The First Pictures of The James Webb Telescope

7th July, 2022

By: Haris Ahmad

The James Webb Telescope was launched into space successfully, onboard the Ariane 5 rocket from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana on the 25th of December. 

The telescope was planned to be launched into orbit at a very far distance, at a point called the Second Lagrange point. This point in orbit is 1.5 million km away from the Earth though it is still in the zone of orbiting the Earth. The advantage of this orbit is that firstly, the light from the Earth and the Moon will no longer disturb the camera and secondly, the telescope will have a larger field of view. It successfully reached this point on 24th January and it was a moment of jubilation for everyone here on Earth. 

Eventually, scientists on Earth operating the Telescope successfully unfastened its instruments and tested them. Due to the efforts of countless scientists, it was a success and the instruments worked as they were supposed to.

 

On July 12th, the first images taken by Webb were released by NASA. They include the images of the Carina Nebula, the Stephan's Quintet, Southern Ring Nebula, and a deep field image known as SMACS 0723. In addition, it also released a picture that uncovered the atmospheric composition of the Hot Gas Giant named WASP-96b, a feature that no telescope has ever had before. 

In this blog, I will explain the deep field image taken by the telescope since there's a lot going on in that image. 

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScl

This image isn't the first of its kind since Hubble has been taking deep field images since it was launched but it is true that the one captured by Webb is the clearest and sharp infra-red deep field we have ever witnessed. It covers a grain-sized part of the sky but contains millions of stars and galaxies. 

Moreover, if we look deeply, we can see that some of the galaxies look curved or bent. 

In reality, that is not what these galaxies look like and neither are they located in the places we are able to observe in this picture. Actually, these galaxies are located behind the galaxies we see them curved around. The reason we see them in such a way is because of a phenomenon called Gravitational Lensing. It is a process in which light from celestial objects behind extremely dense objects such as black holes is bent in such a way, that it results in multiple images of the object seen around the dense object. This process can be clearly seen in the Webb captured deep field image. The bent galaxies are at least 13.5 billion light years away from us and were born in the early stages of the universe, approximately 300 million years after the Big Bang. 

Furthermore, the instruments on the Webb telescope that can detect the atmospheric composition of exoplanets are also an extremely unique feature and has a lot of potential. It can help us find planets with suitable conditions for life to thrive which can, in turn, be studied and examined to find extra-terrestrial life outside planet Earth.  

These images were just sneak peeks of what Webb can achieve and there's a lot more to come. I am extremely excited to see what this telescope uncovers. I'm sure you are too. 

The James Webb Telescope

4th January, 2022

By: Haris Ahmad

The James Webb Telescope has been launched into space successfully, onboard the Ariane 5 rocket from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana on the 25th of December. The launch as well as the separation process of the telescope's launch went pretty smooth and the astronomy community is extremely joyous about that since this can prove to be a factor in increasing the life expectancy of this structure. 

https://esahubble.org/images/jwst_poster01/

The James Webb Telescope isn't just one normal telescope, it's a structure that took 30 years to create. Nevertheless, the making of this telescope was the largest, most expensive, and most challenging space-engineering project humans have ever attempted. This telescope is not the only of its kind, since humans also launched another telescope named Hubble in 1990. The Hubble telescope experienced some technical problems but, after it was fixed, it worked just fine and it went on the reimagine our perception of the universe. Though Hubble can see objects that are very distant, it cannot see things farther than a specific limit. This is where the James Webb telescope is brought in, which can take images in more detail and higher distance (~13.5 million light-years) and can see objects that hold secrets about the origin of the universe. This telescope will help us understand how the universe initially formed and how it evolved into the great vacuum it is today. Not only will this telescope help us see the past of this universe, but it will also help us predict the fate of many of the galaxies, stars, etc. This telescope has the ability to capture infra-red light that ultimately helps it significantly in finding objects much farther than the Hubble could see. Moreover, this telescope can also detect the presence of many gases in a planet's atmosphere which means that it can find traces of extraterrestrial life by detecting gases and molecules in the atmosphere that suggest their existence. 

The main problem though is that the Sun also emits infra-red light so, how do we keep the infra-red light from the Sun away? Well, this telescope has a sun shield that blocks all the light from the Sun from reaching the telescope’s camera.

https://www.space.com/news/live/james-webb-space-telescope-updates

This telescope has been launched into orbit at a very far distance, at a point called the Second Lagrange point. This point in orbit is 1.5 million km away from the Earth though it is still in the zone of orbiting the Earth. The advantage of this orbit is that firstly, the light from the Earth and the Moon will no longer disturb the camera and secondly, the telescope will have a larger field of view. 

