This computer-simulated image shows a supermassive black hole at the core of a galaxy. The black region in the center represents the black hole’s event horizon, beyond which no light can escape the massive object’s gravitational grip. The black hole’s powerful gravity distorts space around it like a funhouse mirror. Light from background stars is stretched and smeared as it skims by the black hole.
You might wonder — if this Tumblr post is about invisible things, what’s with all the pictures? Even though we can’t see these things with our eyes or even our telescopes, we can still learn about them by studying how they affect their surroundings. Then, we can use what we know to make visualizations that represent our understanding.
When you think of the invisible, you might first picture something fantastical like a magic Ring or Wonder Woman’s airplane, but invisible things surround us every day. Read on to learn about seven of our favorite invisible things in the universe!
1. Black Holes
This animation illustrates what happens when an unlucky star strays too close to a monster black hole. Gravitational forces create intense tides that break the star apart into a stream of gas. The trailing part of the stream escapes the system, while the leading part swings back around, surrounding the black hole with a disk of debris. A powerful jet can also form. This cataclysmic phenomenon is called a tidal disruption event.
You know ‘em, and we love ‘em. Black holes are balls of matter packed so tight that their gravity allows nothing — not even light — to escape. Most black holes form when heavy stars collapse under their own weight, crushing their mass to a theoretical singular point of infinite density.
Although they don’t reflect or emit light, we know black holes exist because they influence the environment around them — like tugging on star orbits. Black holes distort space-time, warping the path light travels through, so scientists can also identify black holes by noticing tiny changes in star brightness or position.
2. Dark Matter
A simulation of dark matter forming large-scale structure due to gravity.
What do you call something that doesn’t interact with light, has a gravitational pull, and outnumbers all the visible stuff in the universe by five times? Scientists went with “dark matter,” and they think it's the backbone of our universe’s large-scale structure. We don’t know what dark matter is — we just know it's nothing we already understand.
We know about dark matter because of its gravitational effects on galaxies and galaxy clusters — observations of how they move tell us there must be something there that we can’t see. Like black holes, we can also see light bend as dark matter’s mass warps space-time.
3. Dark Energy
Animation showing a graph of the universe’s expansion over time. While cosmic expansion slowed following the end of inflation, it began picking up the pace around 5 billion years ago. Scientists still aren’t sure why.
No one knows what dark energy is either — just that it’s pushing our universe to expand faster and faster. Some potential theories include an ever-present energy, a defect in the universe’s fabric, or a flaw in our understanding of gravity.
Scientists previously thought that all the universe’s mass would gravitationally attract, slowing its expansion over time. But when they noticed distant galaxies moving away from us faster than expected, researchers knew something was beating gravity on cosmic scales. After further investigation, scientists found traces of dark energy’s influence everywhere — from large-scale structure to the background radiation that permeates the universe.
4. Gravitational Waves
Two black holes orbit each other and generate space-time ripples called gravitational waves in this animation.
Like the ripples in a pond, the most extreme events in the universe — such as black hole mergers — send waves through the fabric of space-time. All moving masses can create gravitational waves, but they are usually so small and weak that we can only detect those caused by massive collisions. Even then they only cause infinitesimal changes in space-time by the time they reach us. Scientists use lasers, like the ground-based LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) to detect this precise change. They also watch pulsar timing, like cosmic clocks, to catch tiny timing differences caused by gravitational waves.
This animation shows gamma rays (magenta), the most energetic form of light, and elusive particles called neutrinos (gray) formed in the jet of an active galaxy far, far away. The emission traveled for about 4 billion years before reaching Earth. On Sept. 22, 2017, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole detected the arrival of a single high-energy neutrino. NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope showed that the source was a black-hole-powered galaxy named TXS 0506+056, which at the time of the detection was producing the strongest gamma-ray activity Fermi had seen from it in a decade of observations.
