Milky Way's secrets revealed by massive space probe map

France24 – AFP, 13 June 2022 

The Gaia mission to create the most accurate 3D map of the Milky Way ever
has released its latest set of data - EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY/AFP/File

Paris (AFP) – The Gaia space probe unveiled its latest discoveries on Monday in its quest to map the Milky Way in unprecedented detail, surveying nearly two million stars and revealing mysterious "starquakes" which sweep across the fiery giants like vast tsunamis. 

The mission's third data set, which will be released to eagerly waiting astronomers around the world at 1000 GMT, "revolutionises our understanding of the galaxy," the European Space Agency (ESA) said. 

"It's the Swiss Army knife of astrophysics -- there is not a single astronomer who does not use its data, directly or indirectly," said Francois Mignard, a member of the Gaia team. 

Some of the map's new insights are close to home, such as a catalogue of more than 156,000 asteroids in our Solar System "whose orbits the instrument has calculated with incomparable precision," Mignard said. 

But Gaia also sees beyond the Milky Way, spotting 2.9 million other galaxies as well as 1.9 million quasars -- the stunningly bright hearts of galaxies powered by supermassive black holes. 

The Gaia spacecraft is nestled in a strategically positioned orbit 1.5 million kilometres (937,000 miles) from Earth, where it has been watching the skies since it was launched by the ESA in 2013. 

'Beautiful melting pot of stars' 

"Gaia scans the sky and picks up everything it sees," said astronomer Misha Haywood of the Paris Observatory. 

But it can still only detect around one percent of the stars in the Milky Way, which is about 100,000 light years across. 

The probe is equipped with two telescopes as well as a billion-pixel camera, which captures images sharp enough to gauge the diameter of a human hair at a distance of 1,000 kilometres (620 miles). 

It also has a range of other instruments that allow it to not just map the stars, but measure their movements, chemical compositions and ages. 

"It provides a global observation of the positions of anything that moves in the sky, for the first time," Haywood said, adding that before Gaia "we had a really restricted view of the galaxy". 

It also reveals the huge array of differences between stars. 

"Our galaxy is a beautiful melting pot of stars," said Gaia member Alejandra Recio-Blanco. 

"This diversity is extremely important, because it tells us the story of our galaxy's formation," he said. 

"It also clearly shows that our Sun, and we, all belong to an ever-changing system, formed thanks to the assembly of stars and gas of different origins." 

Surprise starquakes

The observation of "starquakes", massive vibrations that change the shape of the distant stars, was "one of the most surprising discoveries coming out of the new data", the ESA said. 

Gaia was not built to observe starquakes but still detected the strange phenomenon on thousands of stars, including some that should not have any -- at least according to our current understanding of the universe. 

"Gaia is opening a gold mine for 'asteroseismology' of massive stars," said Gaia member Conny Aerts. 

Around 50 scientific papers were published alongside the new data, with many more expected in the coming years. Gaia's observations have fuelled thousands of studies since its first dataset was released in 2016. 

The second dataset in 2018 allowed astronomers to show that the Milky Way merged with another galaxy in a violent collision around 10 billion years ago. 

The torrent of raw data is combed through by a team of 450 European scientists and software engineers using six supercomputers as well as "human-driven algorithms" as part of the Data Processing and Analysis Consortium, Mignard said. 

"Without this processing group, there is no mission," he added, because every day Gaia produces 700 million star positions and 150 million photometric measurements. 

It took the team five years to deliver the latest data, which was observed from 2014 to 2017. 

"We can't wait for the astronomy community to dive into our new data to find out even more about our galaxy and its surroundings than we could've imagined," ESA's Gaia project scientist Timo Prusti said. 

The final data set will be released in 2030, after Gaia finishes its mission surveying the skies in 2025.

Scientists find likely source of methane on Mars

AFP, 1 April 2019

EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY/AFP/File / HO

The presence of methane has long been a point of contention among Mars experts

The mystery of methane on Mars may finally be solved as scientists Monday confirmed the presence of the life-indicating gas on the Red Planet as well as where it might have come from.

