The Hubble team releases a stunning photo every year to celebrate the anniversary of the space telescope's launch on April 24, 1990. This time they presented to the world a photograph of the famous Horsehead Nebula, which is located in the constellation Orion, 1500 light years from Earth.

NGC 5194

This large galaxy with a well-developed spiral structure may have been the first spiral nebula discovered. It is clearly visible that its spiral arms and dust lanes pass in front of its satellite galaxy, NGC 5195 (left). The pair are located about 31 million light years away and officially belong to the small constellation Canes Venatici.

Spiral galaxy M33

A medium-sized galaxy from the Local Group. M33 is also called the Triangulum galaxy after the constellation in which it is located. About 4 times smaller (in radius) than our Milky Way Galaxy and the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), M33 is much larger than many dwarf galaxies. Because M33 is close to M31, some think it is a satellite of this more massive galaxy. M33 is not far from the Milky Way, its angular dimensions are more than twice the size of the full Moon, i.e. it is perfectly visible with good binoculars.

Stefan Quintet

This group of galaxies is called Stefan's Quintet. However, only four galaxies from this group, located three hundred million light years away, participate in the cosmic dance, moving closer and further away from each other. It's quite easy to find extra ones. The four interacting galaxies have yellowish colors and curved loops and tails, shaped by destructive tidal gravitational forces. The bluish galaxy, located in the image at the top left, is much closer than the others, only 40 million light years away.

Andromeda Galaxy

The Andromeda Galaxy is the closest giant galaxy to our Milky Way. Most likely, our galaxy looks about the same as this one. The hundreds of billions of stars that make up the Andromeda Galaxy together produce a visible, diffuse glow. The individual stars in the image are actually stars in our Galaxy, located much closer to the distant object.

Lagoon Nebula

The bright Lagoon Nebula contains many different astronomical objects. Particularly interesting objects include a bright open star cluster and several active star forming regions.

Cat's Eye Nebula

The Cat's Eye Nebula is one of the most famous planetary nebulae in the sky. Its evocative, symmetrical shape is visible in the central part of this dramatic false-color image, specially processed to reveal a huge but very faint halo of gaseous material about three light-years in diameter.

Chameleon constellation

The small constellation Chameleon is located near the south pole of the World. The picture reveals the amazing features of the modest constellation, which reveals many dusty nebulae and colorful stars. Blue reflection nebulae are scattered across the field.

Nebula Sh2-136

Cosmic dust clouds glowing faintly with reflected starlight. Far from familiar places on planet Earth, they lurk on the edge of the Cephei Halo molecular cloud complex, 1,200 light-years away. Nebula Sh2-136, located near the center of the field, is brighter than other ghostly apparitions. Its size is more than two light years, and it is visible even in infrared light.

The Horsehead Nebula and the glowing Orion Nebula

They are located 1,500 light years away in the direction of the most recognizable celestial constellation. And in today's remarkable composite photograph, the nebulae occupy opposite corners. The familiar Horsehead Nebula is a small dark cloud in the shape of a horse's head, silhouetted against a background of red glowing gas in the lower left corner of the picture.

Crab Nebula

This confusion remained after the star exploded. The Crab Nebula is the result of a supernova explosion observed in 1054 AD. The supernova remnant is filled with mysterious filaments. The filaments are not just complex to look at. The extent of the Crab Nebula is ten light years. At the very center of the nebula is a pulsar - a neutron star with a mass equal to the mass of the Sun, which fits into an area the size of a small town.

Mirage from a gravitational lens

The bright red galaxy (LRG) shown in this photograph has been distorted by its gravity to the light from a more distant blue galaxy. Most often, such a distortion of light leads to the appearance of two images of a distant galaxy, but in the case of a very precise superposition of the galaxy and the gravitational lens, the images merge into a horseshoe - an almost closed ring. This effect was predicted by Albert Einstein 70 years ago.

Star V838 Mon

For unknown reasons, in January 2002, the outer shell of the star V838 Mon suddenly expanded, making it the brightest star in the entire Milky Way. Then she became weak again, also suddenly. Astronomers have never seen a stellar flare like this before.

Birth of planets

How are planets formed? To try to find out, the Hubble Space Telescope was tasked with taking a closer look at one of the most interesting of all nebulae in the sky: the Great Orion Nebula. The Orion Nebula can be seen with the naked eye near the belt of the constellation Orion. The insets in this photo show numerous proplyds, many of them stellar nurseries that likely house forming planetary systems.

