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Cosmic 'DNA': Double Helix Spotted in Space
Space.com ^ | 15 March 2006 | Bjorn Carey

Posted on 03/15/2006 11:29:27 AM PST by Excuse_My_Bellicosity

Magnetic forces at the center of the galaxy have twisted a nebula into the shape of DNA, a new study reveals.

The double helix shape is commonly seen inside living organisms, but this is the first time it has been observed in the cosmos.

"Nobody has ever seen anything like that before in the cosmic realm," said the study's lead author Mark Morris of UCLA. "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."

These observations, made with NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, are detailed in the March 16 issue of the journal Nature.

Disk-driven shape

The DNA nebula is about 80 light-years long. It's about 300 light-years from the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. The nebula is nearly perpendicular to the black hole, moving out of the galaxy at a quick clip—about 620 miles per second (1,000 kilometers per second).

Magnetic field lines at the galactic center are about 1,000 times stronger than on Earth. They run perpendicular to the black hole, but parallel through the nebula. Scientists think that twisting of these lines is what causes the double helix shape.

While the black hole might be the first culprit to come to mind, it's more likely that the magnetic field lines are anchored to a giant gas disk that orbits the black hole several light-years away, researchers say.

It's like having two strands of rope connected to a fixed point, Morris said. As you spin the strands, they braid around each other in a double helix fashion. In this case the gas and dust of the nebula makes up the strands.

"It's as if there's a bar across the middle [of the black hole], or a dumbbell shape, where the strands are anchored, and as it spins around, it twists the strands together," Morris told SPACE.com.

This process takes a long time, though, since the disk completes one orbit around the black hole roughly every 10,000 years. But that's an important number. "Once every 10,000 years is exactly what we need to explain the twisting of the magnetic field lines that we see in the double helix nebula," Morris said.

The recipe

The recipe for a DNA nebula is strict but simple. It requires a strong magnetic field, a rotating body, and a nebulous cloud of material positioned just right.

Massive central black holes are the best sources for both the strong magnetic field and rotating body, and since most large galaxies have them, Morris expects DNA-like nebula may be common through out the universe.

"I absolutely expect to see [this configuration] in gas-rich galaxies with all these elements in place," Morris said.

However, these nebulas are tough to spot, and current technology limits scientists' observations to our galaxy.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: science
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Infrared signal (the negative image) from the Double Helix Nebula. Credit: M. Morris, UCLA

1 posted on 03/15/2006 11:29:31 AM PST by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity

Maybe this is just the beginning of a REALLY BIG COSMIC MONSTER that is gonna come down and eat us up.


2 posted on 03/15/2006 11:33:56 AM PST by wildbill
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity
"The double helix shape is commonly seen inside living organisms, but this is the first time it has been observed in the cosmos."

Is that true. Steely Dan sung about a "Double helix in the sky tonight" in the song Aja.
3 posted on 03/15/2006 11:34:15 AM PST by jaydubya2
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity

God's signature on his masterpiece.........


4 posted on 03/15/2006 11:38:11 AM PST by Red Badger (And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him...)
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To: Pharmboy; CobaltBlue

Really, REALLY distant relative.


5 posted on 03/15/2006 11:38:58 AM PST by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity

Oh! Sorry! I thought the headline read Double Neelix!

6 posted on 03/15/2006 11:40:39 AM PST by uglybiker (Don't blame me. I didn't make you stupid.)
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity

The origin of this phenomenon is nebulous.


7 posted on 03/15/2006 11:53:57 AM PST by Defiant (Muslim Unitarian:There is no God but Abraham's, and Mohammed said he was his prophet.)
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity
It reminds me of fractal's; a math equation that you can see. The theory is everything looks the same from small to big: a pebble of sand looks like a rock, a rock looks like the planet, or a stick looks like a limb, a limb like a tree.
8 posted on 03/15/2006 11:55:35 AM PST by SF Republican
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity

Just as I always suspected. Our universe is a tiny speck in some other living creature. I just hope it's a conservative.


9 posted on 03/15/2006 11:56:17 AM PST by American Quilter
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To: American Quilter

Our Universe was created by a sneeze from the Great Arkleseizure.

Woe to those living in the days of the Coming of the Great White Handkerchief!


10 posted on 03/15/2006 11:58:40 AM PST by BeHoldAPaleHorse (Tagline deleted at request of moderator.)
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To: wildbill
a REALLY BIG COSMIC MONSTER that is gonna come down and eat us up

Then again the Rats may be right, we are the virus that will disrupt that double helix and turn it to our own means, cosmic polio.

11 posted on 03/15/2006 11:59:03 AM PST by Navy Patriot (Islam the religion of piece, any piece they can take.)
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To: jaydubya2
I was wondering who was going to quote Steely Dan first.
12 posted on 03/15/2006 11:59:29 AM PST by stevio (Red-Blooded Crunchy Con, American Male (NRA))
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To: American Quilter

LoL! I always thought the ME was the arsehole, or darn near it.


13 posted on 03/15/2006 12:03:20 PM PST by Nathan Zachary
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To: martin_fierro

Would that be on my mom's or dad's side??


14 posted on 03/15/2006 12:05:06 PM PST by Pharmboy (The stone age didn't end because they ran out of stones.)
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To: wildbill
Maybe this is just the beginning of a REALLY BIG COSMIC MONSTER that is gonna come down and eat us up.

A Mutant Cosmic Star Goat perhaps?

15 posted on 03/15/2006 12:05:17 PM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts (Crime cannot be tolerated. Criminals thrive on the indulgences of society's understanding.)
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To: BeHoldAPaleHorse

Well, prophacy says Gods sword will strike deep into the universe and it will dissapear.

That could be our host sticking a needle in it's arm and getting rid of this infection (us) Imagine, we are just a boil on someones arse...


16 posted on 03/15/2006 12:06:38 PM PST by Nathan Zachary
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To: KevinDavis

pinging the pinger


17 posted on 03/15/2006 12:08:13 PM PST by meanie monster (http://guptonator.myvideochat.net)
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To: American Quilter
I too think we are but a molecule in something else and God will make sure it's conservative.

mc :-)
18 posted on 03/15/2006 12:08:13 PM PST by mcshot (Rusty but trusty or vice versa.)
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To: wildbill

Exactly ... nebula, schmebula, we're seeing the inside of a single REALLY big cell


19 posted on 03/15/2006 12:08:20 PM PST by NonValueAdded ("If I were a Cuban, I'd certainly be on a raft," Isane Aparicio Busto)
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity

WOW


20 posted on 03/15/2006 12:09:44 PM PST by Orlando (Do away with 42/666 ( The Bradley Amendment is a father killer))
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