soon form into a galaxy. Eventually, the materials from a proto-galaxy will start to form regions then soon form stars. After those formations inside a proto-galaxy, the proto-galaxy will soon merge to another one to become large and soon become a spiral galaxy that are now present in this age.

Galaxies are massive, they contain number of stars and planets. Like it's sheltering them. It's the one which helped the stars and planets form and it has its center which could be the sole beginning of how it's formed. Galaxies are also made of huge amount of gas and has it tails like an octopus. There are millions of galaxies in our universe, and our Milky Way is just one of it. Do you think there's other life out there? Well, I guess we'll never know by now.

Edwin Hubble, an American astronomer and was also known as the most important cosmologist. Hubble is also one of the most contributors of galaxy discoveries, he's also the one who classified the characters of other galaxies. I've read an article entitled, Where Do Galaxies Come From? by Summer Ash from slate.com. It says here that Edwin Hubble spent all night just to take pictures of the heavens. In Hubble's time, galaxies were still debatable until Hubble discovered some that some galaxies are "irregular" or also called the "interacting galaxies." They're the types of galaxies that pulls each other gravitationally, to create odd shapes. It's also in the middle of the 20th century only they have discovered galaxies' black holes, superhead jets, plasma, and shockwaves. Our galaxy can be dangerous in some way isn't? There can be two types of galaxies, the blue ones and the red ones. The blue colored galaxy is hot while the red is cold. Ironic isn't? Of course when you think about red galaxies, you'll probably think that it's hotter than blue ones. It's because blue ones are dominated with active star formation while the red ones have very little gas and cooler stellar population.

It also says there in the article that the galaxies that are "Spiral" are younger while the galaxies that are "Elliptical" are older.

Atronomers are still studying on how could spiral galaxies run out of gas then eventually can turn into an elliptical galaxy. Many are still questioned, and some could only be answered through the future.

"The history of astronomy is a history of receding horizons." -Edwin Hubble

So yeah, defining these events may seemed hard for the astronomers or scientists. but through the very fast evolution of modern technology, I think we can strive this questionable things soon.

We can say that these process is still ongoing by this time, we can still say that there are many galaxies forming out there in the sky, like our Milky Way. Scientists once told us that we will soon collide with Andromeda. After that, will we be in danger? Who knows what might happen?

Blogpost 2: The Birth of Quasars

After the great creation, all pieces of the universe were just amateur materials. I could say they were just babies floating to the cosmos, like us back then, seeing and wondering what's around us. Wandering like children. Ignorant. Knowing what to do. And also, making friends.

The pieces of the universe back then were like that. Stars, Galaxies, Planets were just being created. Following their orbits, or maybe fixing themselves.

Scientists discovered a massive and powerful object in 1963. It is said that these things are the earliest things ever formed in the universe after the big bang. These things are called the "Quasi-stellar radio sources", or "Quasars."

An article I've read entitled, Galaxy Collisions Give Birth to Quasars by Phil Berardelli from news.sciencemag.org said that Quasars are the most brightest and most powerful objects in the universe. They emit energies of millions, billions or even trillions of electron volts. It is stated here that Quasars are made up of super massive black holes which can burn for 100 million years. They also said that the "Galaxy Collisions" or when two galaxies collide gave the birth of Quasars. It's because galaxies have their own black holes in the center, but not yet dangerous until they could collide with another. Astronomers discovered these by using telescopes, which can see x-ray and infrared light. They've somehow seen a very unusual light that's directing to Earth, they knew that wasn't a star, then eventually knew that those very bright and massive things around the universe were a formation of two galaxies and has a very powerful radio signal with a massive light. They also reflected these things as like "firecrackers" in our sky, because of its very bright light formation. Quasars that were 11 billion light-years far away from our planet, when our universe were just 2.7 billion years old, are also visible when seen from a telescope. They said that its light from an 11 billion years is still present from Earth's vision. Eventually they've found out that it really is a result of a galaxy collision, where their central black hole merges. They have given the logic to this theory by thinking of what would be the result if the cores of the galaxies merges? Then they thought of it like maybe it can create a black hole. An astronomer named Priyamvada Natarajan thought of that idea, he said, "Suddenly it all made sense" because from the looks of it, you can really tell that a disaster would happen if two cores collided, like for example forming a black hole. They thought that the other core could suck all of the others energy then create a bigger one to form a Quasar.

I can say that these massive creations are very divine, yet dangerous. Like they said, it can destroy or suck up a whole galaxy near it. It can really be a threat to us if something like this would form near our Milky Way galaxy. Well, I hope not.




