What is Dark Matter and How Much is in the Milky Way?

By on Feb 15, 2016 in Cosmology | 1 comment

One fact that always humbles me is that the universe is made up 68% dark matter, 27% dark energy, and less than 5% matter. That means that all the current knowledge that we have is only about < 5% of the universe. When we say matter we are talking about stars, planets, moons, nebulas, and all the atoms in the universe. That makes up about 5%. This fact is just mind boggling and you should take a second to let that sink in. Now, that leaves us with dark matter and dark energy? Dark energy is what we believe is causing the universe to expand. Beyond that, we don’t know much about it. Dark matter on the other hand is interesting. We can say the things that are not dark matter but actually don’t know what it is either. Scientists know that dark matter is not in the form of stars and planets. It’s also not in the form of dark clouds or matter. Dark matter is also not...

Do Black Holes Live Forever?

By on Oct 15, 2013 in Cosmology | 1 comment

Black holes are one of the most scariest cosmic creatures that roam the vast universe. They have a gravitational force so strong that even light cannot escape from it. To even destroy a black hole it’s highly improbable. So a question arises and maybe you have thought it too, do black holes live forever? Well there is an answer to that and the short version is no they don’t live forever. We now know that black holes actually evaporate over time and shrink. The man who finally answered this question for us is none other than Stephen Hawking (you may have heard of him). In 1974 he studied the region close to the black holes horizon using the laws of quantum mechanics. For those of you who don’t know, quantum mechanics describes what happens on the smallest scale possible. When we talk about the smallest scale, we are talking about on atomic levels or even subatomic...

The Ultimate Fate of the Universe

By on Sep 29, 2013 in Cosmology | 1 comment

One question that humankind has pondered is what is the ultimate fate of the universe? It’s a question that is difficult to fathom. Imagining no more life, stars, planets, black holes or galaxies. Everything would be gone.     Well there are a few theories on how the universe will end. However, there are scientific theories that actually rival each other because it depends on whether the universe expands infinitely or not. Once the Big Bang theory came into play the question of the ultimate fate of the universe became a valid cosmological question. This all depends on the physical properties of the universe such as mass, energy, average density, and the rate of expansion.   The Geometry of Our Universe in Three Forms:   Currently the growing consensus is that the universe is flat1 and will continue to grow on forever. To understand this idea let’s look...

What are White Holes?

By on Sep 17, 2013 in Cosmology | 3 comments

What are White Holes?     White holes are one of the most interesting concepts in math. Maybe you’ve heard of them or perhaps this is your first time. Let’s answer the question what are white holes? A white hole is essentially the reverse of a black hole. Where a black hole sucks in matter faster than the speed of light a white hole expels matter and still attracts matter (we’ll talk about that in a second). Before I go any further a white hole is still hypothetical and it may always be hypothetical. The reason a white hole was introduced is because it can be proven in mathematics. Think about the balance of 1 and -1. When you balance equations in mathematics the other side of the equation is the opposite. In a black hole there is an event horizon that if any matter crosses this event horizon line then there is no going back. A white hole also has this event...