Star cluster R136

At the center of the star-forming region 30 Doradus lies a gigantic cluster of the largest, hottest, and most massive stars known to us. These stars form the R136 cluster, captured in this image taken in visible light by the upgraded Hubble Space Telescope.

NGC 253

Brilliant NGC 253 is one of the brightest spiral galaxies we see, yet one of the dustiest. Some call it the "Silver Dollar Galaxy" because it is shaped like that in a small telescope. Others simply call it the "Sculptor Galaxy" because it lies within the southern constellation Sculptor. This dusty galaxy is located 10 million light years away.

Galaxy M83

Galaxy M83 is one of the closest spiral galaxies to us. From the distance that separates us from her, equal to 15 million light years, she looks completely ordinary. However, if we take a closer look at the center of M83 using the largest telescopes, the region appears to be a turbulent and noisy place.

Ring Nebula

She really looks like a ring in the sky. Therefore, hundreds of years ago, astronomers named this nebula according to its unusual shape. The Ring Nebula is also designated M57 and NGC 6720. The Ring Nebula belongs to the class of planetary nebulae; these are gas clouds that emit stars similar to the Sun at the end of their lives. Its size exceeds the diameter. This is one of Hubble's early images.

Column and jets in the Carina Nebula

This cosmic column of gas and dust is two light years wide. The structure is located in one of the largest star-forming regions of our Galaxy, the Carina Nebula, which is visible in the southern sky and is 7,500 light-years away.

Center of the Omega Centauri globular cluster

At the center of the globular cluster Omega Centauri, the stars are packed ten thousand times more densely than the stars in the vicinity of the Sun. The image shows many faint yellow-white stars smaller than our Sun, several orange red giants, and the occasional blue star. If two stars suddenly collide, they can form one more massive star, or they can form a new binary system.

A giant cluster distorts and splits the image of the galaxy

Many of them are images of a single unusual, beady, blue ring-shaped galaxy that happens to be located behind a giant cluster of galaxies. According to recent research, in total, at least 330 images of individual distant galaxies can be found in the picture. This stunning photograph of the galaxy cluster CL0024+1654 was taken by the NASA Space Telescope. Hubble in November 2004.

Trifid Nebula

The beautiful, multi-colored Trifid Nebula allows you to explore cosmic contrasts. Also known as M20, it lies about 5,000 light-years away in the nebula-rich constellation Sagittarius. The size of the nebula is about 40 light years.

Centaurus A

A fantastic array of young blue star clusters, giant glowing gas clouds and dark dust lanes surround the central region of the active galaxy Centaurus A. Centaurus A is close to Earth, 10 million light-years away.

Butterfly Nebula

Bright clusters and nebulae in Earth's night sky are often named after flowers or insects, and NGC 6302 is no exception. The central star of this planetary nebula is exceptionally hot: its surface temperature is about 250 thousand degrees Celsius.

Supernova

An image of a supernova that exploded in 1994 on the outskirts of a spiral galaxy.

Two colliding galaxies with merging spiral arms

Above and to the left of the large spiral galaxy pair NGC 6050 can be seen a third galaxy that is also likely involved in the interaction. All of these galaxies are located about 450 million light-years away in the Hercules cluster of galaxies. At this distance, the image covers an area of ​​more than 150 thousand light years. And although this appearance seems quite unusual, scientists now know that collisions and subsequent mergers of galaxies are not uncommon.

Spiral galaxy NGC 3521

It is located only 35 million light years away in the direction of the constellation Leo. The galaxy, which extends over 50,000 light-years, has features such as jagged, irregular spiral arms festooned with dust, pinkish star-forming regions and clusters of young bluish stars.

Heated gas

Although this unusual emission was first noticed in the early twentieth century, its origin is still the subject of debate. The image shown above, taken in 1998 by the Hubble Space Telescope, clearly shows details of the jet's structure. The most popular hypothesis suggests that the source of the ejection was heated gas orbiting a massive black hole at the center of the galaxy.

Galaxy Sombrero

Galaxy M104's appearance resembles a hat, which is why it is called the Sombrero Galaxy. The image shows distinct dark lanes of dust and a bright halo of stars and globular clusters. The reasons why the Sombrero Galaxy looks like a hat are the unusually large central stellar bulge and the dense dark lanes of dust located in the galaxy's disk, which we see almost edge-on.

