Faszination Universum
A two-part series on the wonders of the Universe for ZDF’s Terra X strand. Part one deals with the strange phenomenon of time; Part two with the Elements that make up the Universe. Albert Einstein, of course, gave time and space a whole new twist. Have (another) go at his famous theory of relativity here and here (in German).
The picture above is of the Crab Nebula, the remnant of a massive star explosion in the year 1054. The white dot in its centre is one of the strangest objects in the universe: a neutron star. This is the condensed core of the former star, which has the mass equivalent to the sun crammed into a rapidly spinning ball of neutrons twelve miles across. While spinning, these neutron stars emit radio waves. When first detected, astronomers seriously thought that aliens are trying to contact us. You can read more about this somewhat bizarre scientific detective story here (in German) and here (in English).
The image is a composite of NASA’s three space observatories: Hubble (visible light), Chandra (X-Ray) and Spitzer (infrared). Credits: NASA, ESA; CXC, JPL-Caltech et al.