5. Neutrinos
This animation shows gamma rays (magenta), the most energetic form of light, and elusive particles called neutrinos (gray) formed in the jet of an active galaxy far, far away. The emission traveled for about 4 billion years before reaching Earth. On Sept. 22, 2017, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole detected the arrival of a single high-energy neutrino. NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope showed that the source was a black-hole-powered galaxy named TXS 0506+056, which at the time of the detection was producing the strongest gamma-ray activity Fermi had seen from it in a decade of observations.
Because only gravity and the weak force affect neutrinos, they don’t easily interact with other matter — hundreds of trillions of these tiny, uncharged particles pass through you every second! Neutrinos come from unstable atom decay all around us, from nuclear reactions in the Sun to exploding stars, black holes, and even bananas.
Scientists theoretically predicted neutrinos, but we know they actually exist because, like black holes, they sometimes influence their surroundings. The National Science Foundation’s IceCube Neutrino Observatory detects when neutrinos interact with other subatomic particles in ice via the weak force.
6. Cosmic Rays
This animation illustrates cosmic ray particles striking Earth's atmosphere and creating showers of particles.
Every day, trillions of cosmic rays pelt Earth’s atmosphere, careening in at nearly light-speed — mostly from outside our solar system. Magnetic fields knock these tiny charged particles around space until we can hardly tell where they came from, but we think high energy events like supernovae can accelerate them. Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field protect us from cosmic rays, meaning few actually make it to the ground.
Though we don’t see the cosmic rays that make it to the ground, they tamper with equipment, showing up as radiation or as “bright” dots that come and go between pictures on some digital cameras. Cosmic rays can harm astronauts in space, so there are plenty of precautions to protect and monitor them.
7. (Most) Electromagnetic Radiation
The electromagnetic spectrum is the name we use when we talk about different types of light as a group. The parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, arranged from highest to lowest energy are: gamma rays, X-rays, ultraviolet light, visible light, infrared light, microwaves, and radio waves. All the parts of the electromagnetic spectrum are the same thing — radiation. Radiation is made up of a stream of photons — particles without mass that move in a wave pattern all at the same speed, the speed of light. Each photon contains a certain amount of energy.
The light that we see is a small slice of the electromagnetic spectrum, which spans many wavelengths. We frequently use different wavelengths of light — from radios to airport security scanners and telescopes.
Visible light makes it possible for many of us to perceive the universe every day, but this range of light is just 0.0035 percent of the entire spectrum. With this in mind, it seems that we live in a universe that’s more invisible than not! NASA missions like NASA's Fermi, James Webb, and Nancy Grace Roman space telescopes will continue to uncloak the cosmos and answer some of science’s most mysterious questions.
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!
These two questions may seem trivial, but if you dare analyse your own behaviours honestly and thoroughly the answers can lead you to great insights and growth.
They can actually be life-changing to most. Many are far too hard on others, others are far too hard on themselves, and many are both. Sometimes we have too few personal boundaries, and sometimes too many. Sometimes we're too critical or maybe not critical enough. These questions can help take a long hard look at yourself and lead you to a new balance. A more loving and balanced interactional modus with the world…
The two questions are:
What would change if you treated others like you treat yourself?
What would change if you treated yourself like you treat others?
By observing & analysing your interaction with others, you will learn a lot about yourself.
Also keep in mind how your interactions with others affect you, and how you create a response in others as well.
What is your inner monologue like?
Do you talk to yourself like you talk to others? Which is kinder?
Are you as tough on yourself as you are on others and vice versa?
Remember to extend forgiveness, kindness and compassion in equal measure to yourself as well as those around you. Let the love flow both ways: inwards and outwards and feel it grow and flow more freely.
I hope this will be an inspiration that can break the shackles that you may have put on yourself and others.
In Denmark, we celebrate the eve of the liberation from the nazi occupation on May 4th. This year it is the 80th anniversary, and many still uphold the tradition of lighting candles and putting them in every window, as we did 80 years ago.
This year, the celebration seems almost as important as it was then. We use this opportunity to thank and remember our veterans, to manifest that we still stand together against imperialist totalitarian forces and that we will help protect those under attack from such regimes.✌️
Why did we allow it to be diluted, and in some cases even dissipate entirely?
