Pulsars - My Favorite Celestial Objects

June 14, 2020 

By: Haris Ahmad[1]

Our universe is a boundless place that is impossible for our brains to wholly understand or for our eyes to completely see. This is not only because it is so large but, also because it is expanding at ever-increasing rates. Therefore, we are only limited to see the part of the universe which we call the observable universe. According to current estimates, the observable universe is about 93 billion light-years across.

This enormous size means that if any event takes place at one side of the observable universe, the light from that event would take 93 billion years to reach to the other side for any extraterrestrial intelligent life to see. However, that’s not all. The universe is much bigger than that. The observable universe is so tiny in comparison to the whole universe that, it is as if you place a light bulb in the middle of the dwarf planet Pluto (2300 km in diameter). 

You see, the whole explanation I just gave was to give you an idea of how enormous the universe is. Therefore, it is home to unimaginable types and numbers of celestial objects. Among these, the most common to us are planets, stars, moons, asteroids, black holes, etc. However, among this vacuum exists many other types of celestial objects that are extremely fascinating. 

Hence, in this blog, I will explain my favorite type of celestial objects that many of you may not know about. These celestial objects are known as Pulsars. These objects are neutron stars and are the densest in the universe. One spoon of Pulsar mass is equal to the mass of Mount Everest.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/nasa-continues-to-study-pulsars-50-years-after-their-chance-discovery/

A 12-mile pulsar can weigh as much as 1.5x our Sun which is 1392680 km large. Moreover, these objects mostly exist in the most beautiful places in the universe, those places are, Supernovas.

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

Pulsars are rapidly rotating neutron stars that emit pulses of radio waves and electromagnetic radiation at the rates of up to one thousand pulses per second. The speed of the spinning of these monsters is just mindboggling. For example, the sun spins at a speed of 1.997 km/s while Pulsars spin at the speed of 70,000 km/s. 

Now, let's talk about how these monsters are born. If you have read my Solar System related blogs, you may know that stars like our own Sun produce energy using a process called thermonuclear fusion. This means that it fuses two nuclei to produce a larger single nucleus and the main fuel for this process is Hydrogen and Helium. Therefore, one day the fuel has to end and when a star 4 to 8 times the mass of our Sun comes to the end of its life and runs low on fuel, it can no longer fight back against the gravity from its core and collapses, producing an explosion to become a Supernova (A luminous stellar explosion). This explosion is so strong that the whole shell of the Star is completely blown into pieces and the Protons and Electrons in the core fuse together due to the influence of immense gravitational forces. Therefore, the star ends up becoming a tightly packed ball of neutrons and becomes a neutron star. Over time, this ball of neutrons gets compressed more and more and starts spinning faster and faster. Physics calls this process, ‘The Conservation of Angular Momentum’. The outcome of this process is a neutron star that spins as fast as hundreds of times per second and this star is arguably the smoothest object in the universe too because the gravity aligns the neutrons together in a smooth sphericle shape. This neutron star now has so much mass and energy, that it starts shooting jets of energetic particles from its poles and there you have it, a Pulsar. 

For years, scientists were muddled as to what is this object was, emitting light in the form for X-rays and blinking in constant intervals. However, after decades of deep research, they found out that they were the beams of light emitted by neutron stars that pointed straight towards Earth in constant intervals. This was just like a lighthouse’s beam that you can see passing in front of you. 

Furthermore, just like any other object in the universe, Pulsars, and other neutron stars also come to an end at some point in their life. They gradually slow down until they stop spinning and wander in the vacuum of space and lie undetectable to our technology. From the time of their discovery, we have successfully detected approx. 2000 pulsars and will continue to discover more.   

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[1] Haris Ahmad is currently studying in 9^th grade (O levels) in The City School Islamabad.

The Closest Star to Us – Explanation for a Newbie

June 7, 2020

By: Haris Ahmad[1]

In my previous few blogs, I explained the whole Solar System in simple words so that people having very little or no knowledge about the Universe. We covered all the aspects of the Solar System except asteroids because I have already explained them in detail in one of my blogs in the past. For now, we are taking on a relentless journey into the unknown to understand how everything in the universe works.

In this blog, I will explain about the closest star to us beyond the Sun. The name of this star is Proxima Centauri. It is also known as Alpha Centauri C because it is a part of the three-star system called the Alpha Centauri star system. Proxima Centauri is about 4.2 light-years away from us.

https://www.quora.com/If-our-sun-is-a-star-then-why-do-we-say-that-the-star-nearest-the-Earth-is-Alpha-Centauri

