Hubble Digs Up Galactic Glow Worm

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Hubble Digs Up Galactic Glow Worm

Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA, Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt

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This charming and bright galaxy, known as IRAS 23436+5257, was captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. It is located in the northern constellation of Cassiopeia, which is named after an arrogant, vain, and yet beautiful mythical queen.

The twisted, wormlike structure of this galaxy is most likely the result of a collision and subsequent merger of two galaxies. Such interactions are quite common in the universe, and they can range from minor interactions involving a satellite galaxy being caught by a spiral arm, to major galactic crashes. Friction between the gas and dust during a collision can have a major effect on the galaxies involved, morphing the shape of the original galaxies and creating interesting new structures.

When you look up at the calm and quiet night sky it is not always easy to picture it as a dynamic and vibrant environment with entire galaxies in motion, spinning like children’s toys and crashing into whatever crosses their path. The motions are, of course, extremely slow, and occur over millions or even billions of years.

The aftermath of these galactic collisions helps scientists to understand how these movements occur and what may be in store for our own Milky Way, which is on a collision course with a neighboring galaxy, Messier 31.

Hubble

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[freetoroam]

Just shows how little we are when you see something like that. it is like the galaxy is alive, the gases and dust seem to live. When you see what happens and what they do over just an expanse of space and time, then our life seems so minor.

How can some say there is no life out there when you have these kind of events. It may not be life as we know it, but it sure is alive out there.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

How can some say there is no life out there when you have these kind of events. It may not be life as we know it, but it sure is alive out there.

How can someone say "there must be life out there" when they have no evidence to back up their view point.

Those that believe Earth to unique, or at least extraordinarily rare, can say so because, until there is evidence to the contrary, it is just as legitimate a position as saying there is life. All the time there remains only one planet known to have life, this one, BOTH points of view are purely speculative.

[Zeta Reticulum]

How can someone say "there must be life out there" when they have no evidence to back up their view point.

Pure numbers back this up. Even Stephen Hawking agrees. And you don't ? Edited March 23, 2013 by Zeta Reticulum

[Abramelin]

Pure numbers back this up. Even Stephen Hawking agrees. And you don't ?

It is extremely likely that there is life on other planets, but that is not the same it being a proven fact.

For that to be true, we first have to find life on other planets.

[freetoroam]

How can someone say "there must be life out there" when they have no evidence to back up their view point.

Those that believe Earth to unique, or at least extraordinarily rare, can say so because, until there is evidence to the contrary, it is just as legitimate a position as saying there is life. All the time there remains only one planet known to have life, this one, BOTH points of view are purely speculative.

You have completely missed the point I was making.

I see those pictures and what is happening and to me the Universe is alive, just because it does not have legs and arms or breathes oxygen does not mean it is dead.

The Universe is teeming with life, and it is that life which most probably created us in the first place.We came from somewhere and if it was from the combinations of the gases and whatever else is out there, then to me that is alive..

How could you not look at what is going on in the universe and not see it is alive with activity?

[Waspie_Dwarf]

You have completely missed the point I was making.

Not at all, I just don't believe, scientifically speaking, your point has any validity. You define life in your own terms, based purely on your own opinions, with no evidence to support what you are saying, but present it as fact. Just because you believe something to be true does not make it so.Belief and truth are not necessarily the same thing, no matter how poetically the belief is expressed.

How could you not look at what is going on in the universe and not see it is alive with activity?

Because I look at the universe with rational scientific eyes and because I can distinguish between belief and evidence.

Pure numbers back this up. Even Stephen Hawking agrees. And you don't ?

As usual you can't grasp a simple concept and so you misrepresent my position. Never once have I argued that there is no life on other planets, I have argued that, at this moment in time, there is no unequivocal evidence of life on other planets. Stephen Hawking agrees with most scientists that the sheer numbers of stars and planets mean that it is extraordinarily unlikely that we are alone in the universe, but without evidence his opinion is just that, an opinion. It doesn't matter if it's Stephen Hawking or Steve down the pub, speculation without evidence is proof of nothing.

[freetoroam]

Not at all, I just don't believe, scientifically speaking, your point has any validity. You define life in your own terms, based purely on your own opinions, with no evidence to support what you are saying, but present it as fact. Just because you believe something to be true does not make it so.Belief and truth are not necessarily the same thing, no matter how poetically the belief is expressed.

Because I look at the universe with rational scientific eyes and because I can distinguish between belief and evidence.

You still are not getting what I am saying. I am not talking aliens and little green men. How can you say I have no evidence, look at the activity in space. I make a valid point in where I say we came from somewhere and that somewhere is apart of the Universe, if we were formed from the combination of what is in the Universe, then the Universe has the ability to create life, this you can not possibly deny.

The activities of the Universe which consists of creating new planets, planets dying, suns, moons, millions of years of motion, time and expansions, and one FACT which we know of, creating life on Earth, are all part of a living Universe.

It does not mean that it has the same ability as us to think, thats silly, but the laws of the Universe are still something we do not fully understand and although we can stand here and say we are alive it does not change the fact that we are still very minor in what the Universe has created out there.

The Universe we are apart of can create life, we are proof of that, so something out there is alive with activity, we just have not found what it is yet.