Found this article interesting. Gives some new insite (for me) as to what goes on at the center of our galaxy…
[quote]Astronomers report an unprecedented elongated double helix nebula near the center of our Milky Way galaxy, using observations from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. The part of the nebula the astronomers observed stretches 80 light years in length. The research is published March 16 in the journal Nature.
“We see two intertwining strands wrapped around each other as in a DNA molecule,” said Mark Morris, a UCLA professor of physics and astronomy, and lead author. “Nobody has ever seen anything like that before in the cosmic realm. Most nebulae are either spiral galaxies full of stars or formless amorphous conglomerations of dust and gas — space weather. What we see indicates a high degree of order.”[/quote]
… are we going to be rich now, are we going to die … does earth spin faster … is there going to be a global cooldown? What is so important about knowing there is a double helix in the middle of our galaxy … we never going to get there anyways and it doesn’t change anything about my daily routine …
Maybe, just maybe, a benevolent bunch of interesting creatures from somewhere we have never imagined will come along, show us how we could fix our problems, develop interstellar flight, and for pennies on the dollar to boot.
If that happens, I for one would be very interested to have an atlas of the milky way galaxy and a good understanding of how it works.
Or we could just smarten up and do it ourselves…
I miss my many 1000’s of science fiction books. A lot.
If you read the article you’ll find it’s full fo gems. This can help us understand more about magnetic waves and fields (you know, the stuff you can’t see around the Earth that keeps those nasty UV rays from burning a hole in your ass) work, gravity wrt black holes and can aid us in better understanding how Quasars work. All the physical rules of the universe apply to Earth in the same way. Better understanding the Universe can give us a better understanding of the physical world we live in, lead to scientific breakthroughs in technology that can affect your life in ways unthought of before.
Case in point, the splitting og the atom. The power of the Sun. If not for that more than half of Taiwan would be without electricity, something that may affect your daily routine rather negatively I’ll wager.
The question I find interesting, is the why. I also find the fact that the shape is a double helix intersting. Could this phenomenon help us understand genetics better? Interesting stuff…
There’s a nebula in the shape of a horse’s head. Interestingly, horses are the only animal which the Bible testifies are to be found in heaven. And wasn’t there some ancient author who said that “if horses had gods, they would look like horses?” or something to that effect? I think the conclusion is obvious: horses are meant to be our masters, and they are coming back to ride us. (Maybe they will resurrect that guy in Oregon as a sign.)
One of my professors liked to talk about how in the ancient world, new discoveries in cosmology (Hipparchus and the precession of the equinoxes) produced an upheaval in their religious worldviews (some unknown hypercosmic god causing the precession–don’t laugh, one of them was Jesus). And since we are living in similar times, should we not expect a similar religious upheaval?
By the way, when you think of our galaxy, do yoy think of a spiral galaxy like the far, far away one at the end of “The Empire Strikes Back”? Turns out we’re actually living in a barred spiral. Which is interesting from the perspective of the collective unconscious, because MILKY WAY is also the name of a candy BAR… Oh, never mind.