The Hubble Space Telescope, named after Edwin Hubble, was built by NASA, and launched into space in 1990. At the time, astronomers the world over expected great discoveries to be made. With this magnificent telescope's help, we could see further into space than ever before.

Why were people so thrilled by Hubble?

With a piece of technology like the Hubble Telescope, we could get a much better look into outer space and learn more about the universe. We could find new black holes, and look back billions of years in time to the very beginnings of our universe.

The Hubble Telescope today

Today, this wonderful piece of equipment has more than met our expectations. It brings us awe inspiring images, and aids us in making new discoveries all the time. With the Hubble's help, we now have definitive proof that dark matter, or energy, is simply matter that we can't see with the naked eye.

Did you know it's estimated that only about ten percent of the Universe is visible?

So, why is the Hubble so important? Well, before the Hubble was launched into space, scientists and astronomers could only learn about space by studying starlight, and the only pictures they had were taken here on earth.

A major step forward in the field of Astronomy

With the help of this huge reflective telescope, discoveries are made every day, and we get spectacular images of space that will take your breath away.

A picture is worth a thousand words

The pictures taken by the Hubble are not your average pictures. They are 20 times larger than pictures taken with a digital camera. Even at that size, they are crystal clear and full of color.

Some Hubble history

Construction of the Hubble commenced in 1977 and was finished in 1985. 5 years later, on April 25, 1990 Hubble was launched into space. the first pictures weren't so great. NASA later discovered why. The giant mirror in Hubble was too flat on one edge.
# In 1993, a camera was added to Hubble, and this corrected the problem.
# In 1997, Hubble was serviced a second time and older instruments were replaced.
# In October 1997, NASA extended the telescope's operations through the year 2010.

So it seems as if we have much to discover about the world of Astronomy and space, because this wonderful telescope will continue bringing us images for years to come.

We have been questioning about where a black hole in our universe lead to. But have we ever considered that we and our entire physical universe is actually a black hole itself? A black hole that is from another universe?

A black hole is a singularity. Our physical universe is one continuous flow of energy. So it is a singularity.

If our physical universe is a black hole from another universe, then that universe must be infinitely larger than ours. Probably even beyond the dimensions of time and space itself. The answer is that, the physical universe is a black hole from the astral plane.

If our universe is a black hole from the astral plane, then where does a black hole in our universe lead to?

When something enters a black hole in our universe, it becomes so compressed until it is beyond the dimensions of time and space. It disappears out of physical reality and enters a different plane of reality. A black hole in the physical universe is a portal to the astral plane.

You can say that a black hole opening up on the other side of a plane of reality is a white hole. The connection between the two planes would be called a wormhole.

All theories of the stable existence of a wormhole have fallen apart except for one. It is the stable existence of the wormhole as the result of matter on one side and exotic matter on the other side.

Any matter that enters a black hole in our universe including light will not be able to exit out into the other side or out the same side. The theory for matter to escape is that it must become negative in mass, or exotic matter. The theory of negative mass is like anti gravity matter. In this state, it can exit the black hole.

The truth is, exotic matter is not matter with negative mass. There is no such thing as negative mass. Everything has mass, being negative in value compared to another is simply a relative term. Exotic matter is simply matter that is less dense than light. It is matter that has changed in rate of vibration to the point it becomes finer than beam. In this case, exotic matter would be etheric matter. Anything that is less dense than light would be repelled by normal gravity from physical matter but attracted by etheric gravity from etheric matter.

Thus objects with negative gravitational mass (both passive and active), but with positive inertial mass, would be expected to be repelled by positive (physical) active masses, and attracted to negative (etheric) active masses. Gravity would work similarly to the electric force except that like masses would attract and unlike masses would repel.

In the physical plane, anything that enters a black hole will be compressed beyond the physical dimensions of time and space and become thought wave or etheric matter. Thought wave is the only thing that is free to go wherever it wants to. Thought wave can’t be trapped in the middle of a wormhole.

