Word: interstellar
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...Kreel, an alien race, discover an arsenal of superweapons on the planet DQN 1196, and they decide to use them for a violent rampage against their Klingon enemies. With interstellar war imminent, the Federation intervenes, offering to act as an intermediary. The Enterprise becomes the host for delegations from both sides, transporting them to the planet to discover the origin of the weapons...
...Except for the hydrogen, those atoms had been forged in a star that exploded and died long before our sun and solar system were born. The hydrogen was made in the big bang that allegedly began the universe. Some astronomers think that it was on dust grains floating in interstellar space that these atoms first assembled themselves into the organic molecules that are the forerunners of life, and that the water that is three-quarters of my body came from a comet...
...problem, explains Princeton Physics Professor Joseph Taylor, is not that a neutron star emits no light but that it is only ten miles across. "If you were close enough," he says, "you'd see a very bright light. But over interstellar distances, it wouldn't be visible." The solution is suggested by the name astronomers gave to known neutron stars: pulsars. The spinning neutron stars have intense magnetic fields generating precisely spaced electromagnetic pulses that can be picked up by radio telescopes. Some 440 pulsars have been discovered so far, all of them thought to be remnants of Type...
...them was in the constellation Ophiuchus, some 520 light-years away. "What the IRAS survey indicated," says Team Astronomer Bruce Wilking of the University of Missouri, "was that this source was 40 degrees above absolute zero (-233 degreesC), extremely cold by our standards but warm enough by interstellar | standards that it led us to think this would be an interesting object to look at." Best of all, the object, designated IRAS 16293-2422, was relatively close, making it easier to see finer detail...
...astronomers then switched from infrared to radio observations, using the twelve-meter radio telescope atop Kitt Peak, Ariz. Reason: infrared radiation gives information on the cloud's overall temperature, but radio waves carry more detailed data on the motion within. Interstellar clouds are made up of dozens of different types of molecules, and each emits radio waves of a specific frequency when heated or otherwise "excited." By tuning their telescope to the right frequency, astronomers monitor the behavior of different molecules and consequently learn more about conditions within the cloud...