Further out there are exploding stars and black holes that are so dense, not even light can escape their gravitational grasp.<\/p>
There are spinning pulsars and red giants, gargantuan clouds of deepest, densest black cosmic dust and colliding galaxies.<\/p>
And there’s the fact that astronomers have no idea what the vast, vast majority of the Universe is made of.<\/p> Mostly, of course, these incredible phenomena fill us with wonder and awe, scientific intrigue and a desire like our primitive ancestors to discover what’s on the other side of the proverbial hill.<\/p> If we think long enough about it, our tiny little planet pales in comparison to what’s out there in space, and life on Earth really is very comfortable indeed, cosmologically speaking.<\/p> So let’s ignore the wonder of scientific intrigue for a moment and instead take a terror tour through the cosmos to encounter some of the scariest things space and the Universe have to throw at us.<\/p> It\u2019s right on our doorstep, and in terms of mass and volume, it\u2019s very like Earth. So you might think a trip to Venus would be a bit like hopping on a ferry from England to France or crossing from the US into Canada.<\/p> But no, Venus is a scary, scary place! Venus’s atmosphere<\/a> is mostly made of carbon dioxide, it rains sulphuric acid and the average temperature at ground level is 464\u00b0C (867\u00b0F).<\/p> What\u2019s scariest of all, though, is that Venus MAY once have been very similar to Earth, with oceans and a habitable environment.<\/p> But then global warming took over. If only there was a lesson to be learned there, eh?<\/p> Asteroids<\/a> are essentially big lumps of rock that whizz around the Solar System at mind-boggling speeds.<\/p> They do actually have predictable orbits, once we\u2019ve spotted them, but there are still potentially millions of them that we don\u2019t know about.<\/p> 66 million years ago, an asteroid named Chicxulub measuring 10km across crashed into Earth and killed the dinosaurs<\/a>.<\/p> And while our ability to detect asteroids has come on in leaps and bounds, there\u2019s no reason, scientifically speaking, why another lumping great asteroid couldn\u2019t come along in the next few decades and kill all of us, too.<\/p> Meteors are like asteroids, but smaller.<\/p> Plus points: unlikely to wipe out all life on Earth, so that\u2019s good.<\/p> Minus points: are harder to spot and have less predictable orbits.<\/p> Okay, yes, we know all about regular meteor showers like the Quadrantids<\/a>, Leonids<\/a>, Perseids<\/a> etc\u2026 but just look at what happened in Chelyabsink<\/a> in 2013.<\/p> You wouldn\u2019t want THAT hitting you on the head, would you?<\/p> It\u2019s Jupiter\u2019s most distinctive feature but you wouldn\u2019t want to be caught up in the Great Red Spot<\/a>.<\/p> A storm that\u2019s bigger than Earth and which has been raging for over 350 years boasting winds of up to 432 km\/h (268 mph) doesn\u2019t sound like much fun at all.<\/p> A black hole<\/a> is a region of space so dense, nothing can escape its its gravitational pull: not even light or any other form of electromagnetic radiation. Cross its \u2018event horizon\u2019 and you\u2019ll disappear forever.<\/p> And astronomers now think there’s a supermassive black hole at the centre of most galaxies.<\/p> Just to make matters worse, some of them don\u2019t even have the decency to stay at the centre of galaxies where they belong, and instead wander around intergalactic space at speeds of up to 45 km\/s (100,440 mph).<\/p> Planning on building your own spaceship and escaping to Mars? Just mind the space junk<\/a> on your way out!<\/p> There are now tens of thousands objects >10cm (4.5 inches) in diameter in orbit around the Earth, with smaller particles (chipped paint, rocket exhaust particles etc) numbering in the millions.<\/p> Any one of these can damage passing spacecraft. But perhaps more importantly, if we don\u2019t get a grip on the problem soon, then the satellite systems we rely on for communication could stop working\u2026<\/p> HD 189773b is an exoplanet<\/a> that was first detected in 2005.<\/p> The so-called \u2018hot Jupiter<\/a>\u2019 (a gas giant that lies much closer to its parent star than Jupiter does to the Sun) can be found some 64.5 million lightyears<\/a> away in the constellation of Vulpecula, and if you could see it through a telescope, it\u2019d look like a big blue marble.