This might seem like a tiny number but in terms of space travel, it is a humongous number. Before taking in detail about Proxima Centauri, I’ll explain Alpha Centauri A and B. Alpha Centauri A is a star which is very similar to our very own Sun in nearly all aspects. On the other hand, Alpha Centauri B is slightly smaller and dimmer than the Sun. However, it is still quite similar to our Sun. Proxima Centauri is a much smaller star that is categorized as a red dwarf star. Furthermore, Alpha Centauri A is very promising for life because the bombardment through solar flares and radiation is very low on this star. Moreover, on Alpha Centauri B conditions for life are slightly hostile. Lastly, Proxima Centauri is extremely hostile to life because it is a type of active red dwarf star which bombards its surroundings with dangerous radiations. Hence, the best place for life to evolve in this star system is in the goldilocks zone of the star Alpha Centauri A. The goldilocks zone is a region around a star where conditions aren’t too hot for water to boil nor too cold for it to freeze. Therefore, it is a region where water can stay liquid. Even though Proxima Centauri is very hostile to life, there is a planet named Proxima Centauri b which orbits it in its goldilocks zone. Hence, many theories of life have arisen on this planet. This planet is slightly more massive and larger than our planet Earth. Even though this planet orbits its star closer than Mercury orbits the Sun, the planet still haws a temperate climate. This is because Proxima Centauri is a very small red dwarf as I explain before. Though this planet may have chances to harbor life; deep research shows that this planet isn’t the place to look for life and there are various reasons for this. Firstly, planets that orbit their stars at such a close distance are tidally locked. This means that this planet may be tidally locked which means that one side of the planet faces its star while the other faces away. This suggests that one side of the planet will be burning hot while the other will be cold. Now that isn’t the place to find life, isn’t it? However, heat distribution done by the atmosphere of the planet may even out the differences but, who knows? Furthermore, another reason for the planet’s habitability is one that I explained earlier. As I explained, Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf, that is a type of star which is ridiculously active in terms of ejecting radiation and experiencing solar flares.

https://phys.org/news/2018-04-proxima-centauri-flare-powerful-visible.html

The ozone layer of the planet may be bombarded to such an extent that it might have just been blasted away. Therefore, exposing the surface of the planet to harmful radiations of the parent star. However, if this planets’ magnetic field is strong enough, it may shield itself from these calamities.

This was the end of this blog, in my next blog, I will explain another aspect of the universe in simple words for newbies to understand easily.

[1] Haris Ahmad is currently studying in 9^th grade (O levels) in The City School Islamabad.

Ice Giants and the Tiny lad of the Solar System - Explanation for a Newbie

May 31, 2020

By: Haris Ahmad[1]

In my previous blog, I explained the fifth and sixth planets from the Sun which were from a type of planets called the Gas Giants. In this blog, I will explain the last two planets of the Solar System and the dwarf planet, Pluto.

Ice giants are planets that are mainly composed of elements that are heavier than hydrogen and helium. The ice giants of our Solar System are Uranus and Neptune. These planets are the seventh and eighth farthest from the Sun. The temperatures on them are extremely low due to both the distance from the Sun and their composition.

The first planet I’ll talk about is Uranus. Uranus was named after the Greek god of the sky. This planet is composed of water, methane, and ammonia fluids that exist above a rocky surface. Moreover, like Saturn and Jupiter, its atmosphere is made up of hydrogen and helium. The element behind the blue color of this planet is methane. This planet is about four times wider than Earth has 27 Moons. 

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

Furthermore, many of you may not know but Uranus also has rings. It has 13 rings that are narrow and dark. This planet has been only once seen close by humans when the Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by it (Read my blog about voyager 2 if you want to read about it in detail). Otherwise, no other spacecraft has orbited this planet. This planet is very unique in its style of orbit around the Sun because it orbits the Sun on its side which means that its rings can be seen vertical. Moreover, due to this kind of orbit, Uranus experiences weird seasons. In Winters, the planet’s north pole experiences 21 years of nighttime. In Summers, it experiences 21 years of daytime and in spring and fall, it experiences 42 years of nighttime.

The last and farthest planet that orbits the Sun is Neptune. Neptune was named after the Roman god of the sea. It is a cold and dark planet, dominated by furious winds. This planet is also four times wider than Earth and orbits the Sun at a distance of 4.5 billion km. 

https://www.space.com/41-neptune-the-other-blue-planet-in-our-solar-system.html

This planet is composed of water, methane, and ammonia which exist above a small rocky core. Similar to Uranus, this planet also has an atmosphere mainly composed of hydrogen, helium, and methane. It has 14 moons named after sea gods of the Greek mythology. Moreover, like Uranus, it also has rings. It has a ring system comprising of five faint rings. These rings were formed due to the dust and debris formed by a nearby moon. Furthermore, this planet also hasn’t been orbited by any spacecraft. However, it was seen closely only once when Voyager 2 flew by it in 1989.

The next planet I’ll talk about is; let’s not call it a planet. Sadly, in August 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) downgraded Pluto from the status of a planet to a dwarf planet. This was done because Pluto lacked the characteristics of a planet. This planet is 2380 km wide. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 5.8 billion km in a region called the Kuiper belt. 

https://www.loc.gov/everyday-mysteries/item/why-is-pluto-no-longer-a-planet/

It takes Pluto 248 Earth years to orbit around the Sun once. This is due to the vast distance of the planet from the Sun. This planet has a thin atmosphere of nitrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide. It has 5 moons of which the largest is Charon. Charon is so big that Pluto and Charon orbit each other. Unlike its neighboring fellas, Pluto has no rings. Till this time, only the New Horizon spacecraft has passed close to the planet Pluto. The surface temperature of Pluto is -228 to -238 degrees Celsius which would instantly freeze any human who lands on it.