M17: close-up view

Formed by stellar winds and radiation, these fantastic wave-like formations are found in the M17 (Omega Nebula) nebula and are part of a star-forming region. The Omega Nebula is located in the nebula-rich constellation Sagittarius and is 5,500 light-years away. The patchy clumps of dense, cold gas and dust are illuminated by radiation from the stars in the image at top right and could become sites of star formation in the future.

IRAS 05437+2502

What does the IRAS 05437+2502 nebula illuminate? There is no exact answer yet. Particularly puzzling is the bright, inverted V-shaped arc that outlines the top edge of the mountain-like clouds of interstellar dust near the center of the image. Overall, this ghost-like nebula includes a small star-forming region filled with dark dust. It was first spotted in infrared images taken by the IRAS satellite in 1983. Shown here is a remarkable, recently released image from the Hubble Space Telescope. Although it shows many new details, the cause of the bright, clear arc could not be determined.

In the night sky in clear weather you can see many small luminous lights - stars. In fact, their size can be enormous, hundreds or even thousands of times the size of the Earth. They can exist separately, but sometimes form a star cluster.

What are stars?

A star is a massive ball of gas. It is able to hold itself up due to the force of its own gravity. Stellar mass is usually greater than planetary mass. Thermonuclear reactions occur inside them, which contribute to the emission of light.

Stars are formed primarily from hydrogen and helium, as well as dust. Their internal temperature can reach millions of Kelvin, although the external temperature is much lower. The main characteristics for measuring these gas balls are: mass, radius and luminosity, that is, energy.

With the naked eye, a person can see approximately six thousand stars (three thousand in each hemisphere). We see the closest one to Earth only during the day - this is the Sun. It is located at a distance of 150 million kilometers. The closest star to our solar system is called Proxima Centauri.

Birth of stars and clusters

Dust and gas, present in unlimited quantities, can be compressed under the action of the more densely they are compressed, the higher the temperature generated inside. As matter becomes denser, it gains mass, and if it is sufficient to carry out a nuclear reaction, a star will appear.

From a cloud of gas and dust, several stars are often formed at once, which capture each other and form star systems. Thus, there are double, triple and other systems. More than ten stars form a cluster.

A star cluster is a group of stars of common origin that are bound together by gravity and move as a single unit in the field of the galaxy. They are divided into spherical and scattered. In addition to stars, clusters may contain gas and dust. Groups of celestial bodies united by a common origin, but not connected by gravity, are called stellar associations.

History of discoveries

People have been observing the night sky since ancient times. However, for a long time it was believed that the celestial bodies are evenly distributed throughout the vastness of the Universe. In the 18th century, astronomer William Herschel challenged science once again by saying that some areas clearly have more stars than others.

A little earlier, his colleague Charles Messier noted the existence of nebulae in the sky. Observing them through a telescope, Herschel discovered that this was not always the case. He saw that sometimes a stellar nebula is a collection of stars that appear as spots when viewed with the naked eye. He called what he discovered “heaps.” Later, another name was invented for these galactic phenomena - star clusters.

Herschel managed to describe about two thousand clusters. In the 19th century, astronomers determined that they differ in shape and size. Then globular and open clusters were identified. Detailed study of these phenomena began only in the 20th century.

Open clusters

Clusters differ among themselves in the number of stars and shape. An open star cluster can contain from ten to several thousand stars. They are quite young, their age may be only a few million years. Such a star cluster does not have clearly defined boundaries; it is usually found in spiral and irregular galaxies.

About 1,100 clusters have been discovered in our galaxy. They do not live long, since their gravitational connection is weak and can easily be broken due to passing near gas clouds or other accumulations. “Lost” stars become single.

Clusters are often found on spiral arms and near galactic planes, where the concentration of gas is greater. They have uneven, shapeless edges and a dense, clearly visible core. Open clusters are classified according to their density, differences in the brightness of their inner stars, and their distinctiveness compared to their surroundings.

Globular clusters

Unlike open clusters, globular star clusters have a clear spherical shape. Their stars are bound by gravity much more closely, and rotate around the galactic center, acting as satellites. The age of these clusters is many times greater than the scattered ones, ranging from 10 billion years and above. But they are significantly inferior in number; about 160 globular clusters have been discovered so far in our galaxy.

The high density of stars in a cluster often leads to collisions. As a result, unusual classes of luminaries can be formed. For example, when the members of a binary merge, a blue straggler is created. It is much hotter than other blue stars and cluster members. Collisions can also produce other exotic space objects, such as low-mass X-ray binaries and millisecond pulsars.

