Modern+Mysteries


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media type="youtube" key="98KWR_aiK98" height="251" width="336" Dark matter is a theoretical substance that was first suggested because objects were revolving around other objects faster than they should've. The first person to observe this was Fritz Zwicky, who observed a galaxy cluster that would have to have 400 times the mass it had to be revolving at that speed. It has also been observed because, when things with huge amounts of gravity are between 2 objects, they actually bend the light, creating illusions, such as double images (Known as gravitational lensing). This has been observed when no apparent object with significant gravity is in the way, leading people to believe that it may have been dark matter. People are arguing whether it exists or not, and within the people who think it exists, there is even more debate about the features of it, but it has been mostly agreed that if it exists, it will be invisible, it will give no radiation, won't give off radio waves, and will not interact with normal matter, or in other words, it will go right through solid objects, with no effect on them. some theorize that it may be normal matter, but very dense to a point of having enough gravity to keep radio waves, light, or radiation from leaving the particle, if this is the case, than dark matter my well be what makes up strange objects such as black holes.
 * __DARK MATTER__**

__**BLACK HOLES**__ media type="youtube" key="EOi0xA9GvX8" height="281" width="378" Black holes are regions of space-time with an immense amount of gravity, usually about the amount of mass in 4 __million__ solar masses. Black holes have such huge amounts of gravity that not even light escapes, meaning that they appear black, hence the name "black hole". If you were to be moving toward a black hole, first, you would run into the photon sphere, which is an immense amount of photons rotating at near-light speeds caught around the black hole, but not fallen in. this would most likely cut you into millions of layers/pieces. next, you would run into the ergosphere. this is a region around the event horizon of a rotating black hole and, because the black hole has such unimaginable gravity, it actually drags space time in the same direction as the rotation of a black hole. this area moves so fast, that if you were in it, you would have to move faster than the speed of light just to remain stationary. next, after the ergosphere, if you were somehow still alive, you would finally reach the event horizon. the event horizon is the point of absolutely no return. as you got closer, something called tidal force, where the gravity is so strong, that the gravity at your feet (assuming you fell n feet first) is 1000's of times stronger than that at your head, and the gravity would rip you apart, atom by atom, from the feet up. if none of that got you, than as you fell to the event horizon, time would begin to slow for anyone watching you, and to them. it would take a near infinite time for you to actually cross it, but to you, as you fell it would seem as if time was normal. but you would never cross the event horizon in your perspective, because the black hole would seem to be a fixed distance away, even if your surroundings were rushing by. once the near infinite time passed, to others you would cross the event horizon, and once you did, you would notice nothing different. eventually, you would hit the singularity. a singularity is a point in space time where, in the equations used to calculate gravity become infinity. if you reach this (which you won't) you would be crushed into a spec with 0 volume, but the same mass. you would then be contributing to the black hole. but because of gravitational time warp (when under extreme gravity time slows) you would never hit this. as you are falling, because of the time warp, ahead of you, you would see everything that has ever fallen in, and behind you, you could see everything that ever will.

__**QUASAR**__ media type="youtube" key="qil7bKy1NrQ" height="249" width="447" A quasi-stellar radio source, or "Quasar" is a very distant and energetic active galactic nucleus. They are currently the brightest known objects in the universe, to a point where getting within a couple light years and looking at it will blind you. most quasars are extremely far away, some being at the edge of the observable universe, the closest quasar, 3C 273, is a full 1 billion light years away! Meaning, that we currently see it as it was 1 billion years ago. The farthest observed one was a huge 13 billion light years away. The typical quasar is about 25 BILLION times brighter than our sun, and even the dimmest quasar makes our entire galaxy look dim. It is largely a mystery as to how quasars get all of the power to stay so bright, but many people believe that they are actually powered by huge black holes. They think this because when observing a quasar, much of the time you see "quasar fuzz." This could actually be a galaxy surrounding the quasar meaning the quasar might just be the super-bright center of a galaxy. Many galaxies have black holes in the center. When gas accelerates at near-light speeds, it gets very hot, meaning quasars could be a bunch of gas hurtling into a black hole. This, of course, is just a theory.