The Ring Nebula

18th July 2021 

By: Haris Ahmad

Nebulae are giant clouds of gas and dust in space. Some of them may have formed due to the explosion of stars into supernovae. Nebulae are the regions where stars form and the Sun is also formed from the elementary particles in a Nebula.  

The Ring Nebula, also known as M57 is a planetary nebula that was created due to the explosion of a sun-like star into a Supernova. What now remains of that Star is a tiny white dot in the center of the nebula, which is a type of celestial body we know as a white dwarf.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180417.html

The Ring Nebula exists approximately 2,000 light-years away from us, in a constellation in the sky known as Constellation Lyra.

This Nebula is facing the Earth in such a way that astronomers can see the ring clearly shaped towards our view.

The blue gas we see in the nebula’s center is a football-shaped structure seen in the view piercing the red, circular-shaped material. The inner perimeter of the ring displays an elaborate structure of dark, irregular lumps of dense gas that the stellar winds have failed to blow away yet from the Nebula’s perimeter. The lumps and their tails look like bars in a bicycle.  

This Nebula was discovered by a French astronomer named as Antoine Darquier de Pellepoix in 1779, but in fact, according to some sources, he independently rediscovered it after reading a report by Charles Messier regarding Messier's own observations of Comet Bode.

 

 

 

 

Small Choices, Large Impacts

5th July

By: Haris Ahmad

"Go green, there is no Planet B yet"

The Environment of our Planet is a dominant factor in the sustainability of life on Planet Earth. However, it is a desolate truth that we humans are collectively destroying planet Earth and its capability to sustain life. We are tempting climate change, whilst knowing the destruction it'll bring to this fragile Planet and its short-term and long-term consequences.

Deforestation is at its peak and tons of greenhouse gases are being emitted. Moreover, water, air, and land pollution is rising at ever-increasing rates. Every year, approximately 3.5 billion to 7 billion trees are cut down, which is an immensely huge, and disappointing number. Consequently, not only the oxygen supply is reduced but, entire ecosystems are affected due to the fact that these trees were once habitats to countless organisms. 

The Amazon forest, also known as 'The Lungs of Planet Earth', is being cut down at an extremely fast rate. If the trees in the Amazon forest are cut down at the current rate, by 2100 the whole forest will be a barren land with no trees to be seen anywhere.

Souce: Wikipedia

These factors are piling up to cause Global Warming, which is a red alert for us humans. Due to the rise in temperatures, entire Glaciers are melting and falling apart, leading to a drastic increase in sea levels, leading to floods which can kill and displace millions of people. Nevertheless, the lives of millions of people are at the brink edge of existence due to the threat of Climate Change.

“We are the last generation that can prevent irreparable damage to our planet,” General Assembly President María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés (Ecuador) warned the gathering in her opening remarks, stressing that 11 years are all that remain to avert catastrophe. (Source - United Nations) 

This statement is a grave warning for us, and it does not mean that there is no hope. When there is a will there is a way. If all of us take action right now, we may save the planet Earth before it's too late. We have to stress on decreasing industrial pollution. We, as inhabitants of Planet Earth, regardless of our county, race, or religion, have to unite in pressurizing against these industries and their owners who run Multi-National companies, earning billions whilst destroying our Planet. We have to stop the dumping of waste into rivers and lakes in order to save marine life. 

The use of renewable materials such as Biofuels should be increased instead of fossil fuels not only because these fossil fuels are limited and will end soon, but also because the burning of fossil fuels damages the environment to a great extent. 

Deforestation much is reduced and afforestation should be increased. Many countries are taking steps in planting more and more trees and projects such as the ‘billion tree tsunamis’ initiated by the Government of Pakistan should be started and encouraged because these are the steps that really matter. There should be strict rules for preventing deforestation on a large scale. The public doesn't need to wait for the government to do something; it is our solemn duty to protect this planet from destruction because we are also a part of it. We should take small steps such as planting as many trees as we can. If you are too busy to plant trees then just plant one tree on your birthday. If every human plants one tree on his/her birthday, we will be able to plant billions of trees each year which will compensate the ones which are cut down. Currently, this is the only planet we can inhabit, so we should save it from destruction because climate change will not only destroy Earth but it will also wipe all the organisms that exist within.