Star associations

Unlike clusters, associations of stars are not connected by a common gravitational field; sometimes it is present, but its strength is too weak. They appeared at the same time and have a small age, reaching tens of millions of years.

Stellar associations are larger than young open clusters. They are more rarefied in outer space, and include up to hundreds of stars in their composition. About a dozen of them are hot giants.

A weak gravitational field does not allow stars to remain in association for a long time. They need from several hundred thousand to a million years to decay - by astronomical standards this is negligible. Therefore, stellar associations are called temporary formations.

Known clusters

In total, several thousand star clusters have been discovered, some of them visible to the naked eye. The closest to Earth are the open clusters of the Pleiades (Stozhary) and Hyades, located in the former. The first contains about 500 stars; without special optics, only seven of them are distinguishable. The Hyades is located next to Aldebaran and contains about 130 bright and 300 low-burning members.

The open star cluster is also one of the closest. It is called the Nursery and contains more than two hundred members. Many characteristics of the Manger and Hyades are the same, so there is a possibility that they were formed from the same gas and dust cloud.

A star cluster in the constellation Coma Berenices in the northern hemisphere is easily visible through binoculars. This is the globular cluster M 53, discovered back in 1775. It is located more than 60,000 light years away. The cluster is one of the most distant from Earth, although it is easily visible through binoculars. A huge number of globular clusters are located in

Conclusion

Star clusters are large groups of stars held together by gravitational forces. They number from ten to several million stars that have a common origin. Basically, globular and open clusters are distinguished, differing in shape, composition, size, number of members and age. In addition to them, there are temporary clusters called stellar associations. Their gravitational connection is too weak, which inevitably leads to the disintegration and formation of ordinary single stars.

Astronomers using the MUSE instrument on the Very Large Telescope in Chile have discovered a star in the cluster NGC 3201 that is behaving very strangely. It appears to be orbiting an invisible black hole whose mass is approximately four times that of the Sun. If this is true, then scientists have discovered the first inactive black hole of stellar mass, and in a globular star cluster. In addition, it will be the first to be detected directly by its gravity. This is a very important discovery that is sure to have an impact on our understanding of the formation of such star clusters, black holes and the origin of gravitational wave release events.

Globular star clusters are so named because they are huge spheres containing several tens of thousands of stars. They are located in most galaxies, are among the oldest known stellar associations in the universe, and their appearance is attributed to the beginning of the growth of the host galaxy and its evolution. Today, more than 150 star clusters belonging to the Milky Way are known.

One of these groups is called NGC 3201, it is located in the constellation Velus of the southern sky of the Earth. In this study, it was studied using the state-of-the-art MUSE instrument on the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. An international team of astronomers has found that one of the stars in the cluster behaves very strangely - it oscillates back and forth at speeds of several hundred thousand kilometers per hour with a certain periodicity of 167 days. The discovered star is a main sequence star at the end of its main phase of life. This means that it has exhausted its hydrogen fuel and is now becoming a red giant.

Artist's impression of an inactive black hole in the cluster NGC 3201. Source: ESO/L. Calçada/spaceengine.org

MUSE is currently surveying 25 globular star clusters in the Milky Way. This work will allow astronomers to obtain spectra from 600 to 27,000 stars in each cluster. The study involves analyzing the radial velocities of individual stars - the speed at which they move away from or towards the Earth, that is, along the observer's line of sight. By analyzing radial velocities, the orbits of stars can be measured, as well as the properties of any large object they may orbit.

“This star is orbiting something that is completely invisible. It has a mass that is four times that of the Sun, and it can only be a black hole. It turns out that for the first time we have found such an object in a star cluster, and directly observing its gravitational influence,” says lead author Benjamin Giessers from the Georg-August University of Göttingen.

The relationship between black holes and star clusters seems very important but mysterious to scientists. Because of their large masses and ages, these clusters are believed to have produced large numbers of stellar-mass black holes—objects formed by the explosion of large stars and collapsing under the force of the entire cluster.

In the absence of the continuous formation of new stars, which is exactly what happens in globular star clusters, stellar-mass black holes soon become the largest objects in existence. Typically, such holes in globular clusters are about four times larger than the stars around them. Recently developed theories have led to the conclusion that black holes form a dense core in a group, which becomes like a separate part of the cluster. Movements in the center of the group should have expelled most of the black holes. This means that only a few such objects could survive beyond a billion years.