In the 15 years since a European probe reported traces of the gas in the Martian atmosphere, debate has raged over the accuracy of the readings showing methane, which on Earth is produced by simple lifeforms.

Because methane gas dissipates relatively quickly -- within around 12 years on Earth -- and due to the difficulty of observing Mars' atmosphere, many scientists questioned previous studies that relied on a single data set.

Now an international team of experts have compared observations from two separate spacecraft, taken just one day apart in 2013, to find independent proof of methane on our neighbouring planet.

Furthermore, they conducted two parallel experiments to determine the most likely source of methane on Mars to be an ice sheet east of Gale Crater -- itself long assumed to be a dried up lake.

"This is very exciting and largely unexpected," Marco Giuranna, from Rome's National Astrophysics Institute, told AFP.

"Two completely independent lines of investigation pointed to the same general area of the most likely source for the methane."

Europe's Mars Express probe measured 15.5 parts per billion in the atmosphere above the Gale Crater on June 16, 2013. The presence of methane in the vicinity was confirmed by readings taken 24 hours earlier by NASA's Curiosity rover.

Using the data, Giuranna and the team divided the region around the crater into grids of 250 by 250 square kilometres.

One study then ran a million computer-modelled emissions scenarios for each section while another team studied images of the planet surface for features associated on Earth with the release of methane.

'Indicator of life'

The most likely source was a sheet of frozen methane beneath a rock formation, which the team believes periodically ejects the gas into the atmosphere.

Giuranna said that while methane is a sign of life on Earth, its presence on Mars doesn't necessarily constitute evidence of something similar on the Red Planet.

"Methane is important because it could be an indicator of microbial life," he said. "But life is not required to explain these detections because methane can be produced by abiotic processes."

"Though not a direct biosignature of life, methane can add to the habitability of martian settings, as certain types of microbes can use methane as a source of carbon and energy," he added.

Though there is no liquid water on Mars, the European Space Agency said in February its imaging equipment had shown further evidence of dried up river beds, suggesting the Red Planet may once have been home to simple organisms.

Giuranna said that further research was needed to determine the extent of the methane ice sheet near Gale Crater.

If founded to be extensive, the methane it contains "could support a sustained human presence" on Mars as a possible source of fuel for industrial processes and a propellant for returning manned missions to Earth, he said.

Scientists solve weighty matter of Milky Way mass

Yahoo – AFP, March 7, 2019

Pervious estimates put the mass of the Milky Way ranging between 500 billion
and 3 trillion times the mass of the Sun (AFP Photo)

Paris (AFP) - Astronomers said Thursday they had accurately calculated the mass of the Milky Way for the first time, using new data sets that include the weight of dark matter.

In a collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency's Gaia observation craft, a team of experts calculated our galaxy to be around 1.5 trillion solar masses.

Pervious estimates put the mass of the Milky Way ranging between 500 billion and 3 trillion times the mass of the Sun.

The uncertainty stemmed mainly from differing methods used to measure dark matter -- which doesn't absorb or reflect any light and is thought to make up nearly 90 percent of matter in the Universe.

"We just can't detect dark matter directly," said Laura Watkins, from the Germany-based European Southern Observatory. "That's what leads to the present uncertainty in the Milky Way's mass -- you can't measure accurately what you can't see."

To get around this, the team measured the velocity of globular clusters -- dense groupings of stars that orbit the galaxy at enormous distances.

"The more massive a galaxy, the faster its clusters move under the pull of its gravity," said N. Wyn Evans, from the University of Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy.

"Most previous measurements have found the speed at which a cluster is approaching or receding from Earth, that is the velocity along our line of sight."

Instead, the researchers were able to use data collected by the Gaia probe and NASA's Hubble telescope to measure the sideways motion of clusters.

From this they could calculate their total velocity and from that their mass.

The Milky Way, the galaxy which contains Earth's solar system, is home to up to 400 billion stars and an estimated 100 billion planets.