Yes, in many ways we know more now than we knew before, but the deep Wisdom conveyed in the tales our ancestors used to tell, is still very much applicable.
We used to understand that the wolves and ravens are our families, even the trees, the fish… and yes, every being no matter how seemingly insignificant; we used to know that the land and sea were sacred and life-giving like a mother, we used to understand that we were even connected to the seemingly infinite stars in the skies above.
We used to know, that when we called every living creature and nature itself, sacred, it was because this taught us to take care of it, to be thankful for what it gives us every day.
It used to remind us to not take more than we need and to give back as much as we can.
We used to understand all these things and more…
We used to understand that all living things are connected and there for each other, even when it was we who were asked to sacrifice something in order to keep the balance.
We used to understand that balance is the key, it is divine in nature, just like the Nature is the Divine.
We used to see that we’re all part of this Divine part-whole relationship, and therefore we too were, and are, Divine and sacred, and we should treat each other as such.
There have been so many teachers who’ve tried to tell us that throughout time, and yet we have chosen to stop listening? To reinterpret their messages so that they fit our egos’ desires better.
And now we see the results. Now we must understand that we must return to the path, and start respecting everything around us. Be humble and respectful again. Rediscover our place as just another part of the whole: our oneness with the Divine Nature… and be thankful!
Embrace the entirety of who you are, ALL of it, especially beyond the roles you feel compelled to play for others or the identities they may prefer. Stand by ALL you are.
Embrace it all, improve every aspect, and see where it takes you… Don't Limit Yourself!
Acknowledge the fullness of your identity, your passions, dreams, and unique qualities. Stand firm in your authenticity and commit to nurturing every aspect of yourself, whether that involves pursuing new interests, developing skills, or deepening personal connections.
By allowing yourself to grow and evolve, you unlock the potential for extraordinary experiences and self-discovery.
Remember, embracing your complete self can lead you to wonderful places you never even dare to imagine.
Have you ever asked yourself that very question: “Where am I going?”
I obviously don't mean this literally but in more personal and spiritual ways.
Which path have you chosen? Why?
Are you following someone? Are you just going in the same direction as everyone else? Just going wherever? Did you make a choice? Did you think about it? Did you make the right decision? Did you actually have a choice? I think most of us ask those questions at some time during our lives, and this doubt is a key to understanding a great many things… if you want to?! One of the deep realisations is that even not choosing is a choice. If you don't choose, you'll just be swept right along the path, and suddenly you'll realise and wonder what happened.
Weirdly the same thing happens when you take active choices. You say: “Wow, I really wanna do this” or “Oh no, I really don't want to do this” and run the other way… and suddenly so much has happened because of this tiny decision, and you don't understand how you ended up where you are… for better or worse. So, did it matter? You'll be swept away in life's chaotic causality flow without much, if any, control over where you end up? I think it does matter. It matters that you try. It matters that you try to do, whatever it is that you believe will fulfil your soul, your responsibilities, and maybe even try to live up to your full potential, whatever that is; because it is far worse to regret not trying than it is to feel you've failed. Remember it's only a failure if you fail to learn from your mistakes. It matters that you delve deep into this experience called life, and think about what is the right thing to do, and which is the wrong thing, because even though the chaos of the world seems quite random, it really isn't, so it matters what you send out there. If you do as much good as you can, it will cause a ripple effect, just like it does, when you do bad or nothing at all. The chaos is not disorder, but long complicated causality strings, that will be affected by what you and I put into them. So, you need to make active choices to cause as much good as you can. You need to be the deciding force in your life. Don't follow anything or anyone, be your own pathfinder. This doesn't mean you shouldn't listen to the wisdom of those who came before us, and it doesn't mean you can't find guides to help you along the way, but it does mean you should actively question all of it, and ultimately make your own active choices, to make your own path, and walk it with love, respect, honesty, compassion, charity and kindness, well knowing the ripples you caused were well intended, and even though you might never see the good it did, or even receive any thanks for it, you did your best, and you did a lot of good.
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