Supernova

Supernova (Supernovae in plural) is a Stellar Explosion (explosion of a star) which are so bright that it can be clearly seen even during the day time for months. Every star is made up of Hydrogen atoms. Just like how humans convert oxygen to carbon-dioxide in the process of breathing, similarly stars convert their Hydrogen atoms to Helium. When all the hydrogen atoms in the star has been converted, it will no longer be able to resist the gravity trying to compress the mass into its core. The star collapses and the outer layer is exploded resulting in Supernova. Not all stars ends in a Supernova.

Stars with a mass of more than 6 times the mass of the Sun ends up in a supernova explosion and the stars with lesser masses (including the Sun) ends up as a White Dwarf. A white dwarf radiates the remaining heat through out the universe for billions of years.

As the outer layer of the star explodes, the core of the star collapses either as a Neutron Star. If the mass of the remnant is large, it ends up into a Black Hole.

The last supernova in the Milky Way was recorded in the year 1604 called Kepler's Supernova (SN1604) which was brighter than all stars and planets. There hasn't been a supernova recorded in our galaxy since then but many were recorded in the nearby galaxies.

This is a false-color composite of Kepler's Supernova

Supernova is classified based on absorption lines of chemical elements. But it gets too scientific and so I don't want to go into it.

On June this year, astronomers noted that a star 'Betelgeuse' (one of the brightest stars in the night sky), in the constellation of Orion has shrunk 15% since 1993 at a very high speed. It is one of the largest known stars (Red Supergaint). There is a possibility that the star has already had a supernova explosion. Since it is around 600 light years away, we could see the explosion only 600 years after it has really occured. The explosion maybe expected anytime within the next 50 years atleast. The explosion will be the largest ever recorded and it may be as large as the moon. Betelgeuse will end up into a black hole due to its huge mass. Unlike certain theories this explosion will not cause any problem to Earth.

Post requested by Sidhu

Picture Of The Month - November 2009

Water has been discovered on the surface of the Moon. Chandrayaan-1's Moon Mineralogy Mapper radios back that parts of Moon's surface absorb a very specific colour of light which are identified previously only with water. But there is no clue of what amount of water or what form exists there. A fascinating clue being debated is whether the water signal rises and falls during a single lunar day. If true, the signal might be explainable by hydrogen flowing out from the Sun and interacting with oxygen in the lunar soil. This could leave an extremely thin monolayer of water, perhaps only a few molecules thick. Some of the resulting water might subsequently evaporate away in bright sunlight. Pictured above, the area near a crater on the far side of the Moon shows a relatively high abundance of water-carrying minerals in false-color blue

Nibiru - The Birth

Nibiru, the most talked topic of the century, is (unbelievably) believed by many. You search Nibiru online and every website tells you that it is a fact and that it will destroy Earth in 2012. But if you notice carefully, you'll realize that none of these websites were created by a professional astronomers. I made a little research to find more about how the rumor of Nibiru actually began.

It all began with the Mayan Calendar. Mayans were one of the oldest civilization. They had formatted a calendar which lasted for more than 3000 years. The last date of the Mayan Calendar leads to 21st December, 2012. Why did the Mayans stop their calendar on that date and why didn't they continue beyond that? Did the Mayans think that Earth will end on that date? These questions attracted many people. And that's how it began. But Mayans never meant the end of the world with their calendar. Mr. Jim Papp from Seattle made a research back in 1998 and found that the Mayan Calendar does not end in 2012, but in fact it was the end of a cycle and that the cycle would repeat all over again. It is similar to the Chinese 12-year Calendar.

Visit this website to know more about research of Mr. Papp.

Another very important fact is that the Mayans never mentioned about any unknown planets.

If Mayans didn't know about the planet Nibiru, where did it come from. Well, the name 'Nibiru' was invented by Zecharia Sitchin (born 1922 A.D.), who is an author and a scholar. He created a theory which says that an unknown planet, which he called 'Nibiru', collided a planet that existed between Mars and Jupiter and this collision led to the formation of the asteroid belt. He claims that this effect happened in 2024 B.C. Sitchin himself accepted that it was only a theory and no proof of the existence of Nibiru. He also said that he never theorized about Nibiru colliding Earth.

Sumerian Mythology believes that a planet will collide Earth which will lead to the destruction of Earth and all mankind. Now the fact is that Sumerians never claimed to have seen this planet nor did they predict when this would happen. It was just a belief like every other civilization on Earth have, including the modern day ones. It was a belief just like Kalki in Hinduism and Judgement Day in Christianity.

Now lets get back to how the rumor began. People who were obsessed by the Mayan Calendar, began telling everyone that the Earth will end but none would believe. They realised that people will believe them only if they bring about a scientific theories which would grab people's attention. That's how the theories began. Some of the theories said the Earth will get destroyed by - a planet colloiding Earth, Cosmic Radiation, Nuclear War, Aliens attacking Earth, etc. Actually all these theories exists. But Nibiru was well bought by people - thanks to these websites.


Now if you go about those Nibiru websites, it is clearly written that Mayans named the planet 'Nibiru'. But wikipedia says that Sitchin invented that name. This clearly says which is true and which is fake.


Other 2012 rumors:

In 1995, Nancy Lieder proposed the theory of an object that would collide Earth. She describes herself as a contactee with the ability to receive messages from extra-terrestrials from the Zeta Reticuli star system through an implant in her brain (lol). She states that she was chosen to warn mankind that the object would sweep through the Solar System in May 2003, causing a pole shift that would destroy most of humanity. The date was then revised to 2010 and then to 2012. I'm pretty sure that in another 2 years it will again be revised to 2015.This whole story was created by her just to get public attention.

Click Here to read about Nancy Lieder from Wikipedia

Why don't you google search for "Nostradamus prediction of World War III". It says a nuclear war between major countries will begin which will destroy most of the Earth and it will end in 2012. The website actually says that it was predicted by Nostradamus himself. I saw this news in 2006 which then said that WW3 will take place between 2007-2012. A year later I checked that website. It was revised to 2008-2012. Now it says 2009-2012. Can you guess what it will be after few months. Hard guess, I guess. :p

Click here to read about the Nostradamus Prediction.

One of the visible star in the night sky called, 'Betelgeuse', was noted to have shrunk 15% since 1993. That is, it is expected to die anytime between the next 5-50 years causing huge explosion which will be clearly seen even during day (And this explosion will not affect Earth by anyway). But now some websites says that the star will die in 2012 creating huge cosmic radiation which will kill all humans just like it killed dinosaurs.
Click Here for the Betelgeuse Rumor.

There are hundreds of other theories as well but most of them are toooooo kiddish to even mention. Of all such theories only the ones I mentioned above had atleast a bit of logic. Well, my point is that all these theories have only one common stuff - the year 2012 and this clearly proves that these theories were created to make people get obsessed about 2012 but none of these will make is a fact.