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Astronomy Picture of the Day:Galaxy Wars: M81 and M82
NASA ^ | 15 May, 2020 | APOD.NASA

Posted on 05/16/2020 8:39:15 PM PDT by MtnClimber

Explanation: These two galaxies are far far away, 12 million light-years distant toward the northern constellation of the Great Bear. On the left, with grand spiral arms and bright yellow core is spiral galaxy M81, some 100,000 light-years across. On the right marked by red gas and dust clouds, is irregular galaxy M82. The pair have been locked in gravitational combat for a billion years. Gravity from each galaxy has profoundly affected the other during a series of cosmic close encounters. Their last go-round lasted about 100 million years and likely raised density waves rippling around M81, resulting in the richness of M81's spiral arms. M82 was left with violent star forming regions and colliding gas clouds so energetic the galaxy glows in X-rays. In the next few billion years, their continuing gravitational encounters will result in a merger, and a single galaxy will remain.

(Excerpt) Read more at apod.nasa.gov ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; galaxiesgravity
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1 posted on 05/16/2020 8:39:15 PM PDT by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

Photo at link.


2 posted on 05/16/2020 8:39:47 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

Galaxy Fu beautiful


3 posted on 05/16/2020 8:43:34 PM PDT by DannyTN
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To: MtnClimber

It makes it hard for me to believe in Christianity or any man-made religion it just doesn’t fit when these galaxies have been around a hundred billion years.

When I look at this and see that they the two galaxies will collide back and forth for another hundred million years light years away it just makes me feel like I am a spec in the universe and somehow through all this in one planet in one Galaxy there was one human being that was supposed to be God really really having a hard time with this when I look at these pictures and hear the descriptions unless of course I completely dismiss the science of astronomy.

The two stories of the universe just don’t fit together if anyone sees this any differently and can reconcile this please let me hear your view that might help I know that many scientists and even astronomers believed in God so it’s possible just can’t put the pieces together


4 posted on 05/16/2020 8:51:20 PM PDT by Recovering Ex-hippie ( BEST ELECTION EVER....MAGA)
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To: MtnClimber

Are you going to start up the APOD ping list again? Add me if you do. Thanks.


5 posted on 05/16/2020 8:55:27 PM PDT by Bullish (CNN is what happens when 8th graders run a cable network.)
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To: MtnClimber

Boy howdy was that ever hard to paste here.

6 posted on 05/16/2020 9:01:38 PM PDT by Don W (When blacks riot, neighbourhoods and cities burn. When whites riot, nations and continents burn.)
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To: Recovering Ex-hippie

Who can begin to understand the mind of the creator? Not I. Let’s take something simpler, creating the trout. or just the complexity of the eye of the common fly. To use the title of a one time very popular book ‘The Mysterious Universe’. It is more mysterious than any of us can begin to grasp.


7 posted on 05/16/2020 9:11:40 PM PDT by robowombat (Orthodox)
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To: MtnClimber

8 posted on 05/16/2020 9:12:04 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: MtnClimber

Vulcans versus Saurians.


9 posted on 05/16/2020 9:13:24 PM PDT by robowombat (Orthodox)
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To: MtnClimber

Spiral Galaxy 28948

10 posted on 05/16/2020 9:15:37 PM PDT by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
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To: Recovering Ex-hippie

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

Genesis 1:1. This is what we know.

When we get to heaven, He might explain in detail the entire creation process and timing to us.


11 posted on 05/16/2020 9:22:31 PM PDT by Cedar
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To: MtnClimber

12 million light years. And almost every brighter star seen in that image is likly a couple million light years in front of these galaxies or are simply much closer to us. That image is truly looking back in time. Way back.


12 posted on 05/16/2020 9:22:46 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: Recovering Ex-hippie

Psalm 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.


13 posted on 05/16/2020 9:30:14 PM PDT by coaster123 (Virus = First Plane Strikes Tower)
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To: Recovering Ex-hippie

It makes it hard for me to believe in anything else other than Christianity.

No, the galaxies have not been around “a hundred billion years”. Maybe 12% of that.

Yes, we are just a speck in the universe. Wonderful, innit?


14 posted on 05/16/2020 9:30:48 PM PDT by Romulus
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To: MtnClimber

“In the next few billion years, their continuing gravitational encounters will result in a merger, and a single galaxy will remain.”

Right after the corona virus quarantine ends?