Related Articles:

"The Biggest Filter" - July 18-19, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“..  Physics - Sticking To The Known

Physicists are among the kinds of scientists who expect change through discovery, and who absolutely know that they are unaware of how everything works. It comes with the territory of being a physicist. Yet the mistakes they make in their bias are the same as the computer scientist. They take their truth from known absolute physics in 3D and then apply this truth to everything they don't know.

I point to the revelation and the discoveries of astronomer Vera Rubin. When she found out that stars that orbit the middle of your galaxy don't behave within the gravitational laws of Newton or the laws of planetary motion from Kepler, it was a major discovery. Your solar system moves around the sun in highly definable 3D laws of motion. The objects that are further away from the sun go slower. The ones closer to the sun go faster. However, her discovery showed that stars orbiting the galaxy had this reversed! The stars that are further away from the middle go faster. What she discovered was that all of the stars go the same speed in relationship to the middle, like they were pasted on a plate, all revolving together around the center. They do not follow the rules of the physics that you know.

So, what did the physicists and astronomers do with this major new information? Instead of seeing a brand new paradigm, they instead used Newton's laws and computed what would have to be "out there" to make this happen. Dark matter! It had to be mysterious, invisible matter that was creating this very strange and enormous new Newtonian attribute. Instead of looking at this and saying, "There is a new law of physics happening here that we don't yet know about," they kept it within the Newton box and renamed it, "Altered Newtonian Physics". That's funny! That's like a situation when you discovered the earth was round and called it the "Altered Flat-Earth Principle"!

Newton's name is still attached, but his 3D laws have nothing to do with anything Ruben discovered. Dark matter does not exist! It's a made-up energy to satisfy an old law that doesn't apply! Instead, there is a new law of physics that you haven't seen yet. It's a multidimensional law having to do with modified entanglement. Modified entangled objects are created because of what is in the middle of the galaxy. The immense push-pull twin energy at the middle of each galaxy is not simplistic like your sun is to your own solar system. It does not have Kepler rules, since it's not mass that's just orbiting naturally. Yet, you think it is, since it looks similar: The galaxy has stars circling it in space. Someday, you'll slap your heads in revelation of what you did with this, and you will change the rules.

Now to esoteric astronomy: Look what you've done with the idea that you came from the Pleiadians. There are some scientists laughing right now who smugly say that the mythology of the Pleiadians being your seed biology is simply not possible. It's not possible because of astronomical history, and what they now know about the constellation itself.

Pleiadian Connection - Mythology?

Let's talk about the Pleiadian system, the Seven Sisters. Let's talk about the truth of it, and then let's discuss what science says is the mythology of it. We will tell you what you don't see and don't comprehend, simply because of your existing knowledge.

You call this constellation the Seven Sisters [M45]. The physical facts are that there are hundreds of stars in this Pleiades group. Circling these stars is a nebula (dust particles and gas). This creates a wonderful blue tinge that you can see in the heavens on a clear night. With distance and atmospheric attributes against you, the naked eye can only perceive what appears to be seven stars (or clusters), hence the name Seven Sisters. However, there are actually nine when you use a telescope. Each of the nine have been identified with names, but again, there are actually hundreds of stars.

The Seven Sisters are approximately 440 light years away. From the viewpoint of astronomy and distances, that's close - very close! Now, here's what science says is wrong with your mythology about the Pleiadians: The constellation is way too young! The whole system of the Pleiades is far too young to have developed life. It's only approximately 100 million years old - a baby! The galaxy is four billion years old [according to your science] and your planet is at least a billion of that. Yet, the Pleiadians are only a tiny fraction of that, only 100 million.