<\/p> So what\u2019s scary about it? Nothing much. Oh, except that it\u2019s got a \u2018surface\u2019 temperature of 1,300\u00b0C, it\u2019s constantly buffeted by 8,700 km\/h winds and it rains molten glass. So there\u2019s that\u2026<\/p> Dark nebulae<\/a> are regions of space that look dark because the clouds of gas and dust there are so thick that light from stars and galaxies beyond can\u2019t get through.<\/p> Now, thick black clouds are kind of scary in their own right\u2026 but it\u2019s what might be lurking behind them that\u2019s the really frightening thought.<\/p> Everything dies eventually\u2026 even stars.<\/p> And when massive stars die, they die in a spectacular explosion called a supernova<\/a>\u2026 after which either they collapse into a neutron star<\/a> or a black hole, or their matter is scattered around the surrounding area to form a diffuse nebula.<\/p> Supernovae give out so much energy that, for a brief period (measured in days, weeks or sometimes months) they can shine brighter than their host galaxy.<\/p> Oasis songwriter Noel Gallagher famously once claimed that someday you\u2019d find him in one<\/a>, but frankly, in the midst of a supernova is the last place you\u2019d want to be.<\/p> One of the scariest things about space is that we know what just a tiny fraction of the Universe is made of.<\/p> According to the European Space Agency, the Universe consists of<\/a>, very roughly, 5% ordinary matter, 25% dark matter and 70% dark energy.<\/p> So it\u2019s a little disconcerting that we don\u2019t actually know what most of that is.<\/p> Ordinary matter is easy: that\u2019s all the molecules and atoms that make up you, me, trees, giraffes, rivers, biscuits, Ipswich, planets, stars and, well, everything. So far, so good! But as for the other two\u2026<\/p> Dark matter<\/a>: that\u2019s some kind of otherworldly equivalent. We can\u2019t see it but thanks to its gravitational effects, we know it\u2019s out there in space, in big quantities.<\/p> Dark energy<\/a> is even more mysterious, but seems to be an unknown form of energy that\u2019s accelerating the Universe\u2019s expansion.<\/p> How? Why? Who can say? We\u2019re basically stumbling around in the dark here, people.<\/p> We don\u2019t know that much about \u2018Oumuamua<\/a> except that it came hurtling into our Solar System back in 2017, and that it will soon hurtle out of it again (it\u2019s currently somewhere out past Neptune).<\/p> The first interstellar object ever to be observed in the Solar System, \u2018Ouamuamua naturally attracted a great deal of attention.<\/p> But as it was so small, so distant and so fast-moving, our best guess is still only that it was probably a cigar-shaped lump of rock measuring 100-1,000m (330-3,300ft) long and 35-167m (115-548ft) wide.<\/p> And definitely not an alien probe. Ahem.<\/p> In August 1977, astronomers operating the Big Ear radio telescope at Ohio University in the US detected what appeared to be a narrowband radio signal coming from the direction of the constellation Sagittarius<\/a> and lasting for 72 seconds.<\/p> What\u2019s more, the signal had a frequency of 1,420MHz, which \u2013 due to its matching natural emissions from hydrogen \u2013 scientists had declared the most likely frequency to be used by alien civilisations attempting to communicate, some 18 years earlier.<\/p> The Wow! Signal<\/a>, so-called because the astronomers marked it on their data printout with the word \u2018Wow!\u2019, has never been heard again \u2013 nor satisfactorily explained.<\/p> Cue *Twilight Zone* music\u2026<\/p> NASA\u2019s Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 probes blasted off to explore space in the early 1970s.<\/p> Each had a gold plaque mounted on the outside showing a map of the Solar System, its location within the Milky Way and anatomically correct drawings of male and female humans, pictured (for scale) alongside a line-drawing of the probes themselves.<\/p> The idea being that, were the probes ever discovered by an alien civilisation, they\u2019d know where they\u2019d come from.<\/p> So basically we\u2019ve sent nude pictures of ourselves to complete strangers \u2013 and complete ALIEN strangers, at that \u2013 along with directions to our house. What could possibly go wrong?