An article I've read entitled, The Birth of Quasars: Violent Cosmic Accidents Offer a Clue written by James Gleick from www.nytimes.com said that the Quasars began forming when the universe was just one-fifth of its present age. It also has a very strong radio signal that can even reach Earth. It is also written there that if a galaxy collided with another to form a quasar, orbits of stars or even planets would be disrupted. Meaning that if a quasar were to be formed, you could say that that galaxy isn't healthy or arranged, imagine its center becoming a whirlpool and draining all its water, or you could say, destroyed because of the super massive power of its black hole. But the crashing doesn't necessarily mean the crashing of everything, of every single planet and stars. Like Dr. Richard F. Green of Peak Observatory, said, "It's probably very rare for individual stars to collide, but clouds can." It's because gas clouds can be easier to pull than stars, obviously they're just clouds, they don't have much mass than stars. It says here that forming a Quasar can result to so much rearrangement , it can lead to bursts of stars, or even stars changing into different galaxies and orbits if not crashed with another. Quasars can last up to millions of years, then eventually end when the gas near the core loses its power.


After years of studies and observations, scientists can theoretically say that galaxies must have Quasars or have experienced having Quasars before their present stage. Who knows? Maybe our Milky Way galaxy also experienced Quasars? Or maybe our galaxy is also a result of a Quasar? A super massive collision of galaxies. Well, you can put that to mind but I guess we'll never know until we will study our galactic center. Like what Dr. Peter Shaver, of the European Southern Observatory, said:


"There are so many different lines of evidence now that are pointing the same direction. I think all of this is going to evolve very fast now." 

These Quasars are most likely the ancient and divine creation of space. Because of its powerful force that can destroy every single material on the universe because of its massive black hole. But I think these things called Quasars are inter-related to our galactic birth. Maybe they have a role in our universe. Because I think without its ancient formation that happened, I would say that maybe things would be different in our present time.

Blogpost 1: The Big Bang

Have you ever wondered where all the things around you came from? How or why were they like that? When you look up in the sky, have you ever thought of going higher and higher to see what's up there?

Well I think all of us does. Now let me give you a thought of where everything started.

 The Big Bang, scientists say that all things in the universe came from one single planet and  exploded then

inflated to the cosmos to create galaxies, stars and planets. This explains the origin of the universe, and where did Planets and Stars came from. But still, through the discovery of the big planet, they question things like, "how did it come into existence, and what existed before it?"

An article I've read entitled, The Origin of the Universe written by John P. Millis from space.about.com stated that scientists then believed that the Universe had no origin because they thought that it was eternal. Until they discovered a microwave signal called the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). This signal began the theory of the Big Bang. That the Universe began in from a singularity then inflated from small, very dense, and very hot by the speed of light to the coldness of space that we have known by now.

The CMB is a signal detected that they believed that was the echo of the big bang. It was some kind of a "heat signature". Also, they added up the fact that the universe is receding from us, meaning it's expanding. Imagine it like a bomb just exploded in space then the particles were just floating then because of the force given by the bomb, the particles just scatter away from it's center of explosion. That was the logic given from this theory.

But scientists still wonder what started or what was the Universe back then, before the explosion, before the big planet. Was there an older Universe that compressed in the middle of it to form a big planet? Or just an empty space, then objects suddenly appeared.

   A guy named Sean Carroll from the article  The Big Bang: What Really Happened at Our Universe's Birth? from space.com said that, "It could just be empty space that existed before our Big Bang happened, then some quantum fluctuation gave birth to a universe like ours." It says there that it may just be an empty space then a single object was filled with energy. Like, imagine a molecule absorbing and getting energy then suddenly became big then created a great mass. But there are still questions that come to mind like, where did those energy came from? Alex Filippenko an American astrophysicist also stated that, "I think time in our Universe started with the Big Bang, but i think we were a fluctuation from a predecessor, a mother Universe." Meaning that there maybe is a Universe back then, a Universe that may just be unfixed then somehow fixed itself to create a new one. We may not yet conclude that this was the beginning of everything yet Sean Carroll quoted:

"We know all these things now.", "The pace of progress is actually astonishingly fast, so I would never give in to pessimism. There's no reason in the recent history of cosmology and physics to be pessimistic about our prospects for understanding the Big Bang."

This was so a great discovery for scientists. It didn't just answer their questions, but they also revealed and contributed a great thing to the world and its people. If they didn't brainstorm or tried to solve this great thing that they discovered, we would all still be wondering where did all things from the Universe and from the Earth came from. 


It's really hard when you investigate things without enough evidence. Especially when you're investigating from a 13.8 billion year event. We don't know much, we did not see the exact explosion, but I believe that our modern scientists and our use of modern technology can enlighten what really happened in the big bang, or did the big bang really happened.

This study really made up my interests about space. But my question personally is, why are we created like this? Why space? Why have other galaxies? Why were we made as humans not aliens or where did we really came from? And are we exactly a part of the big bang. But I am thankful, that this explosion they explained, gave us a beautiful world.