[1] Haris Ahmad is currently studying in 9^th grade (O levels) in The City School Islamabad.

Solar System And The Sun- Explanation For A Newbie

10th May, 2020

By: Haris Ahmad[1]

This is the first blog of a new series of blogs that I’ll start in which I’ll explain the universe to people who have very little or no knowledge about the universe. I will explain the facts in very simple words and feasible explanations. I will start from the most common phenomena and then eventually explain the complex phenomena because, by that time, you would probably be ready to understand because of your base knowledge which you will gain from the initial few blogs.

In this blog, I will start with the explanation of the Sun and the Solar System. However, we first have to understand what the Solar System is. The Solar System is a gravitationally bound planetary system of the Sun and the objects which orbit it. The statement above is stated by Wikipedia but I’ll explain in simple words about what it means. The Solar System is a system of planets and many other objects that orbit (revolve around) the Sun because the Sun has so much mass (amount of matter) that its gravitational force attracts all of the objects that have a lower mass than it. Hence, celestial bodies such as planets, dwarf planets, asteroids, etc. orbit the Sun making the Solar System. 

http://www.seasky.org/solar-system/solar-system.html

I will frequently use the word celestial bodies which means any object in space. Furthermore, let's move on to the explanation of the parent of all of the Solar System. It is the object which everyone on Earth knows and it is the Sun. The Greek name of the Sun is Helios. The Sun is a nearly perfect sphere of helium and hydrogen which burns on and creates energy by a process called nuclear fusion. This process is very complex for me to explain in this blog series because I have to keep everything simple in this series; however, I’ll tell you a fact that this process can only take place in a star like the Sun and not at any other place. Moreover, the Sun burns 600 million tons of hydrogen per second and it is still 4.6 billion years old and will burn on until 4.5-5.5 billion years further. Even though Sun provides warmth and energy for life to evolve on our planet Earth, it’s still a deadly partner. The Sun expels harmful radiation that can destroy life but thanks to our planet’s atmosphere, those radiations won’t reach us. The atmosphere is a crucial part of the life of a planet and I’ll come to it later on. Since the Sun is using fuel to power it, it has to come to a stop one day when its fuel will end. In between this process, another process will happen which will cause the Sun to swell and expand into a red giant phase in which it will increase its radius by 256 times the current. After the Sun finishes up everything it has to burn with, it’s core will collapse on it which will cause a humongous explosion. That will mark the end of the Solar System but there is still a few billion years till that will happen. Furthermore, the Sun normally experiences some explosions on its surface which expel high energy particles into space. This is known as solar flares. These flares are so dangerous that they can wipe out all organisms on Earth but thanks to our atmosphere again that nothing will happen to us as these won’t even reach us. However, they still affect us in the way that they temporarily create disruptions in our signal transmission. 

https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2012/0509/How-a-solar-flare-could-send-us-back-to-the-Stone-Age

Besides, there is a more disruptive phenomenon that the Sun can produce which can blow out the transformers in power grids. This phenomenon is called a coronal mass ejection. According to Wikipedia, a solar storm of 1859 (also known as the Carrington Event) was a powerful geomagnetic storm during solar cycle 10 (1855–1867). A solar coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth's magnetosphere and induced the largest geomagnetic storm on record, September 1–2, 1859. This briefly describes how dangerous these ejections are. Whatever the consequences, we have to live with the Sun because we have nothing else that can provide us warmth and energy to live on our planet in the whole universe. 

This was the end of this blog. This was the first in its series and I will soon write more blogs to add on to the series. In the next blog, I will explain the inner planets of the Solar System to you in simple words. 

[1] Haris Ahmad is currently studying in 9^th grade (O levels) in The City School Islamabad.

Gas Giants of the Solar System – Explanation for a Newbie

May 17, 2020

By: Haris Ahmad[1]

In my last blog, I explained the inner four planets of the Solar System in simple words. In this blog, I will explain about the Gas Giants of the Solar System in simple words so that people with very little or no knowledge about the universe can understand.

The first planet I’ll talk about is simply everyone’s favorite and is frequently called the jewel of the Solar System since it is so elegant and attractive. It is the one and only, Saturn. Saturn was named after the Roman God of agriculture because an ancient myth stated that Saturn introduced agriculture to his people by teaching them how to farm the land. Another fun fact about Saturn is that the day, Saturday is named after Saturn and it means Saturn's day. 