<\/p> Dark nebulae<\/a> are areas where there doesn\u2019t appear to be much going on, but they\u2019re really just big clouds of dust and gas.<\/p> Supervoids, though, are areas of space where there actually ISN\u2019T anything go on \u2013 they\u2019re the gaps between filaments, the long chains of galaxy superclusters that make up the macro structure of the Universe.<\/p> And they\u2019re huge. As in, don\u2019t think about it for too long huge.<\/p> In fact we\u2019re going to talk about the next scary thing now, because that much nothing is just too much for the human mind to handle.<\/p> Ordinary spacewalks (or EVAs, to give them their technical term) are bad enough.<\/p> But usually, astronauts are connected to their spacecraft by a tether \u2013 so that they don\u2019t, y\u2019know, float off, die of suffocation and have their frozen corpses bounce around the vast nothingness of space for all eternity.<\/p> On an untethered spacewalk, though, all your hopes of avoiding the above rest on the gas thrusters in your Manned Maneuvering Unit not malfunctioning. Just no.<\/p> Several cities across the UK have introduced \u2018clean air zones\u2019, where drivers whose vehicles\u2019 emissions exceed a certain level have to pay a surchage to drive through or into certain areas.<\/p> Such schemes have proved controversial, to say the least, but hey, reducing air pollution is a good thing, right?<\/p> Spare a thought, then, for the motorists (were there any) of exoplanet KELT-9b.<\/p> It\u2019s so hot on KELT-9b<\/a> \u2013 the average surface temperature is 4,300\u00b0C (7,700\u00b0C) \u2013 that the atmosphere contains huge amounts of, wait for it, vaporised iron.<\/p> We can only imagine what the clean air surcharges THERE must be like!<\/p> Some of the scariest things in space are phenomena we just can’t explain.<\/p> Lasting from a fraction of a millisecond to up to three seconds, fast radio bursts<\/a> are sudden \u2018flashes\u2019 of electromagnetic radiation, coming from a single point source and releasing as much energy in a millisecond as the Sun does in three days.<\/p> The first one was detected in 2007 and since then, we\u2019ve found them all over the sky. Some of them repeat at set intervals, others seem to be one-offs.<\/p> What\u2019s causing them? That\u2019s the scary part\u2026 we have absolutely no idea.<\/p> File under: \u2018Could be aliens (but is probably to do with supernovae or something)\u2019.<\/p> To be fair, there\u2019s nothing particularly scary about the Cone Nebula<\/a>.<\/p> Okay, yes, if you suddenly found yourself in the middle of it, you\u2019d die in a matter of milliseconds, but that\u2019s space for you \u2013 the Cone Nebula\u2019s by no means unique in that regard.<\/p> But just look at it\u2026 it\u2019s like a giant, shaggy black bear that\u2019s come to kill you.<\/p> And did we mention it\u2019s 500 million times bigger than the Solar System? Sweet dreams\u2026<\/p> More properly known as the Helix Nebula, NGC 7293 or Caldwell 63, this planetary nebula<\/a> in the constellation of Aquarius looks like a giant eye in the sky, watching our every move from the dark, unforgiving expanse of space.<\/p> Some people have even started referring to it as the Eye of Sauron, which says it all, really.<\/p> Black holes that suck in everything around them like a giant space vacuum are hard enough to get your head around.<\/p> But in 1964 Soviet cosmologist Igor Novikov looked at Einstein\u2019s theory of relativity and came up with their opposite: regions of space that nothing that can enter, but from which matter, energy and light can nevertheless emerge.<\/p> Admittedly, white holes<\/a> are entirely theoretical objects. We\u2019ve never actually seen one and many scientists don\u2019t believe they exist, but still\u2026 who\u2019s to say they\u2019re not portals from another Universe, one that\u2019s filled with all manner of mind-eating alien zombies and hive-minded cyborgs?<\/p> One of the scariest things in space comes from our own Sun: provider of life on Earth.<\/p> Coronal mass ejections<\/a> (CMEs) aren\u2019t uncommon: according to NASA their frequency varies from one a week at solar minimum, to two or three a day at solar maximum.