 

Nebulae - The Most Beautiful Places in The Universe

23rd May, 2021

By: Haris Ahmad

Nebulae are some of the most fascinating celestial bodies that exist in our Universe. They are clouds of gas and dust in outer space. Some of these also contain star materials i.e the elementary particles that are needed in the creation of stars such as helium and hydrogen. 

In this blog, I will highlight the Pillars of Creation, which sits at the heart of the M16 or Eagle Nebula.

https://physicsworld.com/a/hubbles-best-shots-pillars-of-creation/

It is an active star-forming region which means that stars are formed in this region at fast rates due to the availability of star-forming materials which I explained above. This Nebula contains many elements with Oxygen, Sulfur, Hydrogen, and Nitrogen being available in generous amounts. These pillar-like structures in the Nebula are struck by ultraviolet rays from a cluster of young stars nearby.

These Pillars stretch to a distance of 4-5 light-years whereas the whole of Eagle Nebula is approximately 70-55 light-years in size. 

This Nebula was discovered in 1745, by a Swiss Astronomer. It is located 7000 light-years away from Earth in  the constellation Serpens  

Unsolved Mysteries of the Universe - 2

28th February

By: Haris Ahmad

As I explained in my previous blog, the universe consists of 5% normal, visible matter in the form of stars, planets, moons, asteroids, and galaxies, etc. Moreover, another 25% of the universe consists of Dark Matter which is invisible to our eyes. This type of matter is basically, a postulated form of matter that interacts with its surrounding space through gravitation. However, the remaining 70% percent of the universe comprises of Dark Energy, which is another great mystery of the universe and the most fascinating one, in my opinion. 

Whilst Dark Matter has the power to hold the universe together, Dark Energy has enough power to tear up the whole universe. 

Basically, the universe as we know it came into existence through a great explosion that we know as the Big Bang which ejected a large amount of matter and energy. Due to the inertia of this humongous explosion, the universe is expanding. However, according to the laws of Physics, this inertia will have to reduce gradually to an extent that it comes to a stop but, this is not the case here. The speed of the expansion of the universe is increasing at great speeds instead of slowing down. To get an idea of how fast it is getting, I'll share the fact that at some places, this expansion is taking place at speeds that are even faster than the speed of light which is, quite shocking. Therefore, scientists performed complex calculations and research and derived the fact that there is something behind this phenomenon and hence, Dark Energy was founded. The culprit behind the ever-increasing speeds of the expansion of our universe. 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2Fmg22630164-600-looking-into-the-voids-could-help-explain-dark-energy%2F&psig=AOvVaw0eyz4Uv8gHQb6MHeCAB5he&ust=1615551443915000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAMQjB1qFwoTCMCR4qScqO8CFQAAAAAdAAAAABA2

Dark Energy is very powerful and it has enough power to rip the whole universe apart. The origin of this energy, however, is still a mystery as scientists are totally baffled by it. Recent researches assume the collision of quantum particles as the source of this mysterious energy, however, this is still an ambitious prediction due to the fact that we don't yet have the technology to observe such phenomena. Therefore, the origin of this mysterious energy has not been found yet. a

Unsolved Mysterious of the Universe

21st February

By: Haris Ahmad

Our Universe is a boundless vacuum that stretches over a distance of billions of light-years and it consists of countless types of celestial bodies. Modern technology and complex mathematical equations have helped humans to understand the Universe to a great extent, however, there are still many mysteries that are unsolved. In this blog series, I'll highlight some of the mysterious phenomena in the Universe. I will start with Dark Matter. 

The known universe is composed of 5% normal matter, in the form of stars, planets, asteroids, galaxies, and Nebulae, etc. However, 25% percent of the universe is made up of Dark Matter. This type of matter is invisible to our eyes and is basically, a postulated form of matter that interacts with its surrounding space through gravitation. The existence of this type of matter was predicted through its effect on normal matter. Scientists calculated and derived the fact that galaxies just weren't having enough gravitational force to maintain their spiral and elliptical shapes and therefore, it suggested the fact that something mysteriously hidden was the culprit behind this mystery. Hence, due to the fact that there is not much knowledge about this type of matter, scientists on Earth named it Dark Matter. 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.livescience.com%2F65208-fuzzy-dark-matter-evidence.html&psig=AOvVaw0LnywtxtrH5Wt79UmfzOkv&ust=1615549608784000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAMQjB1qFwoTCKDg6riVqO8CFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

This Dark Matter acts as a spider web that holds entire galaxies together. Furthermore, the distorted view of distant galaxies suggested that it was Dark Matter, which was bending the space between us and the galaxies, and this nevertheless, contributed to the idea of the existence of such matter. The composition of this mysterious matter still remains a mystery as the scientists are totally baffled by it. Some theories suggest that Dark Matter is made up of undiscovered particles that are unknown to man whereas other theories suggest that the culprits behind this type of matter are some unknown gravitational properties. 