So here is what science says: The mythology has most of the ancients of this planet claiming the Pleiadians as their seeds. However, this is impossible due to the age of the stars. The suppositions and logic are applied this way: What you saw on earth happens everywhere in the galaxy. That's incorrect, and quite humorous! Your bias is that life develops only a certain way, based upon the way it developed here. Not only is that incorrect in general, but the possibility has never even been broached that perhaps, just perhaps, the Pleiadian life as you think it exists was actually implanted there! How about that? Perhaps it didn't evolve from there at all! So to dismiss a possibility completely due to only the knowledge of what you have here may result in a totally illogical conclusion. Then there is the question, "How did those Pleiadians get so advanced so quickly?" [Wink]

These are just little vignettes of possibility, which I throw to you this evening to give you things to think about. The Pleiadians who are here are smiling, and they know you so well. You may be the new kids on the block because life just developed on your planet, but the Pleiadians had an entirely different scenario from what you had. To become an ascended planet, they needed certain kinds of pushes from certain other kinds of planets. They had their own seed biology! Dear ones, it's important to start thinking out of the box of your knowledge and open up to possibilities that are not what you've seen here.  ….”

"FUTURE AND PHYSICS (#)" - May 16-17, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (#) New major Discoveries (This channel will become a historical channel in the future, prove that Kryon is a real communication from the Creative Source/God to Humanity - 'Óur Family') - (Text version Physics)

1 To see and measure multi-dimensional/quantum physics, instrument (super-cooling quantum plasma lens)

2 Two more laws of multi-dimensional physics revealed: explanation of dark matter & acknowledgement of free energy (controlling mass)

3 God in the atom. God has - provable - part in physics. Intelligent/benevolent design. (Will bring religion and science together.)

4 Human Consciousness is an attribute of physics. (Pleiadians - Humans ancestors / Humans free choice only planet in the Milky Way Galaxy. Other galaxies have their own spiritual systems and physics)

5.Coherent DNA. Multidimensional DNA coherent between dimensions will give Enhanced DNA

"Earth, the only planet with free choice in the Milky Way Galaxy"

"The Quantum Factor" – Apr 10, 2011 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Galaxies, Universe, Intelligent design, Benevolent design, Aliens, Nikola Tesla (Quantum energy), Inter-Planetary Travel, DNA, Genes, Stem Cells, Cells, Rejuvenation, Shift of Human Consciousness, Spontaneous Remission, Religion, Dictators, Africa, China, Nuclear Power, Sustainable Development, Animals, Global Unity.. etc.) - (Text Version)

"Recalibration of the Universe"– Jan 25, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text Version)

“… The entire galaxy revolves as one plate, in a very counter-intuitive way. The stars and the constellations do not orbit within the rules of Newtonian physics that you are used to seeing all around you in your own solar system. For the stars and clusters in your galaxy, distance from the center does not matter. All the stars rotate as one. This is because the galaxy is entangled with the middle of itself. In that state, there is no time or distance. The change of consciousness on this planet has changed the center of the galaxy. This is because what happens here, dear one, is "known" by the center.

It's interesting to us what your reaction to all this is scientifically. You saw that the "creative event" of your Universe is missing some energy in order for it to have formed as it did. In addition, the unusual way the galaxy rotates, as I just stated, was also noted. So you have calculated that for all this to be in place, there has to be missing 3D matter, and you have given it a name - dark matter. How funny! Did you ever think that there could be a multidimensional effect going on that you now can observe and calculate - that has immense power, but can't be seen? It's not "matter" at all and it's not 3D. It's quantum energy.

Let me tell you something about physics. Yet again, I'll make it simple. Everything your scientists have seen in physics happens in pairs. At the moment, there are four laws of physics in your three-dimensional paradigm. They represent two pairs of energy types. Eventually, there will be six. At the center of your galaxy is what you call a black hole, but it is not a single thing. It is a duality. There is no such thing as "singularity". You might say it's one energy with two parts - a weak and a strong quantum force. And the strangest thing is it knows who you are. It is the creator engine. It's different in other galaxies than this one. It's unique.

