Research File 002
Astronomy &
Cosmology
13.8 billion years old. 93 billion light-years across. 2 trillion galaxies. 95% unexplained. The universe is the most elaborate unsolved mystery in existence.
13.8 billion years old. 93 billion light-years across. 2 trillion galaxies. 95% unexplained. The universe is the most elaborate unsolved mystery in existence.
The Event Horizon Telescope captured this in 2019 — the first direct image of a black hole's shadow. 6.5 billion solar masses. 55 million light-years away. Exactly matched predictions from general relativity.
A black hole forms when matter collapses so densely that escape velocity exceeds light speed. The boundary — the event horizon — is the point of no return. Beyond it, not even light escapes.
The radius at which an object becomes a black hole. Sun: ~3km. Earth: ~9mm. For a proton: ~10⁻⁵⁴ m — smaller than we can physically imagine.
Quantum effects near the event horizon cause black holes to slowly emit radiation and eventually evaporate over unimaginable timescales. Never directly observed — but the math is solid.
If black holes destroy information when they evaporate, this violates quantum mechanics. Hawking spent decades on this. It remains one of the deepest unresolved problems in physics.
Every large galaxy has one at its center. Sagittarius A* at the center of the Milky Way is 4 million solar masses. M87* is 6.5 billion. We don't fully understand how they got so large.
Everything visible — every star, planet, gas cloud, galaxy — accounts for only 5% of the universe's total energy content.
Dark Matter (~27%) — has mass, doesn't interact with light. We know it exists because galaxies rotate too fast for visible matter to hold them together. Could be WIMPs, axions, or something completely unknown.
Dark Energy (~68%) — causes expansion to accelerate. Possibly a property of empty space itself. Completely unexplained by any current theory. The dominant component of the universe.
Some step in developing spacefaring civilizations is nearly impossible. Either we already passed it (we are rare) — or the filter is ahead of us, and civilizations destroy themselves before going interstellar.
Advanced civilizations don't use radio waves. Like finding a remote tribe and assuming nobody else exists because they don't use WiFi. We may be listening on completely the wrong channel.
Stars will form for trillions of years. Complex life may require multiple stellar generations. We might be among the very first intelligent civilizations — which is extraordinary in itself.
Advanced civilizations observe us and have decided not to interfere — watching from a distance. The silence is deliberate. We're in a protected reserve and don't know it.