Astronomers and cosmologists alike have made great strides in the general understanding of the physical structure of the universe, galaxies (including our Milky Way) and stellar neighborhoods of possible orbiting planetary systems much like that of our own solar system.  Innovations in how we peer into the endless darkness we call our night sky have deepened our understanding of our cosmic neighborhood, and some may even argue, beyond.  Peering eyes like the Hubble telescope, the WMAP space probe, Mars rovers, Voyager and Cassini have pushed boundaries men like Galileo, Newton and even Einstein might haveonly dreamed about.

Since the 1990’s we’ve witnessed a metaphorical explosion of new discoveries and ground-breaking insights into the modern universe. Many of these discoveries have taken what we thought were previously known facts and turned those theories upside-down.  

At one point, the world was believed to be flat.  At another point, we believed the world was at the center of the universe and the sun and planets revolved around us.  Even later, we speculated that our universe was actually contracting towards its origin, but have now proven quite the opposite.  Within the next few billion years, our night will reduce to a fraction of stellar objects compared to today as all matter moves away from us at break-neck speeds measured at over 13 million miles an hour.  Black holes were simply a figment of our imaginations until the Hubble measured dark objects being orbited by bright stars and discovered a lightless, massive object pulling the star into a heightened orbit.  

Our very own Milky Way galaxy has long been assumed to be a spiral as many others, but has recently been found to be shaped more like a whirling baton with tassel-like arms tailing off either end.   Has it recently (relative to the age of the universe) collided with another galaxy to form this bar-shaped form we call our own? Could this massive “bar” of stellar congestion be the remnant of a merging of two seperate galactic cores?  

Massive “gaps” in our universe have flipped previously developed theories on their backs while the “Great Attractor” has scientist pondering why some areas of our universe are void of matter while others are pulling massive amounts of galaxies and stellar matter into their respective regions.  Again, I say the theory of uniform distribution holds no ground considering these new discoveries.  One theory after another are being chipped away from what we thought was a solid foundation of thought.

Scientists now find themselves studying the dark areas and not the bright objects aloft in space.  ”Dark matter” and “dark energy” have been coined as the top discoveries in the last thirty five years.  Yet, no one can truly explain what they are and what effect they may have on our stellar environment.  Is dark energy the real reason why our universe is expanding?  Are there more massive voids in our universe as the one recently found?  

These are the current questions bouncing around the science community, and where they’ll land - nobody knows.  But it does beg the question of what new finding 20, 50 or 100 years from now will refute the newest of our modern-day theories.  New telescopes in production will eventually take over when the Hubble retires within the next decade that will dwarf  the Hubble in size, scope and field of view both optically and in different aspects of infra-red and gamma ray capabilities.  What will they find that until now, we’ve not been able to see?  How will their eyes widen our horizons?