The very physics of your galaxy is postured by what you do here. The astronomers can look into the cosmos and they will discover different physics in different galaxies. Could it be that there's something going on in the other galaxies like this one? I'm not going to answer that. … “

"The Physics of Consciousness - The Future Revealed" - June 29, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

New 3-D map of Milky Way will 'revolutionise astronomy'

Yahoo – AFP, Mariëtte Le Roux, April 25, 2018

The Gaia satellite collected the data on some 1.7 billion stars from its unique vantage
point in space about 1.5 million kilometres (930,000 miles) from Earth (AFP Photo)

Paris (AFP) - Europe's Gaia satellite has produced a 3-D map, hailed as revolutionary, of more than a billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy -- complete with their distance from Earth, colour, and motion through space.

The eagerly-anticipated catalogue, published Wednesday, was compiled from data Gaia gathered on some 1.7 billion stars from its unique vantage point in space, about 1.5 million kilometres (930,000 miles) from Earth.

"The dataset is very rich and we believe it will revolutionise astronomy and our understanding of the Milky Way," Gaia's scientific operations manager Uwe Lammers told AFP of the massive data release.

"This catalogue is the most precise, most complete catalogue that has ever been produced. It allows studies which have not been possible before."

Launched in 2013, Gaia started operating the following year, gathering data on 100,000 stars per minute -- some 500 million measurements per day. Its first map was published in September 2016, based on a year's worth of observations of about 1.15 billion stars.

An update, launched at the ILA international air and space show in Berlin, adds stars and provides more data on each one, from measurements taken over 22 months in 2014-2016.

Some stars were measured as many as 70 times as the satellite, co-rotating with Earth around the Sun, continuously scanned the galaxy.

"For some of the brightest stars in the survey, the level of precision equates to Earth-bound observers being able to spot a Euro coin lying on the surface of the Moon," said an ESA statement.

The new, improved map depicts 1.7 billion stars "for which we can tell where they are in the sky with very high accuracy, and how bright they are," said Anthony Brown of the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium.

For 1.3 billion of those, "we know their distance and we know how they move through space."

There is, furthermore, information on the radial velocities of some seven million stars -- indicating the rate at which they are moving towards, or away from, Earth.

Opening a chocolate box

With all this data, "we can make a map of the whole night sky," said Brown, who described the end result as "stunning".

"You see the whole Milky Way in motion around its axis."

Gaia also revealed the orbits of some 14,000 "solar system objects" -- mapped as an intricate spiderweb of space rocks shooting around the Sun.

"It represents the most accurate survey ever of asteroids in the Solar System," said Brown. More will be added in future updates.

Information sent to Earth by Gaia is collated by 450 scientists from 20 countries.

One of them, Antonella Vallenari, likened the data release to "opening a chocolate box".

"It's very, very exciting," she said at the launch event in Germany, webcast live.

The full data will be published in a series of scientific papers in a special issue of the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, laying the foundation for decades of further study.

"We are really getting today the catalogue of a billion stars zipping through the Milky Way in various directions," said Guenther Hasinger, ESA's director of science.

"With Gaia, we can actually deconstruct the whole history of the Milky Way," he added. "It's like archaeoastronomy... to really build up the history of our Universe."

Lammers said another update is due in 2020.

By Jove! Buried ocean makes Jupiter moon Ganymede possible cradle of life

NASA says it has confirmed that an ocean lies beneath the icy crust that forms the surface of Jupiter's largest moon Ganymede. The presence of a deep ocean there means Ganymede may be capable of sustaining life.

Deutsche Welle, 13 March 2015

Ganymede - the largest moon in the solar system - has a salty ocean underneath the icy shell that surrounds it, NASA said on Thursday.

The ocean is believed to be far deeper than any on Earth - some 100 kilometers (60 miles) deep and buried under some 150 kilometers of ice.

The ocean was detected by scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope, which observed Ganymede's magnetic field. The telescope looked at changes that took place to the moon's colorful polar auroras - similar to the Earth's aurora borealis - which give an indication about what lies beneath the surface of moons and planets.

There has long been speculation that Ganymede could have an ocean, although proof had been elusive, despite tantalizing clues sent back by NASA's Galileo spacecraft. Scientists now say they are sure.

