COSMOLOGY

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INTRODUCTION

If you've reached this page, well done! It's pretty deep in the site!

This red giant star has nearly exhausted all of it's fuel! It's a natural process and the end result depends on the mass of the star.

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If the mass of the star is large enough, it's fight between the explosive power it gives off versus the gravity it creates which keeps everything in, will have an unusual ending.

The moon has 1/6th the gravity of the Earth. You should be able to jump up 6 times as high on the Moon as compared to jumping on the Earth!

Everything has gravity, including the old 486 computer I'm running, to the glasses we drink from, to the Sun and all the other stars and galaxies. The difference is the mass. My computer has no noticable effect on other objects because it is to small. The Earth has enough gravity to hold the moon in orbit. On the other hand, the Moon has enough gravity to have an effect on our oceans in the form of tides. The Sun with it's great size has enough gravity to keep all the planets in orbit.

Just imagine something that's even bigger than our Sun. Our Sun is a typical small star compared to such giant, super giant and hyper giant stars which also frequent our galaxy and the Universe. The gravity which they create is enormous!

It's hard for a human being to jump of the earth. I think the current world high jump record is 2.45m. The enormous thrust which the space shuttle generates to break our gravity shows what's needed to do the job. Around 48,000km/hr escape velocity is the speed required. If a star is large enough, it has the ability to prevent the escape velocity of light!!

The star is crushed beneath it's own gravity to a very small point, maybe the size of our Earth, not being able to emit any light and swallowing thing that comes near it with it's enormous gravity. This has produced a black hole!

Black hole theory is taught as standard by universities around the world. Pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope show the various candidates at the centres of others galaxies.

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