Components of the Universe
The components of the universe are:
- Stars
- Nebulae
- Clusters
- Galaxies
- Pulsars
- Quasars
- Black Holes
- Dark Matter
Stars
Stars are the most abundant objects ever. Stars are classified by their temperature and therefore their appearance. Our star is red but it looks yellow because of the atmosphere. There are several different classes of stars with class O being the hottest and blue and class M being the coolest and red. Stars fuse together different types of hydrogen (Deuterium with one proton and one nuetron and Tritium with one proton and two neutrons) into helium which leaves two neutrons left over which turns into energy. Stars are also classified by their size. Brown dwarfs are stars that failed to ignite and red dwarfs at the end of the life cycle.
Nebulae
The nebulae is a dense cloud of gases that is mostly composed of hydrogen (90%) and the rest is hydrogen with heavier elements lying around. Since a nebulae is made up of gas and looks like a cloud it is called a cloud in latin. There are five main types of nebula Dark, Planetary, Reflection, and Emission nebulas with supernova remanents being the last type. Dark nebulas are nebulas that block the light behind it, Planetary nebulas form around stars and are where planets are born, Emission nebulas emit radiation and Reflection Nebulas that deflect light and other types of electromagnetic energy.
Clusters
Clusters are much like galaxies except smaller in size (with only one to hundred thousand stars while regular galaxies have billions of stars). There are several types of clusters. There are open clusters and globular clusters. Open clusters only have a dozen or so stars while globular clusters have many thousands of stars.
Galaxies
There are many galaxies in the universe. These galaxies fall into several different categories including spiral, irregular and elliptical galaxies. Galaxies are groups of stars with elliptical galaxies having the oldest stars and irregular having relatively new stars. Our galaxy the MilkyWay is a spiral galaxy which looks like it has spirals on it. The elliptical galaxies have on ellipsoid shape and the irregular galaxies have no shape.
Pulsars
Pulsars are rapidly pulsating neutron stars that have a powerful electromagnetic field. They spew out radiation and other forms of energy out of their poles which are the weakest points of resistance. They seem to have a sort of lighthouse effect as they rotate and different light beams hit us. They are formed when a massive star collapses and leaves a neutron star that rapidly pulsate.
Quasars
Quasars are tiny objects that produce a lot of light and radio waves emission. They were originally called radio stars and they produce approximately 10-100 times the energy that our galaxy produces. Quasars are theoretically supposed to be Super Massive Black Holes that spew out radiation and therefore that bright.
Black Holes
Black Holes are point singularities that are so dense that they rip apart the time-space continuum. They are so dense that time is stopped and the las of physics are broken. Every object that has gravity has an escape velocity, but the black holes is so dense and its gravity is so high that not even the fastest things can escape (light). We can only rely on indirect evidence for these beasts since they cannot be seen.
Dark Matter
Dark matter is the explanation of the lack of mass in our universe. Scientists have calculated the mass of the universe and realized that there is too little mass in the universe. So they came up with dark matter to make up for the lost sum. They estimate that 90% of the matter in our universe is invisible or dark matter. They believe that WIMPs (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles) make up most of the mass since they do not interact and cannot, therefore, be 'seen'.