Starship Asterisk*

emc wrote:So what’s up with this Art?

emc wrote:The knotty filament is challenging my perception of “what’t going on” in our universe. This is the sort of thing that makes me wish I were smart in a cosmic sense. Are you telling me that this is an illustration of how these dark matter filaments are formed? I think you are a smart man but your thoughts often seem to traverse above my head. But I enjoy your posts.

neufer wrote:

• 
  
  * Blue: optical image from the Digitized Second Palomar Sky Survey
  * Red: radio image from the VLA at 21cm wavelength (1.415 GHz, 1.5 arcsec FWHM)
  * Elliptical galaxy at z=0.016485

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/117975523/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0 wrote:
The inner jet of radio galaxy NGC 315 as observed with Chandra and the Very Large Array
D. M. Worrall 1★ , M. Birkinshaw 1 , R. A. Laing 2 , W. D. Cotton 3 and A. H. Bridle

<<We present Chandra X-ray results for the jet, nucleus and gaseous atmosphere of NGC 315, a nearby radio galaxy whose jet kinematics are known through deep radio mapping. Diffuse X-ray synchrotron emission is detected from the jet out to 30 arcsec from the nucleus, through regions both of fast bulk flow and deceleration. The X-ray-to-radio flux ratio drops considerably where the flow decelerates, but the X-ray and radio emissions show similar transverse extents throughout, requiring distributed particle acceleration to maintain the supply of X-ray-emitting electrons. A remarkable knotty filament within the jet is seen in both the radio and X-ray, contributing roughly 10 per cent of the diffuse emission along its extent at both wavelengths. No completely satisfactory explanation for the filament is found, though its oscillatory appearance, roughly aligned magnetic field and requirements for particle acceleration, suggest that it is a magnetic strand within a shear layer between fast inner and slower outer flow.>>

• 
  
  * Blue: optical image from the Digitized Second Palomar Sky Survey
  * Red: radio image from the VLA at 21cm wavelength (1.415 GHz, 1.5 arcsec FWHM)
  * Elliptical galaxy at z=0.016485

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/117975523/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0 wrote:
The inner jet of radio galaxy NGC 315 as observed with Chandra and the Very Large Array
D. M. Worrall 1★ , M. Birkinshaw 1 , R. A. Laing 2 , W. D. Cotton 3 and A. H. Bridle

<<We present Chandra X-ray results for the jet, nucleus and gaseous atmosphere of NGC 315, a nearby radio galaxy whose jet kinematics are known through deep radio mapping. Diffuse X-ray synchrotron emission is detected from the jet out to 30 arcsec from the nucleus, through regions both of fast bulk flow and deceleration. The X-ray-to-radio flux ratio drops considerably where the flow decelerates, but the X-ray and radio emissions show similar transverse extents throughout, requiring distributed particle acceleration to maintain the supply of X-ray-emitting electrons. A remarkable knotty filament within the jet is seen in both the radio and X-ray, contributing roughly 10 per cent of the diffuse emission along its extent at both wavelengths. No completely satisfactory explanation for the filament is found, though its oscillatory appearance, roughly aligned magnetic field and requirements for particle acceleration, suggest that it is a magnetic strand within a shear layer between fast inner and slower outer flow.>>

bystander wrote:
The present day dark matter distribution in a slice cut through a simulation of a flat universe with cosmological constant. The distribution reveals fine, filamentary structures. The slice has a side length of 520 million light years, and a thickness of 100 million light years. It contains the so-called "supergalactic plane". The major nearby clusters, like Coma, Virgo, Perseus cluster, are labelled.

These filaments remind me of the network of nerves in our bodies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy_groups_and_clusters wrote:
Galaxy groups and clusters are the largest known gravitationally bound objects to have arisen thus far in the process of cosmic structure formation. They form the densest part of the large scale structure of the universe. In models for the gravitational formation of structure with cold dark matter, the smallest structures collapse first and eventually build the largest structures, clusters of galaxies. Clusters are then formed relatively recently between 10 billion years ago and now. Groups and clusters may contain from ten to thousands of galaxies. The clusters themselves are often associated with larger groups called superclusters.

neufer wrote:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules_Cluster wrote:
The Hercules Cluster (Abell 2151) is a cluster of about 100 galaxies some 570 million light-years distant in the constellation Hercules. It is rich in spiral galaxies and shows many interacting galaxies. The cluster is part of the larger Hercules supercluster.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superclusters wrote:
Superclusters are large groups of smaller galaxy groups and clusters and are among the largest structures of the cosmos.

