From megacomets to rogue black holes, these formidable phenomena make the universe a truly dangerous place.
Space: the final frontier. The region between our home planet and everything else in the universe is a big unknown — full of untold wonders, celestial objects so big they boggle the mind, and some truly catastrophic events. Here are seven of the most terrifying things in space.
2. Collision with AndromedaIt may be 2.5 million light-years from Earth, but Andromeda, the largest galaxy in our Local Group, is on a terrifying trajectory: It's headed straight for, and will one day collide with, our Milky Way galaxy. Just before it does, though, it will dominate the night sky. Thankfully, Andromeda won't arrive for another 3 billion to 5 billion years or so. 3. Catastrophic solar flareEarth is constantly bombarded by high-energy particles from the sun.
But not all of the black holes in the Milky Way are as distant as the monster one at the center of our galaxy; there are thought to be 100 million black holes in the Milky Way, a large fraction of which may be wandering through the Milky Way. This year, scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope spotted a rogue black hole in our galaxy — this one only 5,000 light-years from Earth — and even measured its mass: seven times the mass of the sun.
6. 154,741 extra asteroidsMany large objects lurk in our solar system, and we know only about a fraction of them. It's possible that there's an unknown asteroid out there that could destroy life on Earth, just like the one that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. Luckily, we're discovering more of our solar system's space rocks every day, thanks to ever-improving wide-field telescope surveys.
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See the huge solar wings of China's space station in motion above Earth (video)Andrew is a freelance space journalist with a focus on reporting on China's rapidly growing space sector. He began writing for Space.com in 2019 and writes for SpaceNews, IEEE Spectrum, National Geographic, Sky & Telescope, New Scientist and others. Andrew first caught the space bug when, as a youngster, he saw Voyager images of other worlds in our solar system for the first time. Away from space, Andrew enjoys trail running in the forests of Finland. You can follow him on Twitter AJ_FI.
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