Antimatter!

Sounds like something that would only come from a strange Sci-Fi movie right? Well you're wrong! Antimatter was created when matter was created at the Big Bang. Antimatter has been defined as the mirror image of matter.So when matter was created, antimatter was created at the exact same time. Imagine a hot metal sheet in a coin factory ('energy'). When you stamp out a coin from a metal sheet, you are left with a coin and a hole in the sheet.You could call this hole an "anticoin". But, you cannot bring matter and antimatter together because when you do, burst back into energy, like putting the coin back into the hole in the sheet. So at the beginning of the Universe, these particles had an all out war against each other and the matter and antimatter annihilating each other.
Why is the Universe not just a burst of energy then you ask? Well for reasons still unknown to scientists, at the beginning, there was a tad bit more matter than antimatter which allowed the matter to overcome the antimatter and when the Universe cooled down enough so that no more matter or antimatter could be created, matter was all that was left and continued to expand and create the universe you see today. The result of the battle can be seen still today because the leftover radiation can be seen all throughout the Universe. This radiation is called Cosmic Background Radiation.

And It All Started With A Big Bang!

So as the insanely catchy theme song for the sitcom "Big Bang Theory" states, the whole universe started in a hot dense state. Then, everything had changed. Because it is impossible to try and recreate the big bang in a lab, scientists can only theorize about what had happened. This theory came to be because of the Hubble telescope. Through this telescope, scientists were able to see that entire galaxies were moving away from us at a very rapid speed. The explosion from the big bang could have only been the only thing that would have caused that. The most amazing thing is that the explosion was only there for a very short time. In fact it only took about one second for the building blocks of the universe to form.

This picture calls that the Big Freeze Out. Then, 12-15 billion years later, our Universe as we see it today is in existence.

Okay, What Is Really Going On With Black Holes?

Where do they come from?

As I touched upon the other day, a black hole forms from a dead/dying stars. The star burns up the fuel that it needs to support the reactions that it creates. This causes the star to fall back in on itself. If the star is massive enough, it will pull other things towards it as well, almost like pulling a plug in a drain. This is a black hole.

What would happen if you got sucked into one of these bad boys?

Well, you would die... However assuming you could survive going past the "event horizon", where everything starts to get pulled in by the black hole, you would get stretched into infinity due to the tremendous difference of gravity at each point of your body.

Other theories about what would happen?

Another theory is that black holes could supposedly be time warps to other parts of space and time. These could be used as shortcuts to other parts of space. Unfortunately, no evidence has been brought to the table that this could actually happen, or if it could we would not be able to survive the trip.

Death Of A Star

How Does A Star Die?
When a star does not have the money to pay off his debt to the Star Mafia, they tend to "disappear for a while".... Not really.

Actually a star "dies" when they run out of nuclear fuel that allows for the constant nuclear reactions. This causes them to lose a lot of their matter. Small stars typically collapse on themselves and compress into small core that eventually cools and turns into a White Dwarf. Larger stars tend to burn hotter and faster. So, when their nuclear fuel runs out, the star ends up losing its matter from massive explosions known as supernovas. After this explosion, the star's gravity causes it to collapse back in on itself pulling it and everything near it in towards itself. This creates the effect known as a black hole. Black Holes are a big topic by themselves so I won't get to into it right now. The act of a dying star is a fascinating occurrence.In fact, many of the stars that we see in the night sky could already be dead! The stars are so far away that the light from them thousands of years ago are just getting here.

Sound! ... Or lack there of...

Alright, so the common misconception here that I am trying to clarify has been a bother to both me and a certain physics teacher of mine. This myth is about sound in space. Now in the movies, ever since 2001: A Space Odyssey, movies that deal with scenes in space included sounds and noises of rockets and whatnot. That is not scientifically accurate however. The reason for this is because the sound waves that we hear travel through particles in the air in order to reach our eardrums. In space, there are no particles between objects so the sound waves from your voice will not go anywhere. In 2001: A Space Odyssey, it was the first movie released that stuck with the fact that there would be no sound in space. Unfortunately, the movie received horrible reviews! The people were upset that there was no sound in those scenes. Which is why Hollywood has used sound every time after that.

So if my friend Mr. Lavere wanted to tell me yet again one of his punderful jokes, all I would have to do to get away from him would be to hop on the nearest rocket out of this world.

The Universe is full of what we would think of as anomalies here on Earth. But surely the lack of sound is one of them. This would prove true the age old sentiment, "In space, no one can hear you scream!" Mwahahaha. 

The Take Off

Alright so let's get down to what you are really here for. You are here to read about all the fun things the Universe has to bring you.... I know, exciting right?... Well what I want to show you is all the interesting facts that space has to offer. I also am trying to explain common misconceptions and answer any questions that may be out there in the world. Movies often include scenes being held in space. I can tell you how physically accurate the scene is and what parts of the scene are just in there for "movie effects". Because I am no expert, it brings up advantages and disadvantages to this blog. Obviously the big disadvantage is that I do not have knowledge about the entire Universe. (Actually, to be honest nobody on Earth really does know all about the Universe. It's kind of impossible.) However, the advantage to it is I can give a personalized explanation of it. So just sit back, relax and and learn something new as we travel from the world we know of to far off and new places!