The existence of superclusters indicates that the galaxies in our Universe are not uniformly distributed; most of them are drawn together in groups and clusters, with groups containing up to 50 galaxies and clusters up to several thousand. Those groups and clusters and additional isolated galaxies in turn form even larger structures called superclusters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy_filament wrote:
In physical cosmology, filaments are the largest known structures in the universe, thread-like structures with a typical length of 50 to 80 h-1 megaparsecs that form the boundaries between large voids in the universe. Filaments consist of gravitationally-bound galaxies; parts where a large number of galaxies are very close to each other are called superclusters.


The present day dark matter distribution in a slice cut through a simulation of a flat universe with cosmological constant. The distribution reveals fine, filamentary structures. The slice has a side length of 520 million light years, and a thickness of 100 million light years. It contains the so-called "supergalactic plane". The major nearby clusters, like Coma, Virgo, Perseus cluster, are labelled.

craterchains wrote:Island Universes, or Island Galaxies?

Chris Peterson wrote:Although we are very nearly restricted to observing the Universe (and even most of the Solar System) in the light of EM, we do scoop up the occasional particle of interstellar dust, so there is at least a bit of condensed matter from elsewhere in the Universe available for our examination.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules_Cluster wrote:
<<The Hercules Cluster (Abell 2151) is a cluster of about 100 galaxies some 570 million light-years distant in the constellation Hercules. It is rich in spiral galaxies and shows many interacting galaxies. The cluster is part of the larger Hercules supercluster.>>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superclusters wrote:
Superclusters are large groups of smaller galaxy groups and clusters and are among the largest structures of the cosmos.



The existence of superclusters indicates that the galaxies in our Universe are not uniformly distributed; most of them are drawn together in groups and clusters, with groups containing up to 50 galaxies and clusters up to several thousand. Those groups and clusters and additional isolated galaxies in turn form even larger structures called superclusters.

When we observe super clusters and larger structures today, we learn about the condition of the universe when these super clusters were created. The directions of the rotational axes of galaxies within super clusters also gives us insight into the formation process of galaxies early in the history of the Universe.

No clusters of super clusters (“hyperclusters”) are known, and the existence of structures larger than superclusters is debated. Interspersed among super clusters are large voids of space in which few galaxies exist. Even though superclusters are the largest structures confirmed, the total number of superclusters leaves possibilities for structural distribution; the total number of super clusters in the universe is believed to be close to 10 million.>>

emc wrote:I've noticed that our physically interactive universe is limited to the Solar System. So in effect, our solar system is an “island universe”. The cosmos certainly fills our eyes and spectrometers but we can’t reach out and touch very much of it... not even remotely.

craterchains wrote:How about correcting this mis-statement?

", , , an archipelago of island universes a mere , , , "

Shouldn't that be island galaxies?

craterchains wrote:How about correcting this mis-statement?

", , , an archipelago of island universes a mere , , , "

Shouldn't that be island galaxies?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy wrote:
<<When William Herschel constructed his catalog of deep sky objects, he used the name spiral nebula for certain objects such as M31. These would later be recognized as immense conglomerations of stars, when the true distance to these objects began to be appreciated, and they would be termed island universes. However, the word universe was understood to mean the entirety of existence, so this expression fell into disuse and the objects instead became known as galaxies.>>

• "See yonder, lo, the Galaxyë
  Which men clepeth the Milky Wey,
  For hit is whyt." —Geoffrey Chaucer. The House of Fame, c. 1380.

• Jules Verne » The Moon-Voyage » Chapter XI. Imagination and Reality.
  
  Islands are numerous on the surface of the moon. They are almost all oblong or circular, as though traced with a compass, and seem to form a vast archipelago, like that charming group lying between Greece and Asia Minor which mythology formerly animated with its most graceful legends. Involuntarily the names of Naxos, Tenedos, Milo, and Carpathos come into the mind, and you seek the ship of Ulysses or the "clipper" of the Argonauts. That was what it appeared to Michel Ardan; it was a Grecian Archipelago that he saw on the map. In the eyes of his less imaginative companions the aspect of these shores recalled rather the cut-up lands of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia; and where the Frenchman looked for traces of the heroes of fable, these Americans were noting favourable points for the establishment of mercantile houses in the interest of lunar commerce and industry.

• Archipelago, n.; pl. -goes or -gos . [It. arcipelago, properly, chief sea; Gr. pref + sea, perh. akin to blow, and expressing the beating of the waves. See Plague.] In a general sense, a sea interspersed with many isles; but particularly the sea which separates Europe from Asia, otherwise called the Egean Sea. It contains the Grecian isles, called Cyclades and Sporades.
  
  Plague, n. [L. plaga a blow, stroke, plague; akin to Gr. , fr. to strike; cf. L. plangere to strike, beat. Cf. Plaint.]

craterchains wrote:How about correcting this mis-statement?

", , , an archipelago of island universes a mere , , , "

Shouldn't that be island galaxies?