Pink Super Moon

30th April

By: Haris Ahmad

The Full Moon of April 2021, called the Super Pink Moon attracted many Astronomy enthusiasts as it shined brightly in the night sky. Many Astrophotographers captured this beautiful Astronomical event. This Moon was one of the two Super Moons of 2021. 

Super Moons occur when the Moon comes the closest to Earth in its elliptical orbit. This makes the Moon up to 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than it is when it's the farthest from Earth in its elliptical orbit cycle. 

I myself captured this beautiful event in Pakistan. Although the city I live in has an urban night sky; the Moon was still clearly visible. Luckily, on the night of this event, the sky was clear and there were no clouds that blocked the Moon. 

Here is the picture that I captured :

If you missed this Astronomical event, then don't worry, because on 26th May, there is another Astronomical event. The Blood Moon. 

Be on the lookout for the Moon in the sky on 26th May, You surely don't want to miss this pleasing event.

 

The Blue Moon

31st October 2020

By: Haris Ahmad

Tonight, a blue moon will appear for all time zones on Earth. This astronomical event has last happened for all time zones in 1944 and won’t happen again until the year 2039 for all time zones.

https://www.universetoday.com/20321/blue-moon/

It sure will be a spooky one taking into account that Halloween is right around the corner. Blue moons are rare since they appear once every 2.5 years on average. The last seen blue moon for a specific time zone was in March 2018.

The moon will ‘not’ turn blue itself. The blue color can be seen due to t the scattering of the light coming from the moon by smoke or dust particles in our planet’s atmosphere. Such effects are not at all related to the moon’s phases.

Moreover, this moon also qualifies for the title of a ‘mini-moon’ since it will occur when the moon is approximately at the farthest point from Earth in its orbit. The mon will be approximately 406,394 km away from Earth which is significantly farther away than its average distance of about 384,400 km.

https://slate.com/technology/2014/05/close-encounter-what-if-the-moon-orbited-much-closer-to-earth.html

Nebulae – The Most Beautiful Places in the Universe’

25th October 2020

By: Haris Ahmad

Nebulae are giant clouds of gas and dust in space. Some of them may have formed due to the explosion of stars into supernovae. Nebulae are places where stars form and the Sun also formed from the elementary particles in a Nebula. In our universe, there are countless Nebulae with some visible to the naked eye in a clear night sky as well.  

This is the third blog of my ‘Nebulae – The Most Beautiful Places in the Universe’ series. In this blog, I will highlight the Helix Nebula.

 

The Helix Nebula is located 650 light-years away from Earth in the Aquarius Constellation. Similar to the Dumbbell Nebula in my previous blog, this Nebula is also a planetary Nebula and is cataloged as NGC 7293.

Credits: NASA

This Nebula resulted in an old Sun-like star that shed its outer layers in a supernova explosion. The same may happen to our Sun in 5 billion years too.

 

The structure of this Nebula resembles the eye of Sauron from the Lord of the Rings which many of you may have noticed too. The bright purple circle in the center of the Nebula is the ultraviolet and infrared glow of the disk of dust that orbits the white dwarf that is present at the very center of the Nebula.

 

Before the star exploded into a Supernova, its comets and maybe planets would have orbited the star in a normal way but when the star ran out of Hydrogen and Helium to burn for Thermo-Nuclear fusion, it blew its outer layers off and the celestial bodies that orbited the star would have been tossed away and into each other. The inner planets of the star system would have probably either burned up due to the heat oof would have been swallowed completely by the expanding star.

Nebulae – The Most Beautiful Places in the Universe

18th October 2020

By: Haris Ahmad

Nebulae are giant clouds of gas and dust in space. Some of them may have formed due to the explosion of stars into supernovae. Nebulae are places where stars form and the Sun also formed from the elementary particles in a Nebula. In our universe, there are countless Nebulae with some visible to the naked eye in a clear night sky as well.  

This is the second blog of my ‘Nebulae – The Most Beautiful Places in the Universe’ series. In this blog, I will highlight one of my favorite Nebula, The Dumbbell Nebula.

 

The Dumbbell Nebula was discovered by Charles Messier in 1746. It resides approximately 1200 light-years away from Earth in the Vulpecula Constellation.

