The star light that touches your eyes are photon particles that have travelled millions of light years before it reaches your eyes.
Your eyes, your very being, are interacting with photonic particles that are older than the human species itself.
And if you look at the heaven via telescope, and see farther, your eyes might even interact with photon particles from stars almost as old as the earth or even the universe itself.
Tonight's and last month's full moon were a super full moon. Refer to the footnote of last month's post on what is a super full moon.
Also, scientist has discovered that the Earth recently acquired a second moon. Just a small one; albeit a temporary one, dubbed a mini moon.
Talking about the moon, we may also get another "moon" or something that looks like a moon when the star Betelgeuse goes supernova. (Betelgeuse star is part of the constellation Orion, forming the shoulder of Orion, the hunter. In the original Arabic, the name means "the armpit of the Giant"). Since Betelgeuse is relatively near to our Solar system (in astronomical terms), its explosion will be so bright that, from Earth, the supernova will shine as bright as the moon. It will look like the Earth has another moon.
For another story about the Moon, here is a song about the Moon inspired by a Spanish folklore. The Moon has a dark side and a generous side. She grants the gipsy woman her wish but asked for something selfish in return.
Hijo de la Luna (Son of the Moon).
Version by Mario Frangoulis (with English translation).
Yes, the full moon is beautiful, but remember that it has a dark side; and its shining light is not its own, but a mere reflection.
While the sun is hot and can burn you, it lights up your days, always, without fail. ...and the stars twinkle in the background, forgetting that they are also like the sun, great balls of fire that can light up the universe. ...and the planets swim along around the sun, like dead fish that swim along with the stream. ...and then there are dead stars; the black holes; but they don't know that they are "dead"; they suck the energy and destroy everything around them, and spew deadly radiation that destroy life near and far away. So...which one are you?
------------------------------------- Inspired by the full moon. -------------------------------------
So, which one are you? The universe has a lot to teach us, if we only look deep enough, hard enough. From the biggest bodies like the stars and planets to the smallest and unseen particles like graviton (is that real or sci-fi?) and dark matter to the fact that quantum physics says our reality might just be an illusion. (What a scary thought! There goes freewill and independent thinking.)
Well, no matter, I will still sleep soundly, since the Big Freeze or the Big Crunch (depending on which theory you accept) is still billions or trillions of years away. Good night.
Full moon at Batu Layar Beach.
---------- Footnote:
Tonight's and next month's full moon is a super full moon. What is a "super full moon"? According to this website, a Full Moon that occurs when the Moon is near its closest approach to Earth, it is called a Super Full Moon. The moon should look very big, bigger than usual. Perfect for lunar photography.
KIMSE BILMEZ Bulut geçti, gözyaşları kaldı çimende, Gül rengi şarap içilmez mi böyle günde? Seher yeli, eser yırtar eteğini gülün, Güle baktıkça çırpınır yüreği bülbülün. Bu yıldızlı gökler ne zaman başladı dönmeye Kimse bilmez, kimse bilmez...
English translation; NOBODY KNOWS The cloud has passed and left its tears on the grass, Isn't it one of those days to drink a rose wine? Early morning wind blows and tears the petals of the rose, Looking at the rose, the nightingale's heart flutters, When have these starry nights started revolving? Nobody knows, nobody knows... (Lyrics was inspired by a poem from "Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam".) The universe is vast. While we do not know everything about the universe, we know a lot more now compared to 100 or 200 years ago. In ancient times, the Chinese thought that eclipses happen because dragons were trying to eat the moon. Ancient wise men came up with constellations to help them navigate. Ancient Asian civilisation count times using the moon cycles. Then, people in the northern hemisphere with temperate climate found that counting the years using the sun is more useful and the solar calendars were invented. Astronomers of the Islamic empires observed the heaven and recorded the stars and gave them names. Galileo and Copernicus also observed the heaven and revolutionised not just our understanding of the heaven but also, arguably, broke the chains of religious dogma that stifled the modern age of scientific enquiry (with their heliocentric model of the solar system). Newton, with his law of gravity and the Gravitational Constant, and Hubble with his observation of the expansion of the universe, expanded our understanding of the movement of stellar bodies. Einstein, with his Theory of Relativity, Stephen Hawking and their contemporaries also expanded our understanding of the universe. The universe is not just vast. The universe is infinite. It makes our existence almost insignificant. But do not let it make your life insignificant. When you snuggle in your warm bed after the morning rain, admire the beauty of the rose petals and listen to the heart flutter of a nightingale, do not just look or listen. Have a glass of your favourite drink and just live.
About two days ago, on the 10th April 2019, the first ever image of a black hole was unveiled by scientists.
The phenomenon known as a black hole was predicted by Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. Any previous drawings are only models based on scientist's prediction of how a black hole would look like. But now, scientists have captured the real thing.
Credit: bbc.com
You can read the news here or see the full press conference by the team that captured the image, here.
The image may not looked like much. But what it does is that it confirmed the existence of black holes with actual image. It contributed to our understanding of the universe and how the universe works.
The image was captured by a team of about 200 scientists from all over the world. The team was called the Event Horizon Telescope project.
To capture the black hole in a galaxy about 55 millions light-years away, you would need a telescope as big as the Earth. We do not have a telescope that size. But what we do have are many powerful, high altitude telescopes spread across all over the Earth. When you combined their observation power in the same direction, you get an Earth-sized telescope. (Obviously, I am over-simplifying this, but if you want to understand further, click on the youtube video above.)
What does this mean for the rest of us humans and Earth?
Well, scientists predicted that there is a black hole in the centre of our own galaxy, the Milky Way galaxy. And since black holes suck everything around them, this means that, eventually, our own galaxy, including our own solar system, will collapse into that black hole.
So, Armageddon is coming.
But do not worry.
This will not happen soon, it will only happen, trillions of years, if not billions, in the future.
By that time, planet Earth would have been dead already from the dying Sun.
