It's safe to say that the universe is full of weird and wonderful mysteries.
Whether they are nightmare planets, or a literal cosmic question mark.
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Mysterious radio signals
Researchers have been receiving ultra-strong, ultra-bright radio signals lasting just a few milliseconds since 2007.
The mysterious signals were called fast radio bursts, or FRBs.
Its source appears to be billions of light years away.
In September, astronomers recorded a powerful burst of radio waves reaching Earth after traveling through space for 8 billion years.
Dubbed FRB 20220610A, it is one of the most distant and vivid radio signals ever observed.
Cosmic question mark
Tucked away in the Herbig-Haro galaxy 46/47, about 1,470 light-years away, is a strange cosmic object that looks exactly like a question mark.
This shape, discovered by the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope, has understandably puzzled scientists.
The identity of this object remains a mystery.
All scientists know is that because of its reddish color, it is incredibly far from Earth.
Light is shifted to the red end of the spectrum for objects moving away from us.
Nuclear pasta
Nuclear pasta, the strongest known material in the universe, is 10 billion times stronger than steel.
It forms from the remains of a dead star.
Simulations indicate that protons and neutrons in the form of a dying star could be subjected to enormous gravitational pressure.
The star is tightly packed as it shrinks, and one teaspoon of its mass would be heavier than Mount Everest.
This compresses them into linguine-like tangles of material that would eventually break if you applied a force 10 billion times the force needed to shatter steel.
Although it can be crushed into several different types of pasta shapes, hence the name “nuclear pasta.”
Near the surface of the neutron star, “nuclear pasta” takes the form of bubbles called gnocchi.
Going deeper, they are pressed into flat sheets of lasagna.
Galaxy collision
Last week, scientists captured images of six galaxies colliding in unprecedented detail using the William Herschel Telescope's Enhanced Area Velocity Explorer (WEAVE) — one of the most advanced telescopes on Earth.
The rare event erupted after a rogue galaxy, NGC 7318b, passed through the Stefans Quintet, a known group of five interacting galaxies.
It rocketed at an astonishing speed of 2 million mph (3.2 million km/h), creating a powerful shockwave that was likened to the “sonic boom of a fighter jet.”
The collision created a huge debris field left over from previous galactic collisions.
Nightmare planet
About 64.5 light-years away, an exoplanet notorious for its violent weather has made a name for itself in another area: its smell.
Its atmosphere smells of rotten eggs, according to data captured by the James Webb Space Telescope and analyzed by researchers at Johns Hopkins University in July.
The gas giant, called HD 189733 b, has trace amounts of hydrogen sulfide in its atmosphere, making the entire planet smell like sulfur, or rotten eggs.
Life on HD 189733 b
Life on planet HD 189733 b may be impossible for us humans, but let's imagine for a moment:
NASA has described HD 189733 b as one of the “most terrifying and mind-blowing destinations” in our galaxy.
While it may resemble Earth from afar, with its marbled blue atmosphere, it couldn't be more different.
Not only will every breath you take smell of sulfur, but you'll also have to contend with winds of up to 5,400 mph that carry the smell of rotten eggs.
This is equivalent to about seven times the speed of sound.
“Getting caught in the rain on this planet is more than just an inconvenience,” NASA says. “It's death by a thousand cuts.”
This strange world is believed to rain glass – sideways – in its storm-dwarfing winds.
Not only that, the planet's surface, even on its dark side, is north of 650 degrees Celsius (1,200 degrees Fahrenheit).
These extreme conditions are what make the possibility of extraterrestrial life so weak.
