A remarkable phenomenon of astronomical science, for the first time in human history, when the scientists saw the collision of two planets with their eyes
The universe of Allah Almighty is very vast. Millions and trillions of stars and planets are floating in this universe, a few of which we can see and there are millions which no human eye has been able to access. Our solar system consists of eight planets and one star i.e. the sun. The position of this entire Solar System in this universe is not even that of a pea lying in the polo ground. Our solar system is located at the outer edge of the galaxy, and our sun is twenty-six thousand light years away from the center of the galaxy. You know well that the light travels at the speed of 1, 86,000 miles per second. The distance that light covers in a year is called light year. The length of this galaxy is estimated to be between 80,000 and 120,000 light years. If our sun were to complete one orbit around this galaxy, it would take 200 to 250 million years. In the orbit of this galaxy, our entire solar system is being run at a speed of two hundred and fifty kilometers per hour. This galaxy consists of two hundred billion stars. An American scientist named Harlow Shapley collected information about this galaxy in 1918.
It is not a matter of a galaxy, millions of galaxies like it and millions of suns like our sun are traveling towards an unknown destination in this vast universe of God. Now just imagine; what is the status of our galaxy in such a big universe? Then there is our solar system at one end of the galaxy, with its giant Sun and the giant planets. Then our earth is the fifth largest in the entire solar system. Then, if one looks at one's existence through the vastness of the earth, its mountains and seas, then a person is convinced of the greatness of our Lord. All praises are due to the Lord who, being the owner of such a large universe, who has made man the best of all creations. This is the statement of the undivided Lord that when the son of Adam puts his head on the ground and acknowledges my high rank, then it looks nice.
Well! I was talking about stars and planets that each star and planet is floating in its own circle. It has never happened in the entire human history that a star has collided with another star, but in 1994 this record was broken and the possibility of collision of two stars in the vastness of the sky was created. The idea of this collision made scientists gasp. It happened when a comet broke up under the gravitational pull of Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, and its twenty-one fragments began to move towards Jupiter at a speed of sixty miles per second. This collision of two space bodies had two aspects. One aspect was that the scientists were going to see such a collision with their eyes for the first time in their life with the help of different telescopes, but the other aspect of deprivation was that this scene could not be seen by the common man. Before going into the details of this collision, it is necessary to estimate the respective position and importance of the two planets so that the matter can be easily understood.
The Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system and the brightest planet in the sky after the Sun, Moon and Venus. Its main distinguishing features are the bands of different colors around it and an elliptical red mark, which is actually a gas storm. This sign is 12,000 kilometers wide and 25,000 kilometers long. In other words, it is so big that two earths can easily be placed in it. According to scientists, it is surprising that this sign exists for hundreds of years on a planet, made of gases. You will be surprised to read that sixty-three moons of Jupiter have been discovered by February 2044. In the year 1610, Galileo first discovered four of Jupiter's moons, which are also known as Galileo's moons. Jupiter is composed mostly of gases, consisting of ninety percent hydrogen and ten percent helium gas.
It emits twice as much heat as it receives from the sun. It has an unusually strong magnetic field on its surface. Its gravity is two hundred fifty four percent greater than Earth's gravity. Let's say that if a person from Earth weighing 100 pounds is placed on Jupiter, his weight will be 254 pounds due to its gravity. It is this gravity that caused the collision that we will mention later. The Jupiter is so big that if it was hollow inside, all the planets of the solar system would fit in it. Its diameter is 1, 42,800 kilometers. Consider that if eleven earths are added together, Jupiter will still be larger than them in diameter. It completes its rotation around its axis in 9.8 Earth hours while its one year is equal to 11.86 Earth years. Its distance from the Sun is 5.2 times more than that of the Earth. It is at a distance of 77 million 83 lakhs 30 thousand kilometers from the sun. The space planet sent to it for the purpose of investigation was Pioneer-10, which was sent in 1973. After that, various planets were sent for the same purpose, in which the planet named Galileo orbited Jupiter for eight years.
This was the condition of Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system! Now we come to the comet that collided with it. On March 25, 1993, two American scientists, Carolyne Shoemaker and David Levy, were on duty at the Mount Palomar Observatory in California, USA. Both of them were photographing the sky with the help of a powerful camera. In fact, they were looking for such space bodies that could collide with the earth. They made a picture of a large part of the sky. Forty-five minutes later, when they took another picture of the same area, they saw this comet in the second picture while comparing the two pictures. Thus, this star was named Shoemaker-Levy-9 after these two scientists. A few days after its discovery, it was revealed that this star was rotating on Jupiter's axis instead of the Sun. Its length was about ten kilometers. On July 7, 1992, this comet star, rotating on the axis of Jupiter, passed 1,20,000 kilometers away from it, it was broken into 21 small pieces under the immense gravity of Jupiter. Its divided fragments, having a diameter of 2-4 kilometers each began to move towards Jupiter at the immense speed of 60 kilometers per second.
This was the moment when the world of astronomy shook. The attention of scientists all over the world turned towards Jupiter. Scientists estimated that these fragments of the comet will collide with Jupiter in the third week of July 1994. This prediction proved to be correct and on July 16, 1994, its first fragment hit Jupiter. The collision was so horrific that the resulting storm of fire and gas makes one cringe. The height of the flames raised by the impact of the first piece was 6,000 kilometers, but when the second piece hit Jupiter, the height of the flames reached 12,000 kilometers. Just imagine the fire whose flames were 12,000 kilometers high; what will be the condition and fear of the fire?
Its various fragments collided with Jupiter for six days. Because Jupiter was rotating rapidly on its axis, the fragments of the broken comet did not hit its surface in one place, but kept hitting different places at regular intervals. The energy produced as a result of this collision was 60, 00,000 megatons. Understand this fact that if all the atomic bombs present in the world's seven nuclear powers are fired at the same time, the energy that will be generated will be 750 times more powerful than the storm that rises on the surface of Jupiter. Traces of this collision are still present on Jupiter's surface. The collision was so violent that the fiery bubbles and dark marks left visible on Jupiter's surface for a year. Scientists believe that if space did not exist between us and Jupiter and there was a medium for sound to travel, the resonance created by this collision would have been enough to destroy the world.
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