Unsolved Mysteries in Astronomy: A Comprehensive Exploration

This essay delves into several unsolved mysteries that continue to perplex astronomers. It begins by introducing the persistent nature of these cosmic puzzles, highlighting how advancements in science and technology have provided answers to many questions, but some mysteries, such as the supermassive black hole, the varying speeds of stars, dark matter, the sun's birthplace, and high-velocity clouds, remain unresolved. The essay then explores each mystery in detail. It discusses the characteristics and unknown formation of supermassive black holes, the perplexing high speeds of hypervelocity stars, the elusive nature and gravitational effects of dark matter, the uncertainty surrounding the sun's origin, and the unusual properties of high-velocity clouds. The essay concludes by emphasizing that, despite significant scientific progress, mysteries in astronomy persist due to the lack of observable or testable data, especially concerning dark matter and dark energy.

Unsolved Mysteries in Astronomy
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 There have existed several mysteries the world over. Besides, our ancestors attributed them
to the works of gods and goddesses.
 However, humans have made significant progress in Science and technology in the last
century. As a consequence, science and technology has transformed the world in several ways
providing fundamental answers to questions about the mysteries of the world and universe.
 Although science has provided answers to most of them, there exist some mysteries that
astronomers have not solved yet.
 Some of the greatest mysteries that continue to puzzle astronomers are the mystery of the
Supermassive Black Hole, the Difference in Theoretical Speeds of Stars Revolving Around the
Galaxy, the Dark Matter, the Birthplace of the Sun, and the Mystery of High-Velocity Clouds.
Introduction

 Astronomers believe that supermassive black hole exists at the centre of many galaxies.
Precisely, it has been found at the center of 85 galaxies including the milky way, our galaxy
(Hayasaki, Stone, & Loeb, 2016).
 Astronomers are still unsure about its formation offering nothing but speculative opinion.
 As the name suggests, they contain about a billion times more mass than the stellar black hole.
 It accretes matter through galactic jets and displays a strong luminous.
 The Doppler Effect provides evidence on the occurrence of black hole.
Supermassive Black Hole

 Growth of supermassive black holes is thought to be taking place through continued accretion
of gases (Hayasaki, Stone, & Loeb, 2016)
 Energy output of the supermassive black hole is a trillion times that of the sun.
 The biggest supermassive black hole is located within the NGC 1277 galaxy in the Perseus
constellation.
 Tidal forces of supermassive black holes can rip apart stars within the vicinity of the hole
resulting in the production of a flare luminous electromagnetic radiation
Contonue…

 Most of the stars orbit the galactic center with the same velocity.
 However, some stars vary from this with others having three times as the average speed.
These stars are known as hypervelocity stars (Boyle, 2018).
 These stars travel very fast that they may completely escape the orbit of the galaxy.
 The greatest mystery about them is their speed.
 As a consequence, astronomers offer speculative opinions with no substantial fact.
 Among the theories that help explain this phenomenon is the triple-star theory.
Difference in Theoretical Speeds of
Stars Revolving Around the Galaxy

 The hyper speed is attributed to gravitational pull of the galaxy as well the effect of the
suppermassive black hole.
 Another, main challenge in estimating the speed of a runaway star is that no one has ever seen
a runaway star.
 Since a lot is unknown about dark energy and its influence in the universe
stars included, it becomes a challenge for the astronomers and other
scientists to calculate the speed of a runaway star (Boyle, 2018)
Continue…

 Dark matter refers to the missing component of the universe and was first hypothesized by Jacobus
Kapteyn in 1922 (Bertone & Hooper, 2018).
 A lot is unknown about dark matter since It is mysteriously invisible to humans though its
interaction with visible matter can be observed.
 Dark matter does not adhere to the composition of electrons, protons , and neutrons typical of
visible matter but is made up of unknown particle known to interact with matter and light in
absolutely varied way.
 Its gravitational effect is that it bends light when it passes within the vicinity.
 It is believed that dark matter constitutes 23% of the universe while regular matter constituting 5%.
The Dark Matter

 It is believed that dark matter or dark energy is accountable for the continued universe
expansion.
 Also, existence of dark matter is responsible for the great cosmic web structure.
 Dark matter does not cluster or clump and was vital for the formation of clouds of gas,
galaxies, and quasars.
 Whatever scientists try to offer are speculations about dark matter and dark energy.
 Moreover, the intensity of the hotness or coldness of the dark matter is unknown (Bertone &
Hooper, 2018)..
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 Stars of the universe the sun included are born in clusters and are formed from similar cloud of
gas.
 As a result, their chemical composition remains the same(Boyle, 2018).
 From a detailed examination of about 10,000 stars with the same earth’s light-years of 325, only
two closely resembled the milky way sun.
 This mystery leaves us with two assumptions that either it drifted or was kicked out of the cluster.
 Although Messier 67 can be argued to be its birthplace, a research conducted by Mexican
University ruled out the possibility of Messier 67 as the sun’s birthplace.
The Birthplace of the Sun

 Astronomers argue that the sun needed several stars to align in order to kick it out.
 However, the speed that could have resulted could have shattered the earth’s disk thus
hindering earth’s formation.
 As a result, astronomers are still unsure of how the sun originally formed and found its space
in the milky way galaxy (Boyle, 2018).
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 High-velocity clouds found their discovery in 1963 and are a collection of interstellar moving
gases.
 Their movements, directions, and speed differ with the rotation of the Milky Way by at least
50km/s.
 Their composition is mostly hydrogen.
 The mystery about these clouds is that, it is believed that they fall from the intergalactic space
into the galaxy where they initially originated though the belief is unsolved.
 Astronomers like John Oort believe that the clouds are remnant sthat resulted when the galaxy
was formed (Boyle, 2018).
High-Velocity Clouds

 Another proposition is that they result from the falling of ejected gas happening as galactic
fountains.
 The limitation of this is that it would have become impractical to spot rising gases.
 Also, some scientists argue that they could as well come from objects around the orbit for
example the complex H (Boyle, 2018).
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