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/saturns-rings-shine-in-hubbles-latest-portrait

This planet belongs to a type of planets that are called Gas Giants which simply suggests that they are made mostly of Gas. Saturn is made up of 94% Hydrogen and 6% Helium and small amounts of methane and ammonia. This planet is the second largest in the Solar System and is famous for its rings. This planet got its rings due to the comets and asteroids that reached its Roche limit and broke into pieces due to the immense gravitational force exerted by this giant beast. If you're wondering what Roche limit is; it is the limit in the orbit of a planet where objects will shatter into pieces due to the immense gravitational field exerted by the planet. Believe it or not, Saturn has 62 confirmed orbiting Moons. That is just mind-boggling but wait till you see the real big fella after this. Moreover, Saturn has very disturbing surface activity. It has very strong winds and lightning in its clouds. If Earth faces a storm like the ones Saturn, no standing structure would survive. Besides, there is also perfect hexagon made up of clouds on the North pole of Saturn (You can see it in the picture if you look deeply). Furthermore, this planet has a moon called Titan which is its biggest one. According to my opinion and study, Titan may be the best place for finding life in the Solar System due to its extremely close characteristics that are needed to sustain life. I will explain why in one of my next blogs but for now, let’s move on to the real beast of the Solar System.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/63754150952875545/?autologin=true

The next planet I’ll talk about is Jupiter. It was named after the King of the Roman gods. This planet is the largest in all of the Solar systems and is also a gas giant like Saturn consisting of 90% Hydrogen, 10% Helium and small amounts of compounds like ammonia, sulfur, water vapor, and methane. This planet has 79 known Moons. This planet is so large that it can manage all those Moons without any problems. Jupiter is more than twice as massive as all of the other planets in the Solar System. Moreover, many of you may not know but Jupiter also has very light rings made mainly out of dust particles. I call Jupiter, the vacuum cleaner of the Solar System because it attracts and engulfs many asteroids that could collide with other planets and even the Earth. These asteroids are large enough to wipe out all life on Earth but thanks to Jupiter, that is not the case. Also, in almost all of the pictures of Jupiter that you will see on the internet, you will see a giant red spot. This spot is 1.3 times bigger than Earth and has been continuously observed from 1830. It is a giant storm that has been there for a long time and will end in a few years or decades.

In this blog, I explained the two gas giants of the Solar System. In the next, I will explain about the two ice giants and the not so planet, planet Pluto; or let’s say, the dwarf planet Pluto.

[1] Haris Ahmad is currently studying in 9^th grade (O levels) in The City School Islamabad.

Inner Planets of Solar System - Explanation for a Newbie

May 10, 2020 

By: Haris Ahmad[1]

In my last blog of the same series, I explained what the Solar System and the Sun are in very simple words so that people with very little or even no knowledge about the universe can understand. In this blog, I will move on further and explain the four inner planets of the Solar System.

https://www.tes.com/lessons/lwmnzI_djhVevA/solar-system-the-inner-planets

The first Planet of the Solar System which is the closest to the Sun is Mercury. Mercury was named after the swift-footed Roman messenger god because it moved across the sky faster than any other planet. It is a rocky planet with no natural satellites/Moons. This planet is 57 million km away from the Sun and lacks an atmosphere. This means that there is no shield protecting the planet from the intense radiations of the Sun which I explained in the previous blog. Its surface is full of craters/impact points due to the collision of asteroids (Small rock bodies) with it. I will explain about asteroids in the coming blogs in simple words. Even though this planet is the closest to the Sun, it is not the hottest one in the Solar System and has a temperature of 427 degrees Celsius since it lacks an atmosphere which means that not only does it not have a shield to protect it, it also doesn’t have a cover to trap heat inside the planet.

The second planet is Venus. Venus was named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty. It also doesn’t have any natural satellites/Moons. It is a rocky planet similar to Mercury. Though it is almost thrice larger than it. Moreover, it has an atmosphere. This means that it has a shield as well as a heat keeper. However, due to its distance from the Sun, the planet’s atmosphere stores an insane amount of heat which makes the planet the hottest of all in the Solar System. The temperatures on this beast reach up to 462 degrees Celsius. This is enough to kill you and turn you into ashes in less than 2 seconds. Moreover, if that isn’t enough to kill you, the Sulphuric acid rain on the planet will surely do the job. This deadly rain is caused due to the composition of its atmosphere. If you want to see hell in this life, then go the Venus and you’ll get an idea. This sure is a hard fella to stay with. Hence let’s move on to our home planet.

The third planet from the Sun is our very own planet Earth. It has one natural satellite named Luna or Moon. This planet exists in a zone of the Solar System called the Goldilocks Zone. Therefore, it orbits the Sun in an area where water remains liquid. Neither does it boil due to high temperatures nor does it freeze due to low temperatures. Hence, this is the reason why it is the only perfect planet is all of the Solar System to sustain life. Temperatures of this planet are warm and stable enough for life to thrive on it. However, we humans are destroying the planet even though we know we have nowhere else to go with the current technology.