Globular star cluster NGC 3201. The blue circle shows the estimated location of the inactive black hole. Source: ESA/NASA

Stellar-mass black holes themselves, or simply collapsars, are formed when large stars die, collapsing under the influence of their own gravity, and explode as powerful hypernovae. The remaining black hole contains most of the mass of the former star, which is several times the mass of the Sun, and their size is several tens of times larger than our star.

The MUSE instrument gives astronomers a unique opportunity to measure the motion of up to thousands of distant stars simultaneously. With this new discovery, the team was for the first time able to detect an inactive black hole at the center of a globular cluster. It is unique in that it is not currently absorbing matter and is not surrounded by a hot disk of gas and dust. And the mass of the hole was estimated thanks to its enormous gravitational influence on the star itself.

Since no radiation can escape from a black hole, the main method of detecting them is to observe radio or X-ray emissions coming from the hot material around them. But when a black hole does not interact with hot matter and does not accumulate mass or emit radiation, then it is considered inactive or invisible. Therefore, it is necessary to use other methods for detecting them.

Astronomers were able to determine the following parameters of the star: its mass is approximately 0.8 solar masses, and the mass of its mysterious colleague lies within 4.36 solar masses, almost certainly a black hole. Since the faint object of this binary system cannot be observed directly, there is an alternative, albeit less convincing, method for explaining what it might be. Scientists may be observing a triple star system, made up of two tightly bound neutron stars around which the star we are observing revolves. This scenario requires each tightly bound star to be at least twice as massive as the Sun, and such a binary system has never been observed before.

Recent detections of radio and X-ray sources in globular star clusters, as well as the 2016 discovery of gravitational wave signals created by the merger of two stellar-mass black holes, suggest that these relatively small black holes may be more widespread in clusters than previously thought.

“Until recently, we assumed that almost all black holes should disappear from globular clusters within a short time, and that systems like this should not even exist! But in reality this is not the case. Our discovery is the first direct observation of the gravitational effects of a stellar-mass black hole in a globular cluster. This discovery will help us understand the formation of such groups, the development of black holes and binary star systems - vital in the context of understanding the sources of gravitational waves."

What is the name of our galaxy?

A galaxy is a giant collection of stars, planets, gases and dust, forming something like an island slowly rotating in outer space.

The Milky Way is the name given to our Galaxy, and our Solar system (the Sun and the planets revolving around it) is just a grain of sand in this huge ocean of stars.

The Milky Way contains about 100,000 stars, not to mention small planets and moons. It has the shape of a disc thrown by an athlete. The largest star cluster is in the center of the Galaxy. Our Galaxy is huge, it will take light rays (with their enormous speed) 100,000 years to travel from one end to the other, but it is still one of millions of galaxies in the Universe.

The closest galaxy to us is the Andromeda Nebula. It will take light 1.5 million light years to travel the distance between us. If you want to know what the Milky Way looks like, look at the sky on a clear summer night. You will see a wide star trail in the sky, similar to a white gas ribbon.

A galaxy is a huge collection of stars. The entire space visible from Earth consists of such formations, each of which contains billions of stars. These are like shining islands in an endless black abyss. All these “islands” have a shape flattened towards the edges. That is, in the center there is a thickening, and towards the edges the star cluster becomes thinner. Star "islands" are located at different distances from each other. The closest ones are united into groups. Such groups are called superclusters of galaxies.

For example, planet Earth is part of the solar system. That, in turn, is an integral part of the Milky Way, and it is considered part Virgo Supercluster. This giant formation also includes the Andromeda Nebula and the Triangulum Galaxy. These are huge star giants. And besides them, there are small stellar islands, of which there are about 60 today. All of them belong to the local group, and in total the Virgo Supercluster includes about 2 thousand galaxies. You can cross this stellar abundance from end to end in 200 million light years.

Classification of galaxies

All galaxies, without exception, are classified by type. There are four of them: elliptical (E), lenticular (SO), spiral (S), irregular (Ir).

Elliptical They have a spherical structure with brightness noticeably decreasing towards the edges. They differ from each other in the degree of compression. The higher it is, the faster the rotation speed. A notable feature is the absence of dust clouds. From space they are usually visible as dark stripes and spots.

Spiral consist of a core (bulge) and arms, which are dense clusters of stars. Gas and dust clouds extend between them, and dense accumulations of gas and stars are also observed. These formations are disk-shaped and surrounded by a luminous sphere (halo). It consists of rarefied gas, stars and dark matter. The rotation speed of such galaxies is high. Active star formation processes are observed in them. The Milky Way refers specifically to these star clusters. Our Sun rotates in one of its arms (the Orion arm).