"Since the 1970s, there were speculations and models that Ganymede could possess an ocean," said Joachim Saur of the University of Cologne in Germany. "We do not have these ambiguities anymore," he told reporters, with the Hubble findings providing: "the best evidence to date for the existence of an ocean on Ganymede."

The four big moons, with Ganymede
 the largest, were all discovered the
same year - in 1610 - by Galileo

With a diameter of 5,260 kilometers, Ganymede is slightly larger than the planet Mercury.

More 'waterworlds' dicovered

On Wednesday, a separate team of scientists reported that one of Saturn's moons, Enceladus, may have hot springs bubbling beneath its cold surface. There is also believed to be water below the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa, while another of the planet's moons, Callisto, is thought to have subterranean water.

"The solar system is now looking like a pretty soggy place," said NASA headquarters head of planetary science Jill Green, after the latest find.

Ganymede is one of dozens of confirmed moons that orbit Jupiter, and it is among the four large moons of the planet that were discovered in 1610, by the Italian scientist Galileo.

The prospect of a "deep ocean under the icy crust of Ganymede opens up further possibilities for life beyond Earth," said John Grunsfeld, a NASA administrator.

A European Space Agency mission to be launched in 2022 is expected to circle Jupiter and take a closer look at the moons, including Ganymede.

rc/bw (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)

Stars found forming at Milky Way's outer edge

Yahoo – AFP, 27 Feb 2015

Photo released on February 2, 2015 by the European Space Agency shows the

central parts of the Milky Way (AFP Photo/Vvv Consortium/D. Minniti)

Paris (AFP) - Brazilian astronomers said Friday they had found two star clusters forming in a remote part of our Milky Way galaxy where such a thing was previously thought impossible.

Seen from above, the Milky Way has arms of stars, gas and dust flailing out in a spiral shape from the centre.

From the side, it resembles a flat disk with a big bulge in the middle -- it has been likened to two fried eggs stuck together back-to-back.

Stars normally form inside clumps of gas in so-called giant molecular clouds (GMCs), found in the inner part of the galactic disk, said a statement from Britain's Royal Astronomical Society, which published the findings in its Monthly Notices.

Each of these clouds contains several gas clumps, which means that most stars, possibly all of them, are created together in clusters.

Using NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) space telescope, a team led by Denilso Camargo of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre found GMCs far outside the central galaxy -- seen from the side they lay at distances thousands of light years above and below the Milky Way's disk.

And not only that, one of these remote clouds "unexpectedly" contained two star clusters, said the statement.

"This is the first time astronomers have found stars being born in such a remote location".

The two clusters, named Camargo 438 and 439, lie in a cloud named HRK 81.4-77.8.

Estimated to be about two million years old, the cloud lies 16,000 light years "beneath" the galactic disk -- "an enormous distance away from the usual regions of star formation".

"Our work shows that the space around the Galaxy is a lot less empty than we thought," said Camargo.

Europe's comet-chasing Rosetta probe reaches target

Space probe Rosetta has reached position near a deep-space comet that scientists hope holds clues about the solar system's origins. The much-anticipated rendezvous comes at the end of a decade-long journey.

Deutsche Welle, 6 Aug 2014

The Rosetta probe drew close to its study subject, the prosaically-named 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet, closely monitored by European Space Agency officials at mission control in Darmstadt, Germany.

The orbital entry on Wednesday was triggered by a firing of thrusters to bring the craft into the first of a series of "pyramidal" paths around the comet's nucleus, which has been likened to a rubber duck because of its odd shape.

ESA's Twitter account for the mission tweeted a photo of the comet's nucleus, along with a succession of greetings in different European languages.

Rosetta arrives at comet destination after a 10-year journey http://t.co/rrubq6Ov56 pic.twitter.com/DG904A8faN
— ESA (@esa) 6 augustus 2014

The arrival marked a key moment for the 1.3-billion-euro ($1.76-billion) project examining the formation of the solar system. If all goes according to plan, Rosetta will carry out its first landing on the comet in November, sending a robot chemistry laboratory named Philae to the comet's surface.