The fourth planet from the Sun is called Mars or the red planet. Mars was named after the Roman god of war. It has two moons named Phobos and Deimos. Mars rotates around the Sun in a tilted motion and so, it has seasons. On this planet, the daytime temperatures can reach up to 26 degrees Celsius, which doesn’t seem bad at all. But, since this planet has an extremely thin atmosphere, approximately 100 times less thick than Earth’s atmosphere there is an immense amount of radiation on the planet. Moreover, due to the absence of a thick atmosphere, temperatures at night can reach -125 degrees Celsius. The atmosphere of this planet was destroyed by the solar winds because it had a very small gravitational field. Furthermore, even though this planet is a hard fella to stay with, humans can still terraform it to help it meet the requirements for life to strive for it. In a few years or even soon, humans will be sent to Mars for the first time.

This was the end of this blog. In my next blog, I will explain the jewel and the vacuum of the universe which all of you may know as Saturn and Jupiter.

[1] Haris Ahmad is currently studying in 9^th grade (O levels) in The City School Islamabad.

Why Hubble's Sight is Limited and How Will We Tackle It

May 3, 2020

By: Haris Ahmad[1]

The Hubble telescope was launched by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and ESA (European Space Agency) on April 24, 1990. Space Shuttle Discovery launched it into orbit. The Hubble telescope orbits approximately 547 km above Earth. It travels 5 miles per second and is solar-powered; hence, it gets energy from the Sun. Hubble takes clear and sharp images of the celestial bodies in space e.g. planets, stars, galaxies, and nebulae. It can take images of celestial bodies, which are billions of light-years away from us. In this blog, I will explain that even though Hubble made many astonishing discoveries about celestial bodies many light-years away, it still has limited sight.  This doesn’t mean that it was useless. It made discoveries which totally changed our perception of the universe. One of the greatest images this telescope took was the Hubble deep field, which is an image of a small region in the Ursa Major constellation. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Deep_Field#/media/File:HubbleDeepField.800px.jpg

All the colorful dots you see are individual galaxies and this makes you wonder just how big this universe is and how small we are. These galaxies may seem a lot but they are just the ones from a tiny spot we can see in the sky. You can even find more Hubble deep field images on NASA and ESA websites. This wasn’t the only astonishing image; it took many other images of planets, stars, nebulae and galaxies. Now, lets come to the main point. Hubble can only see visible light from a certain point of the electromagnetic spectrum. 

http://hubble.stsci.edu/the_telescope/nuts_.and._bolts/wavelengths.php

Therefore, only the light from the range of wavelengths that the telescope’s instruments can observe is captured. Hence, the visible light that has a longer wavelength than that of Hubble can see is not visible to it. This is the main reason why Hubble can’t see the galaxies of the early universe because the wavelengths of their light are much longer. Moreover, another factor that adds to this disability is the expansion of the Universe. Many of you may know  the Doppler effect. If you don't know about it then I'll explain it with an example. When an ambulance is blowing its siren close to you, you can hear the sound very loudly because the pitch of the sound is high due to the shorter wavelengths of sound; however, when the ambulance goes further away from you, the pitch of the sound gets lower and the wavelengths are longer and hence, you hear the sound slower. The same effect happens with light when the universe expands. When the universe expands, the wavelengths from distant objects also expand and due to this, Hubble can’t capture these longer wavelengths because they are out of its reach. However, we shouldn’t just give up. Space scientists are filling this pothole by creating another telescope that will see what Hubble could not and that telescope is the James Webb Telescope.

The making of this telescope is the largest, most expensive, and the most challenging space-engineering project the humans have ever attempted. NASA has been working on this project for 30 years and it is called, The James Webb Telescope. The James Webb telescope can take images in more detail and higher distances than the Hubble telescope and can see objects that have details about the origin of the universe. This telescope will help us understand how the universe started and how it formed. It would uncover the forces of the universe and the evolution of how many objects formed in the universe and how. 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 the light that ultimately helps it significantly in finding objects much farther than the Hubble could see. 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 which blocks all the light from the Sun from reaching the telescope’s camera. Scientists still have a lot of problems to tackle before we launch this but, one problem is what we all have to pray to end well. That problem is the launch. Now, we know that rocket launches are extremely hard and have a high chance of failure. Therefore, we have to launch this telescope perfectly into space or else, a lot of money, effort, and time will be wasted. This telescope will be launched into orbit at a very far distance, at a point called the Second Lagrangian 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 it would clear out a huge space for the telescope to see.

[1] Haris Ahamd is currently studying in 9^th grade (O levels) in The City School Islamabad.

Miracles of the Qur’an - 2

April 26, 2020

By: Haris Ahmad[1]

In this blog, I will talk about the Scientific Miracles of the Qur’an as I explained in my previous blog. I will explain with the evidence of verses from the Qur’an that it had explained scientific phenomena centuries before the scientific age. The Miracle in all of this is that how can a book of its age explain science centuries before the modern humans did?