Lenticular resemble spiral ones. They have a bulge, but no sleeves. There are about 15% of such formations in the visible part of space. From the outside, they look like a bright thickening surrounded by a faintly shining flat halo.

Incorrect are a product of deformation of spiral or elliptical galaxies. Enormous gravitational forces gave them a chaotic shape, in which it was impossible to detect a clearly defined core and arms. A large accumulation of gas and dust clouds is observed. Such star clusters account for about 25% of the total number of bright cosmic “islands”.

Galaxy mass and dark matter

The mass of the galaxy consists of the mass of billions of stars, gas and dust clouds and halos. The main weight of the halo is dark matter. This is a mysterious entity that contains hypothetical space objects. Their mass makes up 95% of the total mass of the Universe. Their invisible presence is indicated by gravity. That is, dark matter affects the luminaries visible to the human eye.

This is expressed in the unnaturally high speed of movement of stars located at the edge of the galactic disk. It seems that they are being accelerated by some unknown force. And only a large mass can give birth to it. Therefore, it exists, but electromagnetic radiation does not manifest itself in any way. Therefore, there is no gamma radiation, no ultraviolet radiation, no infrared radiation, no visible light. There is only continuous blackness, which the human eye perceives. Dark matter is characteristic of all types of galaxies. It differs only in percentage of the luminous mass.

Huge gas and dust clouds are the zones in which new stars are born. Some of these clouds are hot, making them easily visible through telescopes. For example, in the constellation Orion there is a giant nebula that can be seen even with the naked eye. But cold gas and dust formations absorb light, so they look like black gaps among the shining myriads of stars.

The distribution of stars, and therefore luminosity and mass, in star clusters is uneven. In the center the density is maximum, and closer to the edges it decreases. There are globular clusters of stars whose diameters are hundreds of light years. Supernovas are constantly exploding. There are many black holes, which are formed mainly in the place of extinct massive stars. For example, there are about 100 million of them in the Milky Way.

The emergence of galaxies and their evolution

How galaxies arise? Initially, there is a primary substance or a giant cloud of gas and dust. In it, under the influence of dynamic processes caused by gravitational forces, galactic groups are separated. These groups begin to shrink and gradually turn into star systems. The stars themselves are also formed due to the compression of clouds of gas and dust.

Density and temperature increase. Finally, they rise to such an extent that a thermonuclear reaction begins. This is how a star or sun appears in the sky. Stars are of the first, second and third generation. First-generation stars contain high levels of hydrogen and helium. But there are few impurities of heavy elements. In second-generation stars, the concentration of heavy elements is more significant, since they are formed later from the gas that is already enriched in heavy elements.

Stars are born, and the galaxy shrinks. It acquires arms in which the process of formation of suns continues. These are the third generation stars that are already emerging. Our native Sun also belongs to them.

Finally, the star cluster takes on a spiral shape, and the supply of gas and dust clouds begins to deplete. Billions of years pass, and the spiral shape changes to a lens-shaped one as the gas and dust reserves are depleted. Therefore, the arms disappear, and the glow of the stars becomes weak.

In terms of their age, galaxies correspond to the age of the Universe, which, as is known, is expanding. Its age is estimated at 13.5 billion years, and its existence began after the Big Bang. It is thanks to him that most space objects were formed.

How will the expansion of our outer space end?? There are two predictions here. In the first case, the expansion will end after some time, and the forces of gravity will begin to pull the star systems back into the heap. When all the matter in the Universe comes together, the Big Bang will follow again, and a new Universe will be born. In the second case, giant clusters of stars will scatter forever.

Where does the Universe end?? Here we can give an analogy with the Earth. Moving all the time in one direction, you can return to the starting point. The same thing appears to be happening in space. Only space itself is curved in it. Therefore, there is no edge as such.

Is there intelligent life in other star systems?? There are trillions of stars in the Universe, and planets revolve around them. It is quite possible that on some of them there is life similar to that on Earth. But, given the enormous distances, it is very difficult to detect pockets of intelligence. So we can only hope for His Majesty’s chance.

Perhaps a “fair wind” will bring representatives of a highly developed civilization to the expanses of the Milky Way, and even into the Orion arm. Then earthlings will see the aliens in all their pristine splendor. This will be the greatest event in human history.

The article was written by Alexander Shcherbakov