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the First Moment.... |
...a history of the Cosmos, this universe we live in.
One of the most peaceful and pleasant pastimes for me is to simply watch the night sky and imagine the events occurring "out there". My thoughts range from thinking of the near-by planets to what processes might be happening on a far-away star. Or from thinking of which point of light has life, and what that life might be doing at that very instant. Or to the catastrophic event of a whole planet being sucked into a black hole in the twinkling of an eye! Some events are huge, beyond the most enormous events which could occur here on Earth.... but they are, nevertheless, real, and occurring at this very instant! And, yes .... sometimes I just daydream of things that are happening right here on earth....the things that affect me directly..... those worries, concerns, joys, that accompany each of us through life...significant on the personal level but insignificant on the grand scale. The point is... the night time sky can open our minds to a variety of thoughts!
| The Universe An introduction to the age and scope of the Universe. |
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| Time A first-hand trip into the past to explore the scope of the age of the Universe. |
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| Structure An overview of the major structures of the cosmos....Galaxies and Galaxy Clusters, as well as Dark Matter. | |
| Cosmic Events Brief description of some extraordinary events occurring in the cosmos - Life and death of stars, Black Holes, Quasars, and, of course, the Big Bang. |
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| Solar System How the Solar system formed and some interesting facts regarding the planets and other objects in our Solar system. A look at Life. |
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| Astronomers A look at some of the important astronomers of the day. | |
This site is based on fact and a lot of theoretical ideas, many of which have been supported - but not proven - by observation. In some cases there is more than one theory to explain a particular cosmic event... such is the ever evolving nature of modern astronomy. Nevertheless, a best attempt is made to present the current popular theory. So keep an open mind as you may come across competing theories.
The discussions herein are presented in a simplified manner, but accurate as possible, so that everyone can get a realistic grasp of this place we call the Universe. I purposefully avoid getting onto the weeds...it is more the purpose of seeing the landscape of this universe. You do not need a scientific background, however, for those wishing more information on any of the subjects here, check out the web sites listed in Other Web Sites. There are some really great sites out there with much more detail than provided here.
Hopefully you will begin to see the beauty and awesome scale of this great place we live in and be able to better enjoy a peaceful night in the backyard looking at the night sky. If you're new to the night sky most of what you see are stars, in this galaxy. Of course the first thing you'll see in the night sky, and one which we all know about, is the moon....our ever faithful companion. If you don't know already, you will soon come to know the planets, most of which we can see with our unaided eye. Careful, these seem to wander over the night sky depending on the time of year. But the remainder, the stars, are constant from year-to-year, always there, always reliable....they sometimes hide from us during the year, but only because in our journey around the sun we get to see all sides.
The next time you look up at the night sky and see the thousands of stars, each representing thousands of potential solar systems in our very own Milky Way galaxy, think for a minute about the vast unseen universe that lies just beyond the limits of our unaided eye..... a universe filled with many galaxies...... and black holes, and dying stars. We now know that these places surely exist. Just as surely as our own star - the Sun - exists ... setting in the western sky at the end of each day.
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The purpose of this site is to interest the reader to a better understanding of the universe and to gain some appreciation for the vastness of this place where we live. Take a look at the subjects listed above. We'll briefly look at the work of some astronomers, past and present, regarding where we came from and where we are going. We'll concentrate on those theories which are currently supported by the observations. To the extent possible, a picture of the universe will be presented which is consistent with the most reasonably certain scientific ideas of today. |
Continue on to a journey to the beginning of Time