People who travel through a tunnel a light into the astral plane during OBE or after death, are in fact traveling through a black hole in etheric state. They pass out of the etheric state of physical reality and into the astral plane. An etheric black hole opens up right where he is in the etheric plane the moment he imagines himself traveling through a tunnel of light into the astral plane.

A person in an OBE is in etheric state which is thought wave. He can pass through the worm hole to the astral plane and back easily. On the physical/etheric side, he is thought wave in the etheric state. On the astral side, he is thought wave in the astral state.

When you enter a black hole of the physical plane in physical state, you will cease to exist physically and have died to the physical dimension. It is better to enter in the etheric state instead, since you cannot return to the physical plane if your physical body has disappeared from physical reality unless the universal mind allows you to manifest in temporal physical form.

Anything that enters a black hole of the astral plane which is timeless and spaceless will collapse into physical time and space. Just like the double slit experiment where a wave is collapsed into a particle in time and space. It will exist purely in the etheric thought wave state or be condensed into any other state of matter according to the will of the universal mind.

The truth is, black holes are not needed for inter-plane traveling because all that is required is just the change in rate of vibration. Black holes, tunnels, portals are just forms of experience in passing through from one plane to the other.

So understanding the true nature of a black hole brings the relation of the seven states of matter to completion or full circle. A black hole in the physical universe transforms all other states of matter to the zero state, and then to the sixth state directly. From Matter Wave to Thought Wave.

So this is the full cycle of manifest of the physical universe. Matter changes state from thought wave to beam, to plasma, to gas, to liquid, to solid, to matter wave and back to thought wave. From the Ether to the black hole and back to the Ether. From Alpha to Omega to Alpha.

A black hole is the beginning of the end.

There is a time dilation close to a black hole for an outside observer and everything moves very slowly there, almost stops. The galaxies can move billions of light years but close to a black hole it is a tiny movement only.

When we are close to the astral plane, physical time around us slows down while physical time away from us continues as usual. When space compresses, time expands.

From the physical point of view, our space has collapsed. But from our point, our space is normal. From the physical point of view, our time has expanded. But from our point, our time is normal. Physical time has been frozen and physical space does not even exist in our dimension.

Black holes are perhaps the strangest objects known. They were first theoretically predicted by Schwarzschild in 1916 and first observed indirectly during the 1960s. By definition, a black hole is a region of space which is so densely packed with matter that nothing, not even light, can escape from its gravitational pull.

Very massive stars end their lives as black holes. Most stars, including the sun, will end their lives as white dwarves once all their nuclear fuel runs out. Stars with masses above about 1.44 solar masses (the Chandrasekhar Limit) cannot support the electron degeneracy pressure necessary to maintain them as white dwarves, so they collapse further. For masses up to about three solar masses, they end their lives as neutron stars. Beyond this mass, the neutron degeneracy pressure can no longer sustain them, so they collapse completely, into black holes. Several black hole candidates are currently known, the most famous in the constellation Cygnus X-1.

In addition to collapsed stars, now every galaxy, including the Milky Way, is believed to have a large black hole at its center. In fact, quasars, very young galaxies in formation, are believed to have black holes which are consuming many stars, causing huge releases of energy.

In 1974, Stephen Hawking discovered that black holes are not as black as was initially thought. According to quantum mechanics, a black hole should in fact emit particles, behaving as a blackbody with a temperature inversely proportional to its Schwarzschild radius. For black holes formed from collapsed stars, this temperature is quite small - of the order of 10^-10 degrees Kelvin. Eventually (after 10^66 years or so!), these black holes will eventually evaporate completely and explode. In fact, after 10^100 years or so, it is believed that the entire universe will have become Hawking radiation once the last black holes have decayed.