<\/p> Unlike solar flares, which are essentially bursts of light, coronal mass ejections are giant clouds of magnetised particles.<\/p> As they\u2019re fired off pretty much randomly from all over the Sun\u2019s surface, few CMEs ever reach the Earth \u2013 but those that do can have some serious negative consequences.<\/p> In 1859, a large CME brought down much of the US telegraph network.<\/p> Were a large-enough CME to occur today, it could bring sat-nav, telecommunications and the internet to an abrupt halt worldwide, which could cause all kinds of social, economic and political upheaval.<\/p> NASA describes gamma ray bursts<\/a> as \u201cthe most powerful class of explosions in the Universe\u201d.<\/p> Lasting anywhere from a few milliseconds to a few hours, GRBs emit more electromagnetic radiation than any event since the Big Bang<\/a>.<\/p> And while they\u2019re extremely rare, and mostly happen a very long way away, some astronomers believe that a GRB within 6,500 lightyears of Earth may have been responsible for the Late Ordovician mass extinction (one of the five mass extinctions in Earth\u2019s history) around 450 million years ago.<\/p> Planets orbit stars, right?<\/p> Well, usually\u2026 and then there are the ones that just whizz around interstellar space all on their own, having been ejected from the planetary system in which they formed.<\/p> Some scientists believe there may be billions or even trillions of rogue planets hurtling around right here in our own Milky Way.<\/p> And you thought getting struck by an asteroid was the biggest of Earth\u2019s worries!<\/p> Sometimes, galaxies eat each other.<\/p> When two galaxies come close together in space, the gravity of the larger one can start to draw in gas, dust and other matter from the smaller of the two.<\/p> In fact, this process is going on all over the Universe \u2013 and one day, the Andromeda galaxy will consume our own Milky Way.<\/p> It’s already even got its own name: the Andromeda-Milky Way collision<\/a>.<\/p> But it won\u2019t happen for another four billion years or so, so it\u2019s probably not something to lose sleep over.<\/p> Many stars are locked in binary systems<\/a>, where two stars circle around each other constantly.<\/p> In some cases, the gravity of the larger of the two slowly sucks all the gas and plasma from the other until it either shrinks to a white dwarf \u2013 or explodes in a supernova.<\/p> In which case, we call the larger one a \u2018vampire\u2019 star. Everyone put on your best Bela Lugosi voice and repeat after us: \u201cI vant to suck your hydrogen\u201d.<\/p> Comet C\/2014 UN271 wasn\u2019t spotted until a few years ago, but when it was, scientists got something of a shock, because it\u2019s the biggest comet ever discovered, measuring 137km (85 miles) across.<\/p> That\u2019s 12 times larger than Halley\u2019s comet and nearly half as big again as the previous record holder, comet C\/2002\u00a0 VG94.<\/p> And it\u2019s currently heading right this way\u2026 although as it will come no closer to the Sun than Saturn when it makes its nearest approach in 2031, there\u2019s nothing too much to worry about.<\/p> At the heart of the Laniakea supercluster \u2013 the galaxy supercluster that includes our own Milky Way galaxy\u00a0 \u2013 lies the Great Attractor, a region of interstellar space that has the mass of 10 million billion Suns.<\/p> Quite where that mass comes from, we don\u2019t know, because it lies on the other side of the centre of the Milky Way, so we can\u2019t see it.<\/p> But we do know it\u2019s slowly pulling everything in the Laniakea supercluster towards it.<\/p> The good news? Whatever the Great Attractor is, it will take the Milky Way over 100 billion years to get there\u00a0\u2013 and Earth will have been swallowed up by the Sun billions of years before that anyway. Phew!<\/p> Dead galaxies aren\u2019t actually that scary at all, if we\u2019re being honest.<\/p> It\u2019s not like they\u2019re full of alien ghosts or extraterrestrial zombies or anything, they\u2019re just galaxies where there are no new stars being formed.<\/p> Nothing to see here, move along now folks\u2026<\/p> But the name \u2018dead galaxy\u2019 itself is pretty goth, isn\u2019t it? So they make the list.<\/p> Credit where it\u2019s due and all that.<\/p>![\"Merging](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2019\/07\/opo9941a-d5d3477-e1564398541498.jpg\")