Credits: NASA/ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

This Nebula is also known as M27 and was the first planetary Nebula that we ever discovered. It isn’t a planetary Nebula because it hosts planets but it is classified as a planetary Nebula because of its planet-like appearance when viewed by smaller telescopes. Just like the Crab Nebula, this Nebula is also the result of an old star that sheds its layers in a Supernova explosion.

 

This Nebula hosts many layers of gas and dust as we can see in the image. Some point at the stars inside the range of the Nebula whilst some remain as isolated clouds. The sizes of the clouds of gases in the Dumbbell Nebula range from 17 billion to 56 billion km. The shapes and sizes of these clouds change as the Nebula expands due to inertia from the explosion. Moreover, such clouds have been discovered in other nearby Nebulae as well which suggests that it’s a universal evolutionary scheme.

 

 

Mars At Its Brightest

September 11th, 2020

By: Haris Ahmad

Currently, the red planet Mars is at its brightest and biggest in the night-sky as it has lined up with Earth on the same side of the Sun. This phenomenon occurs every 26 months on average and hence, Earth and Mars get the closest to themselves in orbit. This is also the best time for missions to take on a trip to Mars due to the closer distance.  

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2020/10/10/mars-at-its-brightest-since-2003-as-moon-visits-venus-what-you-can-see-in-the-night-sky-this-week/#2e2838c92d13

On the night of Tuesday, 13th October, the ‘opposition’ will take place and Earth Mars and the Sun will align in a straight-line making Mars the brightest till 2035 when it will take place once again. None of us should miss this event because it may be the last time for some people to see it. Regardless of that, no astronomy enthusiast shall miss this beautiful event.  

Moreover, Astrophotographers in the Northern Hemisphere will be overwhelmed due to the fact that on this occasion, the elevation of the red planet in the sky is higher than normal which means that telescopes will not need to look through the Earth’s disturbing atmosphere which can lead to distortion in images. 

Alan MacRobert, a senior editor of Sky & Telescope magazine says, "Just look southeast after the end of twilight, and you can't miss it. Mars looks almost scary now, compared to how it normally looks in the sky."

 

Supermassive Black Hole Supports General Relativity

October 4, 2020

By: Haris Ahmad

Einstein’s general theory of relativity has remained at the brink edge of being proved for decades now. It still remains as a theory due to the fact that we don’t know yet, how the general theory of relativity can be reconciled with quantum physics. However, there are still countless phenomena that prove this theory. The best of them is the total Solar Eclipse that took place in 1919.

The experiment conducted on the event of this eclipse proved that light from distant objects is bent by the gravity of massive objects which in this experiment was our very own parent star, the Sun; whereby the blocking of the Sun's light allowed us to directly observe the light from the star that was behind the Sun which appeared to be in a different location than it normally is. 

However, recently researchers at the University of Arizona have found that a 'shadow' cast by the supermassive black hole that is known as M87 at the center of the Messier 87 galaxy proves that Einstein was correct. 

https://www.cbs46.com/first-photo-of-a-black-hole-supports-einsteins-theory-of-relativity/article_e97bcb42-45e3-5c3f-b07f-9df771c4fbc2.html

The team has found that the intense gravity of the Black Hole bent the fabric of Space-time which acted as a magnifying glass which caused the shadow of the black hole to appear larger than it normally should be.  

When measurements were taken, the researchers found that the size of the black hole shadow was close enough to the size predicted by the mathematics behind general relativity.  

This black hole is located 53.49 million light-years away but thanks to modern technology, scientists could uncover it and study it. This is the same black hole that the researchers studied using the Event Horizon Telescope in 2019.  

 

https://alkhaleejtoday.co/international/5059618/The-first-image-of-a-black-hole-supports-Einstein%E2%80%99s-theory-of.html

Michael Kramer, director of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy and EHT collaboration member said, “Blackhole images provide a completely new angle for testing Einstein's theory of general relativity”. 

With such successful studies and discoveries, the theory of general relativity may soon become a law that would give us an extremely enhanced view of the universe. 

