Halloween in Space

Halloween originated in Ireland with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a time to honor all saints; soon, All Saints Day incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain. The evening before was known as All Hallows Eve, and later Halloween. In Ireland people used to play fortune-telling games to predict their true love; it was the day of romance. Over time, Halloween evolved into a day of activities like trick-or-treating (a Celtic tradition where people keep treats outside their houses to call upon spirits), carving Jack-O-Lanterns (According to an Irish legend, Jack had tricked the devil several times and so as a punishment was forbidden to enter either heaven or hell. he was cursed to be stranded on the Earth for eternity where he waved his lantern to astray people from their paths – thus, Jack-O-lanterns which first were actually made from turnips), festive gatherings, dressing up in costumes and eating sweets, a lot of sweets.

I know it’s sad that I’m here at home writing this blog on the night of 31st October instead of being invited or attending a Halloween party but the fact that you’ll don’t know about me is that I love to engage in a cosplay and Halloween and Comic-Con are the only times you can dress up as a character without people judging you. I never leave an opportunity to dress up. So here I am on my bed wearing a purple suit, green hair and a killer smile writing to you about Halloween in Space.

If someone asked me what is the scariest thing you would like to be, my answer would be ‘ Space ‘. Space is appealingly terrifying. Space is cold and empty and everything in space can kill you from killer asteroids to killer aliens, from black holes to neutron stars and from deadly gamma-ray bursts to supernovas, you name it.

So we have established that space, the universe is a spooky place. So getting into this spooky spirit, NASA released a series of astonishing and eerie pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope which, on the night of October 31st, take on an entirely new meaning.

NGC 2080, nicknamed “The Ghost Head Nebula, ” is one of a chain of star-forming regions lying south of the 30 Doradus nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud. (NASA)

This is the open star cluster NGC 7380, also known as the Wizard Nebula – a mosaic of images from the WISE mission spanning an area on the sky of about 5 times the size of the full moon. (NASA)

Glowing in the constellation Aquila like a giant eye, this nebula is a cloud of gas ejected several thousand years ago from the hot star visible in its center. (NASA)

This apparition of an alien from the classic 1970s computer game Space Invaders is really a mirage created by the gravitational field of a foreground cluster of galaxies warping space and distorting the background images of more distant galaxies.

This is an artists impression of the skull-shaped asteroid that passed earth just a few days after Halloween in 2015 (by José Antonio Peñas).

Spooky right.

This is not all, this year on the day of Halloween Darth Vader and Elvis Presley invaded and lurked around the ISS!! – The Tweet

Halloween fun fact: Full moons don’t usually occur during Halloween but astronomers say it might happen on Oct 31st, 2020.

The universe is ‘The Spooky Island’ and we are the members of the Mystery Inc. unraveling mysteries of the universe.

The universe is chaotic in much the same way Starbucks is when all drinks are only for 100 Rs.

The universe is terrifying but beautiful.

The universe is nothing like but itself. Except for Douglas Adams, no one can make analogies for the things that happen in the universe because they are so bizarre and unique that we don’t understand them.