The miracle I will talk about in this blog is about the universe. Till 1929 we thought that the universe was static/stationary and was eternal which meant that it would remain the same forever; however, in 1929, Edwin Hubble, who was an astronomer at Caltech made a game-changing discovery, which was the expansion of the universe. At the Mount Wilson observatory above Los Angeles, he saw that galaxies were moving in space. Not only did he saw this but he also so that all of them were moving away from the Earth at incredible speeds. 

https://www.science-sparks.com/how-does-the-universe-expand/

After more observations, it was seen that the farther the galaxies were, the faster would they move away. Isn’t that strange? Think about the fact that everything in the universe is moving far apart from us? It gives me creeps just to think about it. Hence, this became to be known as Hubble’s Law. The reason for this expansion of the universe is mainly due to inertia because in the very early universe, probably before humanity, the matter was flying apart from each other for an unknown reason and this phenomenon is still taking place. Though some say it was due to cosmic inflation. Some say that there is a force called dark matter that is causing the universe to expand at an ever-increasing rate. Now, lets come to the real point. The expansion of this overwhelming universe was stated by Allah in the Qur’an [51.47], “And the Heaven, we built with craftsmanship and we are still expanding it.” After I read this verse, I was shocked that the Qur’an had stated the scientific phenomenon that changed the course of our learning about the universe. Moreover, to add on to this; the discovery of the expanding universe was the first real evidence about the creation of the universe because of the Big Bang because if the universe is expanding, then it would’ve started this process from a single point of singularity. This is how we determined that the universe was 13.7 billion years old by calculating the rate of the expansion. Even this point of singularity was explained in the Qur’an [21:30] which says, “Have those who disbelieved not considered that the heavens and the earth were a joined entity, and We separated them and made from water every living thing? Then will they not believe?” Hence, there is no doubt in the fact that this was explained in the Qur’an. Furthermore, many other verses in the Qur’an explain more interesting scientific phenomena but that, I will explain in my coming blogs.

Stay Home, Stay Safe.

[1] Haris Ahmad is currently studying in 9^th grade (O levels) in The City School Islamabad.

Miracles of the Qur’an - 1

April 19, 2020

By: Haris Ahmad[1] 

The Qur’an is a book that encourages its reader to learn, examine, and ponder as well as question things so that he/she can get a clear understanding of everything that exists in his/her surroundings. It may be a holy scripture but it can also be referred to, as a scientific book that explains many scientific phenomena, which no one had, knew about in the time of its revelation. In fact, the scientific phenomena that the Qur’an explains weren’t even understandable to humans for centuries after. So basically, the Qur’an explained many of the scientific discoveries that we are doing now, 1400 years ago. In this blog, I’ll discuss about the scientific miracles of the Qur’an. I’m referring to these as scientific miracles because, how can a book that as revealed 1400 years ago, explain the science of today?

https://www.islamicity.org/20730/the-quran-and-muslim-unity/

The first scientific miracle I’ll explain in this blog is that the angels are made of light. Allah has created the angels from light and the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) confirmed this when he said, “The Angels are created from light”. Now, in a Surah 32, verse 5, it is said that, “He arranges [each] matter from the heaven to the earth; then it will ascend to Him in a Day, the extent of which is a thousand years of those which you count.” This verse explains that Allah arranges the matters (situations) on Earth that reach to Him in one day, the extent of which is a thousand years that we count. These matters are brought to him by Angels which is confirmed in the Quran (35:1) which says, “...Who made the angels, messengers with wings - two, or three, or four (pairs). The people of the time of the revelations of the Qur’an used to count years as lunar years unlike now because we use solar years now. Hence, there are 12000 lunar orbits in 1000 lunar years. If we divide these 12000 lunar orbits or 1000 lunar years by an Earth day just like the Qur’an explained in the given verse; it is nerve-racking to know that the answer is exactly 299,792.458 km/s, which is exactly the speed of light. You can search for this number on the Internet to confirm. Therefore, the miracle is that the Qur’an explained in the given verse that indeed it is the Angels, which take the matters of the Earth to Allah and they are made of light. The Qur’an also gave us the exact number of the speed of light. Isn’t this shocking that the speed of light was successfully calculated by humans in 1676 while the Qur’an had explained all of this in 632 A.D?

The second miracle I’ll explain in this blog is about celestial bodies. From the 4^th century BCE till the 16^th century, humans believed in the theory that all the celestial bodies in the universe orbited around the Earth after certain observations that the people conducted. However, in the 16^th century, Nicolas Copernicus brought forward the heliocentric model, which showed that the Earth and other planets orbited the Sun that was stationary at a certain point in the universe. Even though this theory was right, it still missed something. It missed the point that the Sun was not stationary. Recently, humans have discovered that the Sun is also moving. In fact, it moves along with its planets around the Milky Way at the speed of 28,000 km/hr and you will be shocked to hear the Qur’an had explained this phenomenon 1400 years ago. In the Qur’an, Surah 39, verse 5, it is written, “He created the heavens and earth in truth. He wraps the night over the day and wraps the day over the night and has subjected the sun and the moon, each running [its course] for a specified term. Unquestionably, He is the Exalted in Might, the Perpetual Forgiver.” As you can see, it says that the sun and the moon are each running in their own courses for a specific term. This cannot be a coincidence at all. Indeed, there is no clash that the Qur’an is the word of Allah himself who is the sole creator of everything.

