Sisters of the Sun

Today on Far Future Horizons we proudly present the eighth episode of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey hosted by Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson.

The title of this installment is “Sisters of the Sun” and explores the violent cosmic phenomenon of supernovas, which on average occur once per galaxy per century or one billion times per year in the observable universe.

Violent Universe

Cygnus X-1 Copyright David A. Hardy


One of the first suspected examples of a black hole was Cygnus X-1. In 1972 a massive blue supergiant star in Cygnus was found to have an invisible companion which emitted X-rays.  This was calculated to be 14 times as massive as the Sun – too massive to be a neutron star, so a black hole is the most likely explanation. Here it is seen pulling material away from its companion and becoming strongly heated; hence the X-rays. Excess gas is ejected in two very active jets above and below the disc.  (Digital, from Futures.)

Today on Far Future Horizons we take a breathtaking journey into the future, five billion years from now, to see the ultimate fate of the Solar System and other violent and destructive events which shape our Universe.

How the Universe Works ~ Supernovas

Today on Far Future Horizons we present another exciting episode from the acclaimed documentary series How the Universe Works.

In this installment of How the Universe Works we explore the cataclysmic death of massive supergiant stars. These explosions are known as Supernovas and they play an important role in Cosmic Evolution.

The Universe - Supernovas

"We are the journeywork of the stars, no less than the leaves of grass." -Walt Whitman

Join us today on Far Future Horizons as we explore our stellar legacy. 


Each of us, in the immortal words of the American poet Walt Whitman, “…are the journeywork of the stars, no less than the leaves of grass." As Carl Sagan would put it later on in the twentieth century – “We are star stuff which has taken its destiny into its own hands. The loom of time and space works the most astonishing transformations of matter”.