The Discovery Of Life On Venus

September 27th, 2020

By: Haris Ahmad

Venus was named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty. It doesn’t have any natural satellites/Moons and is a rocky planet. The close distance to the Sun coupled with the thick atmosphere of Venus makes it trap an insane amount of heat and hence, Venus is known to be the hottest planet in the Solar System. The temperatures on this planet can reach up to a blazing 462 degrees Celsius. This is enough to kill you and turn you into ashes in less than 2 seconds. Furthermore, it rains Sulphuric acid on this planet which is a highly corrosive acid and will burn you in the matter of seconds. This deadly rain is caused due to the composition of its atmosphere. If you want to see a place similar to hell in this life, then go to Venus and you’ll have an idea.

https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/09/16/1008478/venus-soon-as-possible-phosphine-clouds-astrobiology-life-veritas-davinci/

According to some theories, Venus was very similar to Earth millions of years ago; however, something went terribly wrong and unimaginable amounts of gases such as Cabon dioxide were released. Scientists still aren't sure about what exactly happened but whatever happened, it wasn't normal. This gives birth to many questions such as, was Venus once habitable, if yes then what lived on it, where did the inhabitants go or what happened to them, and so on. Whatever the changes may be in favor of life being on Venus, it is a general conception that in the current conditions, Venus cannot be home to any kind of living organism in any way, taking into account its conditions. However, you would be shocked to hear that scientists have recently discovered signs of life in Venus's atmosphere.  

Even though the surface of Venus may not be welcoming, the atmosphere may be the place where we should look for life in the form of microorganisms. There is a region of Venus's atmosphere that isn't too hot or too cold and may be suitable for life to exist in.  

Hence, Scientists have detected the presence of Phosphine gas in the same ideal region of the atmosphere of Venus. Phosphine is a deadly molecule to humans and was also used in the first World War as a weapon in chemical warfare. The reason behind Phosphine being so toxic to humans is that it reacts very easily with the oxygen that our body needs to respire and survive. However, Phosphine is not toxic to the forms of life which do not require oxygen to survive. In fact, some also produce phosphine. This gas is often found in oxygen-free environments on our planet and is produced by the waste of some microbial organisms. Therefore, if some kinds of microbes produce phosphine on Earth, there could also be some organisms on Venus that can produce Phosphine.  

The deep story behind this discovery is that one of the astronomers operating the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope at Hawaii known as Jane Greeves detected a hint of Phosphine gas in the atmosphere of Venus but that sign was confirmed by a more powerful telescope ALMA or Atacama Large Millimeter Array telescope located in Chile. 

After observing Venus again, scientists were assured that it was indeed, Phosphine. After countless experiments and simulations of trying to create Phosphine without life, the scientists failed and hence, it was sure now that according to the laws of modern science, Phosphine can only be produced by microbial life.  

There are two plausible explanations for the Phosphine in Venus’s atmosphere. Either the production of Phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus is the result of some reactions that are unknown to modern science. Or, there is microbial life in the atmosphere of Venus which is producing the Phosphine gas.  

Venus has now become the top priority for Scientists and they are planning to send missions there to search for life. This would happen soon because Venus isn't very distant from us being a planetary neighbor.  

Nebulae - The Most Beautiful Places in the Universe

September 20, 2020

By: Haris Ahmad

Nebulae are giant clouds of gas and dust in space. Some of them may have formed due to the explosion of stars into supernovae. Nebulae are the regions where stars form and the Sun is also formed from the elementary particles in a Nebula.  

In this series, I will highlight some of the most beautiful and attractive Nebulae. There are countless Nebulae in the universe with some visible to the naked eye in a clear night sky as well.  

The first Nebula I’ll talk about is one which you may have seen or heard about before. This Nebula is known as the Crab Nebula. It is also known as Messier 1.

https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso9948f/

It is an expanding remnant of a Supernova that has a Pulsar at its center. I have explained what a Pulsar is in one of my previous blogs. The Crab Nebula is located in the northern region of constellation Taurus. It is approximately 6500 light-years away from us. This Nebula is more than 75,000 times luminous than our Sun. The Supernova explosion that resulted in the creation of the Crab Nebula is known as SN 1054 since it was observed by Chinese Astronomers in 1054 A.D. The diameter of this beautiful Nebula is approximately 11 light-years across and is expanding at the speed of 1500 km per second.  

The Pulsar at the center on the Crab Nebula is known as the Crab Pulsar which is approximately 20 to 30 km across. It is a rapidly rotating neutron star that spins at a rate of almost 30 times per second.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_Pulsar

The explosion of the star that formed the Nebula has produced a large shell of elements that still exist in the Nebula. However, this Nebula will eventually disappear and the fragments will be dispersed into space nearby.  

This Nebula was discovered in 1731 by an Astronomer named John Bewis. However, later, Astronomer Charles Messier discovered it independently in 1758 while looking for Halley’s Comet, which was predicted to return that year.