15 posted on 05/16/2020 9:52:04 PM PDT by Calamari (Pass enough laws and everyone is guilty of something.)
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To: Recovering Ex-hippie

Men In Black II explains our relation size in the universe...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i42gFBH8kOo


16 posted on 05/16/2020 10:49:42 PM PDT by minnesota_bound (homeless guy. He just has more money....He the master will plant more cotton for the democrat party)
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To: Recovering Ex-hippie
[...] if anyone sees this any differently and can reconcile this please let me hear your view that might help I know that many scientists and even astronomers believed in God so it’s possible just can’t put the pieces together [...]

Well, maybe, among the trillions of planets in this Universe, life has arisen multiple times on millions and millions of different worlds throughout the 13.8 billion years which have elapsed since the Big Bang. (Drake's Equation makes that seem unavoidable.) And maybe life will continue arising on millions of different planets over future eons.

And maybe, in rare cases, some of that life actually advances to become intelligent life.

On those planets on which intelligent life has arisen, God eventually incarnates as a member of that species, and allows Himself to be ritually sacrificed in order to redeem that species.

On the planet Earth, that individual was called Jesus.

On other planets, He might have been an insectoid named Xanthor or a worm-like creature named P'toh-Heh or what have you.

I mean, it seems inevitable that intelligent life has evolved (or will evolve) elsewhere in this Universe - the Universe is simply too big and old a place to expect that not to happen. Even if intelligent life arises on only an infinitesimal fraction (say, one-billionth of one percent) of all planets, given the quadrillions of planets out there - well, do the math yourself!

And I assume that those aliens would eventually also fall from grace / violate God's Will - by eating of the forbidden fruit (or whatever the equivalent of that is on their home planet), leading to their expulsion from Paradise (which might, in their world, resemble - from a human perspective - a frozen hellscape of swirling clouds of ammonia and cyanide gas), and thus likewise requiring their redemption, through Divine Intervention.

On Earth, during the Roman Era, that ritual sacrifice of the Savior was conducted in the form of a crucifixion. But on other planets, it might take the form of being thrown into a Neutron Star, poisoning, bombardment with a lethal dose of gamma rays, etc. So it is interesting to speculate on how their equivalent of the Christian Cross might look.

The only other alternative would be to assume that the rest of the Universe is lifeless, and that its rôle in God's plan is merely to provide a gaudy night sky for us Earthlings (notwithstanding the fact that 99.999% of all galaxies are invisible to the unaided human eye).

I am simply unable to imagine intelligent life evolving elsewhere in the Universe without its members being able to establish a spiritual relationship with their personal Savior... Are you?

And so, we can picture, in Anno Domini (from the human perspective) six billion one hundred and nine million five hundred and forty thousand two hundred and one - long after our Sun has swollen to become a Red Giant, and swallowed up a (by then) lifeless Earth - on some Gas Giant or Rocky Terrestrial planet orbiting an average star in the Andromeda Galaxy, intelligent cephalopods genuflecting before a hologram of their Savior, Z'ley-Gri, who died (by ritual electrocution) for their sins.

Regards,

17 posted on 05/16/2020 10:57:11 PM PDT by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
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To: MtnClimber

Our galaxy, the Milky Way, and the Andromeda galaxy will merge in about 4 billion years as well, as Andromeda is moving toward us at about 70 miles per second. 4 billion years ago, the Earth had just come into existence, and there was certainly no life on it - whatever life exists on this planet 4 billion years from now will get a spectacular view of Andromeda in the night sky as it nears our galaxy. But pictures like the one in this article give us some idea of what it will look like to an outside observer.


18 posted on 05/16/2020 10:59:31 PM PDT by AnotherUnixGeek
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To: Recovering Ex-hippie

This book attempts address your specific question:
https://www.amazon.com/Genesis-Big-Bang-Theory-Discovery-ebook/dp/B005KB0V62/ref=sr_1_3?crid=F77YNKW7XJPS&dchild=1&keywords=science+of+god+by+gerald+schroeder&qid=1589695573&sprefix=science+of+god%2Caps%2C202&sr=8-3

I don’t see how science and religion really conflict, though, because the latter addresses moral truths, and the former is silent about them. And the historical aspects of the Bible could be considered allegorical, written in a shorthand that is subject to misinterpretation in translation, or subject to interpretation dependent on the presence or absence of faith.

P.S. I don’t believe in any “man made” religion either. The question is which is man-made, and which is not. And one has to include in that measure whatever religion he’s made up for himself. That, for sure, is “man made”.


19 posted on 05/16/2020 11:17:54 PM PDT by rightwingcrazy (;-,)
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To: MtnClimber

Give those two galaxies a 12 million year head start, then check out a dated photo, that shows where they were and what they were doing then.


20 posted on 05/16/2020 11:26:29 PM PDT by going hot (happiness is a momma deuce)
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