The third miracle I’ll talk about is about the creation of things in pairs. As you may know that almost everything you see is in pairs. Take examples of matter and anti-matter, electron and positron. Believe it or not, Paul Dirac, a British scientist, was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1933 for his stunning discovery about sub-atomic particles being in pairs. However, even this was clearly explained in the Qur’an in Surah Yaseen where it is said, “Glory be to the One, Who created in pairs all things that the earth produces, as well as themselves, and other things they do not know.” As I explained, everything has a pair. Even plants have species that differ in their gender. Humans and other animals have different genders. Love has the pair of hate, bravery has cowardice. Moreover, it is also said that some of what they do not know. These may be some that are too hard for us to see or are inaccessible to us.

The fourth miracle I’ll explain in this blog is about plants and the process of photosynthesis. Most of you may know that plants are autotrophs. This means that they can produce their own food using inorganic materials from their surroundings. They produce food by using light from the sun by converting it from light energy to chemical energy. Moreover, carbon dioxide and water are also needed for this process to take place. The main natural source of water for plants is, of course, the rain that they use in the process of photosynthesis but the main thing is that when this process takes place, glucose and oxygen are the byproducts of the process. The glucose is used within the plant but the oxygen is a gas so it is release into the surroundings and is scattered around. Believe it or not, the process of photosynthesis that humans discovered in the 18^th century was explained in the Qur’an in the 7^th century. In the Surah 18, verse 45 of the Qur’an, it is said, “And present to them the example of the life of this world, [its being] like rain which We send down from the sky, and the vegetation of the earth mingles with it and [then] it becomes dry remnants, scattered by the winds. And Allah is ever, over all things, Perfect in Ability.” This clearly explains how water is used and then is scattered like dry remnants that is scattered by winds.

The fifth miracle that I will explain is about continental drift. In 1912, Alfred Wegener put forward the theory of continental drift, which explained that the continents were shifting positions on Earth’s surface. According to the website live science, “Although Wegener's "continental drift" theory was discarded, it did introduce the idea of moving continents to geoscience. And decades later, scientists would confirm some of Wegener's ideas, such as the past existence of a supercontinent joining all the world's landmasses as one. Pangaea was a supercontinent that formed roughly 200 to 250 million years ago, according to the U.S Geological Survey (USGS) and was responsible for the fossil and rock clues that led Wegener to his theory.” This means that since we believe that all of the continents once used to be a single supercontinent, it could be a confirm fact that the continents drifted apart to form the continents we know now. This was indirectly explained in the Quran in the Surah 27, verse 88 in which it is said, “You now see the mountains and consider them firmly fixed, but then they shall pass away even as clouds pass away. That will be the handiwork of Allah Who has created everything with perfect wisdom. He is well aware of what you do.” This clearly explains that the mountains that are placed on lands are moving apart from each other, which is of course related to continental drift because it explains the same thing.

Many people use the excuse of these miracles being coincidences but they are wrong. They should know that coincidences happen once or twice but not more than that otherwise it would be truth. Likewise, in the Qur’an, there are many verses about science, which have been proven to be absolutely true. Hence, the miracles of the Qur’an are not coincidences at all and they have also been proven to be the truth. 

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[1] Haris Ahmad is currently studying in 9^th grade (O levels) in The City School Islamabad.

Qur’an; Holy Scripture and a Scientific Book

April 12, 2020

By: Haris Ahmad[1]

The Qur’an is a book that encourages its readers to learn, examine, and ponder as well as question things so that they can get a better understanding of everything that exists. Even the first revealed Surah of the  Qur’an says: “Read! In the Name of your Lord Who has created (all that exists). He has created man from a clot (a piece of thick coagulated blood). Read! And your Lord is the Most Generous, Who has taught (the writing) by the pen. He has taught man that which he knew not.” [al- ‘Alaq 96:1-5 – interpretation of the meaning]. As you can see even the first word of the Surah says read. This Surah was revealed when the Holy Prophet was meditating in the cave of Hira and Angel Gabriel came to him.

Image Source: https://www.learnreligions.com/quran-2004556

Moreover, the Qur’an is a scripture that was not written in jest and was to be taken very seriously as it is the book of God who created everything that we know. 