Rosetta took off from Earth aboard an Ariane 5 rocket on March 2, 2004, from ESA's launchpad in French Guiana. The space agency has likened its unprecedented journey to a game of "cosmic billiards."

To reach its present position, the craft had to make four flybys of Earth and Mars, using the gravitational force of each as a slingshot. Rosetta then entered a 31-month hibernation period as the sun became too weak for its solar panels, coming back to life in January this year.

The latest maneuvers, to bring the probe within about 100 kilometers (60 miles) of the comet, have involved the craft making a series of braking maneuvers. The probe will eventually be steered into position some 10 kilometers from the nucleus' surface.

Astrophysicists believe comets, icy clusters left over from the formation of the planets 4.6 billion years ago, could be the key to understanding how the planets coalesced and formed around the sun. It is also thought they might harbor clues as to the source of the water that formed the Earth's oceans, as well as the origins of life itself.

rc/hc (AFP, AP)

Related Article:

European satellite spots 'impossibly' huge star

Supermassive Black Hole at Center of Milky Way Snacks on Hot Gas

Science, Space & Robots, May 7, 2013

The Herschel space observatory has recorded observations of the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy snacking on hot gas. The Milky Way's black hole has a mass that is four million times that of our sun. It located in a region named Sagittarius A*, or Sgr A* for short, which is about 26,000 light-years from our solar system. You can find a larger version of the above image here.

Paul Goldsmith, the U.S. project scientist for Herschel at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement, "The black hole appears to be devouring the gas. This will teach us about how supermassive black holes grow."

Astronomers say some of the hot gas around the black hole is 1,832 degrees Fahrenheit (around 1,000 degrees Celsius). Scientists theorize that emission from strong shocks in highly-magnetised gas in the region may be contributing to the high temperatures.

NASA says its Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and the Chandra X-ray Observatory are ready to spot any X-ray burps coming from the black hole.

Image: ESA-C. Carreau

Related Article:

"Recalibration of the Universe"– Jan 25, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Text Version)

“… The entire galaxy revolves as one plate, in a very counter-intuitive way. The stars and the constellations do not orbit within the rules of Newtonian physics that you are used to seeing all around you in your own solar system. For the stars and clusters in your galaxy, distance from the center does not matter. All the stars rotate as one. This is because the galaxy is entangled with the middle of itself. In that state, there is no time or distance. The change of consciousness on this planet has changed the center of the galaxy. This is because what happens here, dear one, is "known" by the center.

It's interesting to us what your reaction to all this is scientifically. You saw that the "creative event" of your Universe is missing some energy in order for it to have formed as it did. In addition, the unusual way the galaxy rotates, as I just stated, was also noted. So you have calculated that for all this to be in place, there has to be missing 3D matter, and you have given it a name - dark matter. How funny! Did you ever think that there could be a multidimensional effect going on that you now can observe and calculate - that has immense power, but can't be seen? It's not "matter" at all and it's not 3D. It's quantum energy.

Let me tell you something about physics. Yet again, I'll make it simple. Everything your scientists have seen in physics happens in pairs. At the moment, there are four laws of physics in your three-dimensional paradigm. They represent two pairs of energy types. Eventually, there will be six. At the center of your galaxy is what you call a black hole, but it is not a single thing. It is a duality. There is no such thing as "singularity". You might say it's one energy with two parts - a weak and a strong quantum force. And the strangest thing is it knows who you are. It is the creator engine. It's different in other galaxies than this one. It's unique.

The very physics of your galaxy is postured by what you do here. The astronomers can look into the cosmos and they will discover different physics in different galaxies. Could it be that there's something going on in the other galaxies like this one? I'm not going to answer that. 

“… By the way, what happens to the solar system when the magnetics shift? Now you start to see where astrology will begin to shift as well. There are those who will start to apply the quantum filter to astrology. It's happening now. What is your quantum sign? It's different than the three-dimensional sign. Oh, there'll come a day, dear ones, in science, where the scientists will be able to apply what I will call a quantum filter to alter what they see. This will be a filter developed for telescopes that involves a super-cooling of the filter itself. Astronomers will be able to look out into the cosmos and, for the first time, see quantum attributes.

