Milky Way Black Hole Eruption

Here’s what will happen in about 10 million years when a huge cloud collapses onto a supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

Technorati Tags: Black, Eruption, Hole, Milky

Stunning Portrait of the Milky Way Galaxy

New image from the Spitzer Space Telescope.

Technorati Tags: Galaxy, Milky, Portrait, stunning

Supermassive Black Hole in the Milky Way Galaxy

From a distance, our galaxy would look like a flat spiral, some 100000 light years across, with pockets of gas, clouds of dust, and about 400 billion stars rotating around the galaxys center. Thick dust and blinding starlight have long obscured our vision into the mysterious inner regions of the galactic center. And yet, the clues have been piling up, that something important, something strange is going on in there. Astronomers tracking stars in the center of the galaxy have found the best proof to date that black holes exist. Now, they are shooting for the first direct image of a black hole.

Technorati Tags: Black, Galaxy, Hole, Milky, Supermassive

What Exactly Is The Milky Way?

Simply put, the galaxy is the galaxy in which we live, it contains a cluster of over two hundred billion stars including our Sun and indeed our solar system. It is only one of over one hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe. Our solar system is located on one of the six spiral arms of the Milky Way named Orion, if you are somewhere that has a really dark night sky and are far away from artificial light pollution you can see the Milky Way. It appears as a hazy band of light forming a large arc that spirals across the sky. It is almost as old as the universe itself, the oldest star found being over thirteen billion years old. The name itself, Milky Way, is a translation from the Greek, Galaxis, which is derived from the word milk, derived from the appearance of spilt milk in the sky. Indeed, the Milky Way was first observed by the Greek philosopher Anaxagoras in the fifth century BCE. Proof of the long debated theory that the Milky Way consisted of a cluster of stars came in 1610 by way of Galileo. In 1755, Immanuel Kant correctly speculated that the Milky Way was a rotating body of a huge number of stars held together by gravitational forces similar to the solar system but on a colossal scale. And it is a colossal scale – the circumference being between two hundred and fifty and three hundred light years! As big as it is, astronomers are confronted with massive problems when trying to observe it, because the Earth is part of the Milky Way, they can’t simply look down on it to study it. So, they explore other galaxies and apply what they learn from viewing them onto the Milky Way.

Technorati Tags: Exactly, Milky

Milky Way

Let’s talk the galaxy and leave the candy bar discussions to others. Our galaxy is one big neighborhood and it is full of things we have little udnerstanding about or even care to know. The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy that is part of the local group of galaxies. Although the Milky Way is one of billions of galaxies in the observable universe, its special significance to humanity is that it is the home galaxy of our Solar System. The plane of the Milky Way galaxy is visible from Earth as a band of light in the night sky, and it is the appearance of this band of light which has inspired the name for our galaxy.

So what does any of this have to do with 2012? Or does it?

We are riding on a very insignificant planet (size wise), called earth. As passengers on this planet we’re moving through the galaxy and universe at incredible speed and encountering new events as we pass through the huge neighborhood called the Mily Way. From time to time we pass through masses of interplanetary “stuff” that effects us negatively. We also come into contact with energy fields as a result of planetary configurations in our solar system (can you say astrology and more?).

And finally, we are subject to impulses from the center of of galaxy. And these impulses can be dramatic!

Who thinks about such things? We’re here for such a short period of time that who has the inclination to get caught up in things that happen every 21,000, 26,000, or 50,000 years. Those are cycles beyond our interest and pay grade. But, if you’re planning on living for another 3-5 years or so, you might begin to check out some of the interesting phenomena that could be out there and headed to a local theatre near you.

Think about it.

We are sitting on a planet that is rotating fast enough to make your head swim, making a journey around the sun at incredible sppeds (I’m saving you the specifics for the principles) annually, movng through the galaxy at an unspecified orbit, which in turn (the Milky Way) is spiraling through the universe alongside other galaxies. Whew! And what many scientists are telling us is that we should fasten our seat belts becausse we’re getting ready to move into some interstellar turbulence very soon.

Alexey Dmitriev, (Professor of Geology and Mineralogy, and Chief Scientific Member, United Institute of Geology, Geophysics, and Mineralogy, Siberian Department of Russian Academy of Sciences, and expert on Global Ecology, and Fast -Processing Earth Events- WHEW!) has written, “The heliosphere has hit a rough patch, specifically, magnetized strips and straitions containing hydrogen, helium, hydroxyl, and other elements, combinations, and compounds space debris, perhaps the result of an exploded star.

Hey, stuff happens!

Look at it this way. We’ve been on this plane (planet) flying through smmoth and calm air. But there’s a thunderstorm ahead and it’s too big to go around and we don’t have enough fuel to go back. So, we’ve got to go through it, ride it out!

The sun is being jolted into erractic behavior (can you say September 2005?) which is distressing the Earth’s magnetic field. How does he know all of this? Why of course by studying data from our Voyager satellite (I and II), while most of our scientists aren’t paying attention, or on a coffee break. All of this leads us to the main event- the galactic plane crossing!

Ta Da!

In 2012, our solar system will begin to cross the imaginary line that stretches across our galaxy that the Mayans called the dark rift (black hole), the womb where stars are created. It’s there in that dark line that’s much bigger than a line wherein energy turbulence is said to be the greatest. And what will that create. Only God knows and fewer people believe in Him, or Her anyway. So, are we left on our own- all alone?

How about entertaining the collective consciousness and “The Consciousness” from which that emanates? Find out more than you really wanted to know by <a rel=”nofollow” onclick=”javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/outgoing/article_exit_link’);” href=”http://nextfouryears.eventbrite.com/C”>LICKING HERE and then GOING THERE</a>.

Technorati Tags: Milky