Five mysterious space discoveries – from creepy radio signals to ‘nuclear pasta’ 10billion times stronger than steel
IT’S SAFE to say the universe is filled to the brim with weird and wonderful mysteries.
Whether it’s nightmarish planets, or a literal cosmic question mark.
Mysterious radio signals
Researchers have been receiving ultrastrong, ultrabright radio signals lasting only a few milliseconds since 2007.
The mysterious signals have been called fast radio bursts, or FRBs.
Their source appears to be billions of light-years away.
In September, astronomers recorded a powerful burst of radio waves that had reached Earth after traveling through space for 8billion years.
Dubbed FRB 20220610A, it is one of the most distant and energetic radio signals ever observed.
Cosmic question mark
Tucked away in the Herbig-Haro 46/47 galaxy, some 1,470 light years away, is a bizarre cosmic object that looks exactly like a question mark.
This shape, discovered by the $10billion James Webb Space Telescope, has understandably baffled scientists.
The identity of this object remains a mystery.
All scientists know is that, because of its reddish hue, it is incredibly far away from the Earth.
Light is shifted into the red end of the spectrum for objects moving away from us.
Nuclear pasta
Nuclear pasta, the strongest known substance in the universe, is 10 billion times stronger than steel.
It forms from the leftovers of a dead star.
Simulations suggest that the protons and neutrons in a star’s dying form can be subject to immense gravitational pressure.
The star is packed so tightly as it shrinks, and a single teaspoon of its mass would be heavier than Mount Everest.
This squeezes them into linguini-like tangles of material that would eventually snap if you applied a force 10 billion times the force needed to shatter steel.
Although it can be squashed into several different types of pasta shapes, hence the name ‘nuclear pasta’.
Near the surface of the neutron star, ‘nuclear pasta’ takes the form of bubbles, called gnocchi.
Going deeper, it is compressed into flat sheets of lasagne.
Colliding galaxies
Last week, scientists captured six galaxies colliding in unprecedented detail on the William Herschel Telescope Enhanced Area Velocity Explorer (WEAVE) – one of Earth’s most advanced telescopes.
The rare event was sparked after one rogue galaxy, NGC 7318b, raced through Stephan’s Quintet, a well-known group of five interacting galaxies.
It barged in an astonishing speed of 2million mph (3.2million km/h), which created a powerful shockwave that has been likened to the “sonic boom from a jet fighter”.
The collision kicked out a massive field of debris left behind by previous galactic collisions.
Nightmare planet
Roughly 64.5 light-years away, an exoplanet infamous for its violent weather has made a name for itself in another department: its smell.
Its atmosphere stinks of rotten eggs, according to data captured by the James Webb Space Telescope and analysed by researchers at Johns Hopkins University in July.
The gas giant, dubbed HD 189733 b, has trace amounts of hydrogen sulfide in its atmosphere – making the entire planet smell of sulfur, or rotten eggs.
Life on HD 189733 b
Life on HD 189733 b would be impossible for us humans, but lets imagine for a second:
Nasa has branded HD 189733 b one of the “most terrifying and mind-blowing destinations” in our galaxy.
While it may resemble Earth from afar, with its marbled blue atmosphere – it couldn’t be more different.
Not only would every breath you took smell of sulfur, but you have to tackle winds that blow up to 5,400mph with the stench of rotten eggs.
That’s around seven times the speed of sound.
“And getting caught in the rain on this planet is more than an inconvenience,” according to Nasa. “It’s death by a thousand cuts.”
This alien world is thought to rain glass – sideways – in its Tempest-dwarfing winds.
Not only that, the planet’s surface, even on its dark side, reaches north of 650°C (1,200°F).
It’s these harsh conditions that make the planet a very poor prospect for extraterrestrial life.