Historically speaking there seems to be some confusion as to whether a morning star is a mace, defined as "a strong, heavy wooden, metal-reinforced, or metal shaft, with a head made of stone, copper, bronze, iron or steel" or a flail, defined as "a medieval weapon made of one (or more) weights attached to a handle with a hinge or chain." Now, usually we consider a morning star to be combination of a mace and a flail. The weapon is constructed of at least one ball which is attached to a haft by a metal chain. However, there may be more than one ball and chain utilized. Thus causing the problem in the nomenclature.

Some examples of a morning star show them being pole arms – over 6 feet long. Others have them as side arms, to be wielded by one hand while the other hand employed the use of a shield. Again, the problem with the name. Oddly enough morning stars have other names as well, being called "holy water sprinklers" due to the fact that they somewhat resemble the aspergillum used by the church to sprinkle parishioners with holy water, and "goedendag" or "good day".

In modern times the term morning star is mostly used in fantasy role playing games, which is where one would most likely encounter the weapon outside of a museum or weapon shop. In the games, a morning star is a flail, or at the least a combination of a mace and flail. Also, this weapon is used by the priests and clerics more than by any warrior class in a role playing game. Odd isn't it that a weapon removed from tournaments due to its lethal damage is somewhat restricted to the priests who can only do "bludgeoning" damage.

It would seem that there is no strict definition of which weapon the morning star actually is and that it would fall to the owner of the weapon as to which he prefers. Is it a mace? Yes. Is it a flail? Yes. What is it best known as? Maybe the holy water sprinkler, or maybe just the morning star.

The solar system form was formed about 4.5 billion years ago from a massive cloud. The massive cloud contained hydrogen, helium, and pinches of heavier elements such as oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, silicon, and iron. The materials in the massive cloud clumped together and the largest clump became a prostar. Compression of the prostar due to gravity caused the fusion of hydrogen into helium. This gave birth to the sun. In the inner hotter regions of the cloud, heavier elements of dust grains came together to form Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. In colder regions away from sun, frozen water, methane, and ammonia came together so quickly that their gravities attracted the nearby hydrogen and helium gases. These gases became the main ingredients in Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

Is there a tenth planet in our solar system?

Astronomers who search the outer reaches of the solar system have located many small cometary bodies in the once-theoretical Kuiper Belt. One of these new objects is considered as a "planet". Its official designation is 2003UB313, and astronomers who discovered it nicknamed it Xena. Xena is 20 percent larger than Pluto and has a small moon.

What is an astronomical unit?

One astronomical unit (AU) is the average distance from the center of the earth to the center of the moon. It is 149,597,870 km.

What is an asteroid belt?

An asteroid belt is a zone between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. As the gravity of nearby Jupiter kept pulling the asteroids in the asteroid belt apart, they never formed a planet.

Does life exist on other planets in our solar system?

Except on the earth, no other planets or moons in our solar systems have living systems. Saturn's moon, Titan and the Jupiter's atmosphere have a soup of organic molecules, amino acids and proteins in a pre-biotic state. But life has not been detected anywhere other than earth.

Solar system lesson plans help people learn about the planets and their features in a systematic way. The goals of a well drawn-out solar system lesson plan include the development of thinking, reasoning and collaborative skills.

Topics included in a common solar system lesson are the basics of the solar system, relative distances of planets within the solar system, exploring the planets, and solar system adventures. The total time required is 3 classes with approximately 60 minutes each. The total preparation time for the teacher is about 1 hour. The first period introduces the solar system which is followed by a group discussion. The second period covers relative distances of planets in the solar system and the observation of solar images. Chart preparation of planets is part of the homework. The third period includes discussion and review of planet features from homework, the summarizing of the concepts and facts for gas giant planets.

The objective of a middle school level solar system lesson plan is to give a thorough knowledge of space and the vast emptiness between the planets. These lessons also cover ways of determining the size of a star. Topics for middle school level lesson plans include exploring the planets, charting the planets, solar system and the universe generally. The total time required for this is 4 classes with approximately 60 minutes each. The normal preparation time for the teacher is 2 hours.

