Rarities In Space

Space is a marvel of god’s creation. It stands as a testament to how wonderful nature’s creations can be, and the wonderful mystery which it beholds. Space is a mystery which we are trying to solve, while ironically being the part of the mystery itself. Some of the rarest objects and phenomenon are discusses below:

1. The Hoag’s Object: This is one of the strangest things to ever be observed in space. This is a galaxy which is perfectly shaped like a ring and thus is one of the best and only examples of a completely ring-shaped galaxy. It is located about 600 million light-years away from the milky way. The galaxy’s outer part consists of young blue-white stars and is believed to have the largest number of wolf rayet stars i.e., the brightest and hottest a star can be in the universe. In the galactic core of this galaxy lies a dormant supermassive blackhole and stars which are very old (10 billion years +) and supposedly some neutron stars. This galaxy is the best example of symmetry in nature, as this is the most perfect circular shaped galaxy ever observed.
2. Neutron Stars: Neutron stars are a very rare type of star to be found in the universe. These are the stellar remnants of previously exploded (undergone supernova) and is the core of such stars. When a star approximately the size of our sun reaches the end of its life, it explodes into a very chaotic and powerful event called a “Supernova”. After this takes place, the core of those stars still remain and spin at a very fast and uncomprehend able speeds due to a phenomenon called angular momentum. This explains that due to the size of the star in the early ages of its life it spins of its axis, this is true for all stars. When they shrink suddenly due to a supernova, their active core spins faster as it is extremely compressed and dense and has a far less surface area compared to a normal stars. In such core the protons fuse with the other negative elements and form neutrons. All of this is held together by a force called “Neutron Degenerate Force”, and hence forms a stable and dense star called neutron stars.
3. Pulsars: As if neutron stars weren’t rare enough, there are things called pulsars. These at the base is a neutron star. As the neutron stars spin at a very high speed (ranging from 1.4 rotations per second to 716 rotations per second (reaching 24% the speed of light)). They eject matter in the form of radiation from their poles. When this jet of matter which stretches from a few light-years all the way to a few thousand light-years combined with the insane speed of rotation, they form an extremely rare star called a pulsar. In our home galaxy the Milky Way is home to some very bizarre pulsars such as the “Crab Pulsar” which spins at a rate of 11.4 rotations per second and the “PSR J1748 244ad” which is the fastest pulsar ever observed which spins at a staggering 716 rotations per SECOND, and reaching 24% the speed of light.
4. Magnetars: Magnetars are also a form of neutron stars. As the name suggests, these stars have a very strong magnetic field. Some of the magnetars have a 200 billion times the magnetic field of that of the earth. Magnetars are even rarer than neutron stars and pulsars. To give an example, if a magnetar was placed 5–6 light-years away from the earth, the magnetic field is so strong that it will erase all the credit card information of every individual on earth because credit cards don’t work when kept near a magnet. These stars are very stable and can theoretically last up to tens of hundreds of billions of years.
5. JADES-GS-z14–0: This is one of the oldest and the farthest galaxies to ever have been observed. This was images by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which shows how distant the galaxy is. This was found using the JWST’s ultra deep-field, which basically takes a very long exposure shot. This process takes anywhere from 48 hours to 24 days. The basic logic is the telescope is pointed at a seemingly empty patch of sky and is left in that position to capture the hidden stars and galaxies. In this process JWST in 2024 imaged a large number of galaxies located anywhere between 5 million to 33.8 billion light-years away. This particular galaxy located at 33.8 billion light-years away pushed the JWST to its absolute limit. It captured a galaxy so small, faint and red shifted that it took only a single PIXEL of the entire photograph. When the calculations were done, scientists found out that this galaxy was 13.5 billion years old. Indicating that it formed just 300 million years after the big bang. The mind-bending part that this one photograph beautifully shows the real-time expansion of space which is faster than the speed of light. Originally the light from this galaxy was emitted 13.5 billion years ago, but due to the rapid expansion of the universe, it is now located 33.8 billion light-years away. The now mysterious thing is that, what might this galaxy even made of. The answer to this important question is that it MIGHT be made up of the earliest stage 1 stars, which are the rarest of its kind. The other important question is, is there any galaxy farther than this one. The answer might be yes, but we are not able to capture it because of the rapid expansion of the universe, and that light is not able to reach us because the universe keeps expanding faster than the speed of light.

In conclusion, space is never boring, and always has something to surprise us. These examples stand as a testament to how small and insignificant we are. Truly, WE, US HUMANS and our problems are never a match to this wonderful and mysterious creation of God.