Even though the Qur’an is a holy scripture, it has 750 verses that explain and deal with a natural phenomenon or we can say Science. And so, the miracle of the Qur’an is that even though it was revealed 1400 years, it contains scientific explanations that nobody knew about it that time and so, after hundreds of years, science could research and then understand these phenomena. Take a minute and think, how can a book that was revealed 1400 years ago, explain things that we are discovering now? About the seriousness of this book, Allah says in the Qur’an, “By the sky which has the bounce; By the Earth which has the crack. Indeed, what is written inside the book is very serious and it is not in jest” (Ch 86- V 11-14). We all now know that this explains how serious the book is but wait, at the beginning of these verses that I shared, Allah swears by the Sky, which bounces and Earth that cracks, right? When we stretch space, it bounces whilst if we stretch Earth it would crack. This is a great scientific phenomenon, which Einstein discovered and explained in 1916 in his Theory of relativity. He explained that celestial bodies move in space in the fabric of space-time in which they bounce similar to someone jumping up and down on a trampoline. Moreover, we think that the Earth is made up of strong elements that hold it together but this perception was changed when a great crack was recorded in the Arizona Desert in 1927. We can clearly see that this book was revealed 1400 years ago but it explained things that a man like Einstein explains after nearly a thousand years.

Many people have a perception that the Qur’an is a storybook of the Prophets but they don’t know that they are wrong. I accept the fact that the Qur’an gives morals in the form of stories of the Prophets but, these people do not know that the Qur’an also explains parts of nearly all branches of science. This perception will change if they read the Qur’an thoroughly and reflect upon the wonders of it. Furthermore, the Qur’an is a very special book; indeed, why would it not be special when its author is the creator of everything. Indeed, we are the creations of Allah and the Qur’an is our manual that explains how these creations and the universe work. Allah challenges his creations by saying, “Say: ‘If all mankind and the jinn would come together to produce the like of this Quran, they could not produce it’s like even though they exerted all and their strength in aiding one another.” (Quran 17:88). It explains that if all mankind and the jinn (spirits) would come together and work as one, they won’t be able to write anything like the Qur’an.

There are many other scientific phenomena, which the Quran has explained 1400 years ago and hence, in this series, I will write blogs about the miracles of the Qur’an in the way that it discovered things 1400 years ago which science explained centuries after. I will take verses from the Quran and will explain and compare them with the scientific discoveries in regard to the topic. 

Since the time I have started reading the Qur'an with translation, it has caught my interest a lot. I hope the readers will find this blog series interesting, Insha’Allah (If god permits). 

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[1] Haris Ahmad is currently studying in 9^th grade (O levels) in The City School Islamabad.

Reverting Destruction - The Earth is Healing

April 5, 2020

By: Haris Ahmad[1]

As we all know that the corona has struck the whole world very hard. It has affected the whole world and has infected thousands, leading to thousands of deaths. Until now, there are 1,352,158 confirmed cases and 75,294 deaths. On the contrary to this, the world is healing itself and, in this blog, I’ll explain how the world is healing.

If we put aside the tragedies caused to humans by COVID-19. Humans have put a full stop on many global economic activities and production facilities. By this, I mean that factories have been closed down, cars on roads have reduced and many more things that are in fact, dangerous for our climate, have stopped and due to this, there have been immense decreases in greenhouse gases as well as pollution. The grand canal in Venice, which is normally brimming with boat traffic is now empty and the water in the canals has become crystal clear due to a decrease in pollution. Just take a look at this picture of the canal. 

Image Source: Andrea Pattaro, Getty Images

Just think about how beautiful the world is when there are no humans. As I explained in my previous blog, killings and genocides have also stopped due to this global emergency in places like Kashmir where people were in lockdown for months.

Moreover, in Feb, the carbon emissions in China have reduced by 25% which is an enormous number because this 25% means a 200 million ton drop in carbon dioxide. Even though this is a global tragedy and thousands are dying which all of us are agonized about but; I just want to make the humans realize that if it weren’t for them, this planet would have been much better. By this I don’t mean that we humans should’ve never existed but, I mean that if we would do small efforts to prevent global catastrophes such as climate change; we would make the life of the next generation much safer and easier. Furthermore, due to the decreased air traffic, the skies are now much clearer. The people of Beijing are enjoying blue skies after years because of the decrease in Industrial activities.

This is a picture of Beijing 3 years ago: 

Image Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9654d4dwVmw

This is a picture of Beijing now:

Image Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9654d4dwVmw

Just look at these images and think again, what we have been doing to this beloved planet. We still have time to take action and do something before it’s too late. Otherwise, we have nowhere else to go. We have to change the mindset of only thinking about our own betterment; we should also think about the future of the coming generations.

The satellite image below shows the changes in the levels of nitrogen dioxide in the atmosphere which is a very dangerous greenhouse gas. Just look at what changes have occurred just because of a few months of the absence of industrial activities:

Image Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9654d4dwVmw

This blog was based on my opinion. The main purpose of this blog was not to say that COVID-19 is good for humans (there are people out there who make accusations like these). The main purpose of the blog was to make you realize that just because of the stoppage of industrial activity for a few months, the world is healing. Again, by this, I don’t mean that we should close down industries, no! We can use many other ways to manufacture goods without any damage to the ecosystem. If we stopped funding fossil fuels and instead, invested in renewable energy, we could produce the goods that we do now without any damage to the ecosystem. 

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[1] Haris Ahmad is currently studying in 9^th grade (O levels) in The City School Islamabad.