To whom it may concern...

How does all this knowledge you hold regarding the universe help you as a person? This was the question I was presented with not long ago during one of my English classes. Of course, knowledge is far too demanding a term for what I posess. What was it you may wonder that arouse such a question, considering that the topic for that specific class was Living a healthier and longer life? We never felt the restraints of the topics during our English classes, so this is how we jumped from Vikings to Black Holes (the cosmical sized ones ^.^) in just a matter of minutes. What I knew were mere curiosities anyone with a passion for science, universe or simply knowledge could have known just as well. Yet I managed to surprise/frighten a teacher with such information. It seems like she didnt knew life could end at any moment if we, as a planet or even at the solar system scale, were too close (millions of kilometers radius) to a burst of somewhat rather common burst of gamma rays. These rays are known to be the most powerful type of cosmic radiation existing in our universe. They are produced when a star, a titan star as I choose to call them, dies. Because of the vast amount of energy liberated when the star collapses in itself, one of the most extraordinary events in the universe takes place. A super-nova is what scientists named them and they hold some of the most fascinating and rare views in the universe, on the odd occasion they are witnessed. But there is more to a dying super-massive star than simply the huge amount of energy released in the cosmos, when it collapses in itself( a natural phenomenon occurring due to the unbalance provoked when the star depletes its fuel: Its gravity takes over its mass condensing huge amounts of matter into tiny amounts of space) we may witness the birth of a neutronic star ( one unique characteristic of such a star would be its incredibly immense speed of rotation around its axis somewhere around the order of the millions per second), or of something even stranger and hard to explain cosmic entity in our universe, the birth of a Black Hole. Hm, so how does this affect me as a human if these super-massive things of the universe are so rare? Will I ever be forced to acknowledge its raw force during my lifetime? First off they are not so rare, and they have powers beyond human imagination : They rip photons ( the small particles from which light is formed) apart. This is why they call them Black Holes because they`re pitch black, not even light could resist its gravitational field. And believe to pull subatomic particles apart , thats no easy task not even for gravitation , dont believe me ask the guys working at LHC CERN how hard it is to smash them together. In fact merely smashing 2 photons together creates enough energy to birth a micro black hole as they put it. Second, they come in various sizes , because the same principle of accumulating matter in virtue of the gravitational force applies. Needless to say there are super-massive black holes in the universe, these stranger and bizarre entities are often known as quasars. Now a quasar is a virtually everlasting gamma rays generator. Whats even more intriguing is that it appears they are positioned at the very heart of every galaxy. This means that sooner or later everything will be a

pitch black pixel. So starting from simple star dust and ending our journey with gamma rays generators, aint too bad for a curiosity is it? How does it change me as a person you ask, maybe in the same position as my teacher? It doesnt, it only enlarges my horizon, and brings me closer to acknowledging my humanly, weak and pitifull condition . And hate religion for blaming everything on God!