High school level lesson plans' objective is to make students observe and explain the apparent movement of the sun and the moon, relating the location of the sun to the time of day and naming and describing the seasons. Before going to the lessons, the student should understand the concepts of basic physics and math including the concepts of ratio, angular velocity, and measurement of an arc in a circle. The topics covered for high school level students are planetary rotation, angular velocity, period of rotation, orbital motion, and angles and angular measurement. The time required for completing the full unit is several days to two weeks.

Solar system diagrams help readers visualize the actual positions of the planets in the solar system. They provide an easy understanding of our earth and the solar system.

The orbit diagrams of the solar system show the planes of the earth and the comets. Comet orbit diagrams show the comets' relative movement with the sun. There are two types of orbit diagrams - outer solar system orbit diagrams and inner solar system orbit diagrams.

Outer solar system orbit diagrams show the positions of all asteroids and comets with semi-major axes. They also show orbits and positions of planets such as Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and comets like Halley and Hale-Bopp. In outer solar system orbit diagrams, asteroids and comets are shown in separate colors or blocks.

The inner solar system diagrams show the positions of all numbered asteroids and all numbered comets. The positions and orbits of the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and Jupiter are also shown. In the diagram, asteroids and comets are represented in separate blocks or colors. Top diagrams and bottom diagrams of the inner solar system can also be plotted. The inner solar system diagram shows the location of the asteroid belt and the distribution of interplanetary dust.

Separate comet and asteroid orbit diagrams can be viewed using a java based orbit applet. The distribution of orbital elements for most known inner solar system asteroids and comets are shown using distribution diagrams such as distribution diagram of elements for comets and asteroids, distribution diagram of elements for asteroids only, and distribution diagram of semi major axis. Bifurcation diagrams show selected stable and unstable orbits and the numerical iterations depending on a parameter.

About 4.5 billion years ago, a huge cloud of cosmic gas and dust banged and the solar system came into existence. The sun is a yellow star acting as the centre of our solar system. The temperature at its core is about 16 million degrees kelvin (K) and it radiates 383 billion trillion kilowatts per second. The sun's strong gravitational pull holds the earth and other planets in their places.

Mercury experiences temperature extremes, varying from 200 ° C during daytime to a frigid -400 ° C at night. Mercury is mainly composed of oxygen, sodium, and helium.

The cloudy planet of Venus has acid rain and carbon dioxide skies that hide our view of its surface. Earth has a diameter, a few hundred kilometers longer than that of Venus. The changing seasons on the earth is the result of its 23 degrees tilted rotation on its axis.

Mars is known as the "red planet" as its surface is composed of iron oxide. Olympus Mons, on the surface of Mars, is the largest known volcano in the solar system. Jupiter is called the king of planets and is twice the weight of all other planets combined. First among the gas giants, Jupiter, with more satellites than any other planet, has no solid surface except for a small rocky core.

Saturn, the second largest planet, is the least dense and flattest. Among its 31 known natural satellites, Titan is the largest. Titan is slightly bigger than Mercury. When other planets spin on an axis perpendicular to the plane of the solar system, Uranus' axis is parallel. Uranus has got a rocky core, surrounded by a huge ocean of rocky material.

Neptune is home to some of the fastest windstorms in the solar system. The great dark spot on Neptune is a large storm with a diameter the size of the earth. Pluto, 2,360 km in diameter, is a lone icy planet, the only planet not yet visited by a spacecraft. Pluto revolves around the sun once in 247.7 earth years and it rotates in the reverse direction as that of other planets.

Where do you live? That’s a common question and the common answer is such-and-such Street. We may live apart in terms of street, city, and even nation, but we all have a common address, the Solar System!

How did the solar system come into existence? It is generally believed that it emerged from a gaseous cloud several billion years ago and planets, an important component of the system, were formed out of this gaseous cloud and its dust.

Till last year we all knew that there were nine planets in the Solar System, but now Pluto is officially an outcast! This is because Pluto does not fit the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) definition of a planet. It is now a dwarf planet.

