Posted on 10/07/2011 1:47:56 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
To most people, the idea that space could be filled with thin, churning gas is distinctly odd -- but astronomers have been trying to photograph the 'turbulent gas' for 30 years.
'This is the first time anyone has been able to make a picture of this,' said Professor Bryan Gaensler of the University of Sydney, Australia.
This turbulence makes the universe magnetic, helps stars form, and spreads the heat from supernova explosions through the galaxy, said the study, published in Nature today.
Gaensler and his team studied a region of our galaxy about 10,000 light-years away in the southern constellation Norma. They used an Australian radio telescope -- the Telescope Compact Array -- to 'watch' radio waves from the Milky Way.
As these waves travel through the swirling interstellar gas, their polarisation was slightly altered -- an effect similar to the 'distortion' of looking through polarised glasses -- and the astronomers were able to 'see' the churning gas for the first time...
The team made computer simulations from their findings and found that the gas was 'writhing' at 44,000mph -- a leisurely pace, by interstellar standards...
The researchers measured the polarization changes over an area of sky and used them to make a spectacular image of overlapping entangled tendrils, resembling writhing snakes. The 'snakes' are regions of gas where the density and magnetic field are changing rapidly because of turbulence.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
The 'snakes' are regions of gas where the density and magnetic field are changing rapidly as a result of 'interstellar turbulence' -- a phenomenon astronomers have been trying to capture for years
Another “extra, extra” topic.
This should be on APOD!
One of two main things I always get from looking at these pictures is how small I am in the context of all that is out there. Always a truly humbling experience. (The other thing is just how intricate the universe is, and how there is so much we know nothing about).
It’ll probably be on there soon, this will then just be a preview. :’)
Sounds just like Washington DC!
It makes me think of the intermediate heavens the Bible speaks of, where principalities and powers are revealed to be at war with mankind.
Here is a word-search link -
http://www.biblegateway.com/keyword/?search=Principalities&searchtype=all&version1=9&spanbegin=1&spanend=73
Also, the whole idea of snakes harkens back to the curse on the deceiver of men in Genesis 3:14.
The picture gives me the shivers!
Looks like insulation or stuffing from cheap pillows, not snakes. Maybe it’s there to insulate us from the truth. Maybe it’s there to hide the Garden of Eden. I volunteer all democrats to load up on a spaceship and go check.
Paging Jedi Master Mace Windu...
There you go again, giving snakes a bad name.... Not sure why a snake was used as the symbol of evil in the Genesis legend. I much prefer the Asian view, where the serpent is the symbol of wisdom.
looks like hell to me.
It’s just rust-colored shag carpeting from the 70s. My parents had this in their family room.
Cosmic flaming loofah of the Galactic Overlord.
Looks like a difficult place to fly, unless all that could be used as some kind of fuel.
Maybe. :’)
The more one learns, the more one learns one doesn’t know much of what there is to learn. :’)
That’s true. At times it is mind boggling - almost scary - what we do not know about.
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