Elemental Philosophy

There are many beautiful sights in the darkness of space. One of these sights is the Medusa Nebula. This is a planetary nebula within the constellation of Gemini. It is named after the Gorgon Medusa in Greek mythology. The reason for this is because the colors within the nebula appear to take the shape of a snake. It is formed by colorful clouds of gas. The shedding of the outer layers of the old stellar star in the center of the nebula is what gives these colorful clouds life. It is about 1,500 light-years from Earth. The Medusa Nebula is said to properly predict the fate of the sun, which will eventually end up in the same form as the nebula.

Another interesting object in space is the black hole. These are very mysterious and unknown objects. They are said to be extremely strong because they contain so much gravity that nothing in the universe can escape from it, not even light. There is a theory that black holes are made up of something called singularity. A singularity is said to be what all the matter in a black hole gets crushed up into. It soaks up all the light that hits it, hence why it is so dark. The slowing of time occurs near a black hole. Although it is called a black hole, it is actually not a hole. It is an extremely dense object with a high gravitational field that will not allow anything to leave it.

There is also a magnificent sight called the Sombrero Galaxy. The center of this galaxy is said to house a huge black hole. It has a bright, white core surrounded by thick dust lanes which make up the spiral structure of the galaxy. Within the bright core is a smaller disk which is tilted in relation to the larger disk. There is evidence from x-ray emission that objects are falling into the core, where the one-billion-solar-mass black hole resides. The Sombrero Galaxy is found within the constellation of Virgo, and is 28 million light-years from Earth. It’s mass is equivalent to 800 billion suns, and it is one of the biggest objects in the constellation of Virgo.

After reading this section on the night, I really thought about how interesting the night is. I know that many people feel reenergized at night and are more productive. I feel like this is the case for me, as well. There is something so serene and tranquil about the night that motivates me to be more productive. At night, I tend to reorganize things because I have the energy and motivation to do this later at night for some reason. During the day, I just do not feel like doing particular tasks that I have the motivation to do at night. Also, I feel like I do some of my best school work at night as well. Maybe it’s just because it is so much quieter at my house at night than it is during the day. I can fly through my school work easier at night and I feel more focused. I just feel more refreshed and energized in the evening than I do during the day.

After reading space, I thought about our existence entirely. Like I’m not going to lie, I had an existential crisis😂. So Earth is literally the perfect distance in between the sun and Earth itself. If Earth was closer, life would literally go up in flames like a scene out of what we imagine Hell. If Earth was too far away, life would be frozen solid like popsicles. Our state is known as “The Goldilocks Position”. Earth is literally at the perfect position! It is so scary to imagine that if the Earth was in a different position, what would life be like? Another thing I thought about after reading space was the fact that there could very well be a black hole in the middle of our galaxy/universe that we continue to move towards. Does that just mean that life will go away one day? Will we need to find new planets? Would humans die on the voyage to get to the new planets to repopulate? Like I genuinely rethought my whole existence and why we are all alive! Space is really cray and super scary!