Venus<\/strong><\/h2>
![\"Illustration](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2023\/12\/venus-atmosphere-1024x683.jpg?fit=800%2C534\")
Asteroids<\/strong><\/h2>
![\"Artist's](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2023\/03\/maverick-asteroid-hitting-earth-1024x538.jpg?fit=800%2C420\")
Meteors<\/strong><\/h2>
![\"The](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2023\/02\/GettyImages-645693013-a5ffb13.jpg\")
Great red spot<\/strong><\/h2>
![\"Jupiter's](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2019\/12\/Jupiter_Great_Red_Spot-a22f061-scaled-e1577961652269.jpg\")
Black holes<\/strong><\/h2>
![\"Artist's](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2024\/02\/how-black-holes-formed-social-1024x538.jpg?fit=800%2C420\")
Space junk<\/strong><\/h2>
![\"Space](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-1125629273-72eb985-e1662623228355.jpg\")
HD 189773b<\/strong><\/h2>
![\"It](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2024\/02\/HD-189773b-1024x732.jpg?fit=800%2C572\")
Dark nebulae<\/strong><\/h2>
![\"The](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2022\/09\/02.SharkNebulaShawnNielsen-0427919.jpg\")
Supernovae<\/strong><\/h2>
![\"Artist's](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2023\/03\/betelgeuse-supernova-earth-danger-1024x538.jpg?fit=800%2C420\")
Dark matter and dark energy<\/strong><\/h2>
![\"We](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2022\/04\/The_ring_of_dark_matter-0d56681-e1679058107435.jpg\")
\u2018Oumuamua<\/strong><\/h2>
![\"An](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2019\/04\/Oumuamua_artist-6bcfa0e.jpg\")
The Wow! signal<\/strong><\/h2>
![\"The](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2022\/08\/Wow-signal-fc42638.jpeg\")
Pioneer\u2019s golden plaques<\/strong><\/h2>
![\"The](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2024\/04\/pioneer-plaque-1024x812.jpg?fit=800%2C634\")
Supervoids<\/strong><\/h2>
![\"Illustration](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2024\/02\/bootes-void-hole-in-space-1024x683.jpg?fit=800%2C534\")
Untethered spacewalks<\/strong><\/h2>
![\"Astronaut](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2023\/05\/bruce-mccandless-astronaut-1024x683.jpg?fit=800%2C534\")
KELT-9b<\/strong><\/h2>
![\"An](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2020\/01\/KELT-9b-0d9cb0b-e1606304692995.png\")
Fast radio bursts<\/strong><\/h2>
![\"An](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2019\/04\/fast-radio-bursts-MAIN-75a2e28.jpg\")
The Cone Nebula<\/strong><\/h2>
![\"Cone](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2022\/12\/10.eso2215a-d54a6e3.jpg\")
The Eye of God Nebula<\/strong><\/h2>
![\"The](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2020\/09\/Helix-Nebula-Chandra-Archive-7f9c730.jpg\")
White holes<\/strong><\/h2>
![\"Artist's](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2022\/03\/white-hole-0d3207a.jpg\")
Coronal mass ejections<\/strong><\/h2>
![\"A](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2019\/07\/Screenshot-2019-07-29-at-09.26.48-cf2b834.png\")
Gamma ray bursts<\/strong><\/h2>
![\"An](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2020\/08\/heic1921a-5de8e43.jpg\")
Rogue planets<\/strong><\/h2>
![\"Artist's](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2022\/06\/rogueplanet-48f5d21.jpg\")
Cannibal galaxies<\/strong><\/h2>
![\"A](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2021\/03\/Andromeda-Milky-Way-collision-cb63e98.jpg\")
Vampire stars<\/strong><\/h2>
![\"An](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2019\/05\/Binary-stars-3e11123.jpg\")
Comet C\/2014 UN271<\/strong><\/h2>
![\"Nucleus](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2024\/04\/Comet-C-2014-UN271-Bernardinelli-Bernstein-1024x683.jpg?fit=800%2C534\")
The Great Attractor<\/strong><\/h2>
![\"A](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2022\/04\/Laniakea-supercluster-d05a767.png\")
Dead galaxies<\/strong><\/h2>
![\"JADES-GS-z7-01-QU](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2024\/04\/JADES-GS-z7-01-QU-1024x683.jpg?fit=800%2C534\")
![\"Artist's](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2024\/04\/GettyImages-1317973217.jpg\")