The first thing they'll notice is two things in the center of the galaxy, not one. The next thing will be the colors around the Human Being. And science will start a whole new section called "The Study of the Human Auric Energy." All of these are coming.  …”

"Recalibration of Knowledge" – Jan 14, 2012 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Channelling, God-Creator, Benevolent Design, New Energy, Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Reincarnation, Gaia, Old Energies (Africa,Terrorists, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela ... ), Weather, Rejuvenation, Akash, Nicolas Tesla / Einstein, Cold Fusion, Magnetics, Lemuria, Atomic Structure (Electrons, Particles, Polarity, Self Balancing, Magnetism, Higgs Boson), Entanglement, "Life is necessary for a Universe to exist and not the other way around", DNA, Humans (Baby getting ready, First Breath, Stem Cells, Embryonic Stem Cells, Rejuvenation), Global Unity, ... etc.) - (Text Version)

“ … Physicists say that electrons spin. They don't, and they can't. There's no surface on an electron, since they are energy. They don't spin, but instead have an electronic potential. Every single particle on this planet, everything you can see, all things in this Universe, are created with polarity. This is new information now. All things are created with polarity, and they're designed to be self-balancing. And because of the polarity of what you would call plus and minus, they move and try to balance themselves within a field - all things, both physical and other.

However, all polarities are prone to be biased by what I will call peer pressure. Electrons that carry (or spin with a polarity) of what you would call a certain kind of charge - we'll call it positive - are drawn to those that are negative so that they will null themselves out. They seek each other out to create the null of balance. They seek to be balanced, and if they are not, they are not happy. I use this word only to emphasize the condition of a particle of physics that does not find its balance. Even the unscientific can appreciate this.

But even with atoms, there are not always matched pairs of electrons, since there is no atomic rule that says that electrons will always be created in even numbers. So there will often be what I will call the odd one out and when that happens, the entire atom will then be charged positively or negatively, depending upon the odd one out. When this happens, this atom will seek out another atom, which has an odd one out of an opposite charge. That has a name: Magnetism. I've just explained magnetism. Now, science knows part of that already. What they have not realized yet, however, is that all things have a duality. They suspect it and there are theories that will show it soon enough, and I've given it to you today because it always has existed in someone's mind.

So from the very smallest to the very biggest, even the galaxy has duality. At the center of your galaxy, what you call the black hole, is a quantum push/pull engine, and I'm going to tell you in a minute why it's that way.

Here is a big question, and I will answer it right now. Why does everything have a polarity? Why would it be created this way, even down to the electron? The smallest thing, even to what you call the Higgs Bosen [God Particle] and the quarks, they all have polarity. There isn't a piece of nature that you're going to find that doesn't have polarity. Why? I will tell you why: Physicists will laugh. Not in ridicule, but in agreement. If it were not this way, the Universe would be a dull, boring place to be. Because, by creating a duality in every single particle, you create an active Universe that is self-balancing and is never at rest. If it were not this way, it would be static, unchanging, and non-creative. Therefore, without polarity, there would be no life. Life is created by having a duality, a polarity in atomic particles. Life is that which is necessary for the Universe to exist. There's no reason for physics without life - and you thought it was the other way around, didn't you? Life was an accident on one planet. Oh, how 3D of you! Life is the DESIGN..…”

Albert Einstein: The Brick Wall that Science Faces – AE in An Hour with an Angel - New

E=MC²  (MC2 to infinity [∞])

"... That one little symbol is rather important, is it not? For it speaks to the continuity and the infinite nature of creation and the universe. And here I had tried to squeeze it into a manageable form, when it was never intended to be so small.

So, I come this day in a very public forum to share that, not so much with light-workers, but this is the forum I am given to speak to the scientists, and so I take it and I give this to them..."