The chief member of our solar system is the Sun, and its keeps planets in order by its gravitational pull. The Sun is a bright star and exudes heat and light through nuclear fusion. Apart from the Sun, our solar system contains planets, natural satellites, dwarf planets, and small solar system bodies.

A planet, according to the IAU, is a spherical object that orbits the Sun. It must have no small objects near it. Today, there are eight recognized planets in the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Mercury and Venus have no natural satellite unlike the other six. The Earth’s natural satellite is the Moon.

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars are known as the inner planets, while Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are the outer planets. The former are rocky, have minerals and metals, have few or no natural satellites, and don’t have rings. The latter are known as gas giants and have rings.

Dwarf planets are also spherical objects orbiting the Sun, but unlike planets their surroundings don’t have to be clear of smaller celestial bodies. Pluto, Ceres, and Eris are the dwarf planets in the solar system.

Small solar system bodies include asteroids and comets. Trans-Neptunian objects and other small celestial objects also come under this category. Asteroids are mainly found in the region between Mars and Jupiter. They are rocky objects that could span several hundred kilometers or be small like dust. Ceres is the largest asteroid. Comets are mainly made of ice, and when they come near the Sun this ice melts to form a comma like shape. Comets that have orbits less than 200 years, such as, Halley’s Comet are known as short-period comets, while those with orbits spanning thousands of years are known as long period comets. Small solar system bodies that lie in the region beyond Neptune are known as Trans-Neptunian objects.

Technological advances in the form of telescope and spacecraft have helped scientists to obtain a lot of information about the solar system. It’s not a static situation out there, and as new technologies develop here, new and exciting facts about the solar system are uncovered. And you are wrong if you thought only astronomers and scientists looked through the telescope, it’s a hobby for thousands of people!

Outer space and the solar system is one of the most interesting topics discussed in school because of the countless colorful heavenly bodies occupying the universe and the idea that there is actually something else outside of our world.

In the few decades since space exploration began, probes have reached the far regions of the solar system. The solar system is the group of celestial bodies, including Earth that orbits around the Milky Way galaxy. Some hundred billion stars can be found in the universe while more than 1,000 comets have been observed regularly through telescopes.

To give this topic a little twist, here are tips to have students “get it.”

1. As introduction to the subject, bring your students out of the classroom (at both daytime and nighttime if it’s possible) so they can see what makes up the sky. Explain that the solar system is made up of our sun and all of the heavenly bodies that travel around it. Once they have familiarized themselves to the concept of space and the solar system, you can start moving on. 2. The ten planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and Xena) differ in characteristics. You can use a table to show these differences and characteristics. After showing how each is special from the other, you can let them pick a favorite planet, draw it the way they want it and explain why they chose it from the rest. 3. For more than 300 years there has been scientific discussions of the events that led to the formation of the solar system. And since it could be quite time-consuming to talk about the theories concerning the origin of life in the solar system, you may use film or other visual presentations as tools to better explain it. 4. A telescope is another effective device used to magnify or enlarge the image of a distant object. It is a very important tool for astronomers. It enables them to see much farther into space than is possible with the human eye. What you can do is bring a telescope you can share with your students so everyone can have a glimpse on what’s out there in space through a very informal activity.

What is space exploration? The age of space exploration began in the sixth decade of the 20th century. Since that time, robot probes and human beings have ventured beyond the limits of the Earth’s atmosphere. Today, space explorations include the investigation of celestial objects ranging in size from cosmic dust to the giant planets of the solar system. Because of technology, humans are continuously discovering more about life and forces in space. The possibilities are endless.

Outer space and the solar system may be a very interesting topic but its long history of theoretical and practical developments can fuel a lot of questions. The key to space exploration lay in the production of the rocket engine, which made possible the lofting of objects beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. With this subject, remember you are teaching your students that the field of space exploration and the solar system relies heavily on communication and technology.