Bode’s Galaxy…
This can be seen by the naked eye, living in the constellation of the Great Bear. Only 11.6 million light years away! There’s gotta be some aliens in there.
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Carmen
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Carmen
The crossroads where Japanese history meets deep space…
I read this article a while ago and have been thinking about it ever since. It describes how these researchers, using a variety of telescopes pointing into deep space, found an object that they can’t explain. But they do know some very interesting tidbits about this object that make it very intriguing. For example, they know that it is one of the oldest blobs that they have been able to capture on film. They say that this object existed when the universe was only a little baby – 800 million years old. To state this one assertion, however, brings up a whole host of questions. Like, really? You know how old the universe is? And I know this is a widely accepted theory (that the universe had a beginning) but I’m not on board with this theory just yet. So, they are very surprised to see something so bright at such a stage of the universe. And this is another interesting tidbit – this “stage” of the universe is commonly known as a transition point in the evolution of the universe called the “reionization epoch”. (what!) Yeah. Put that in your long term memory just in case you play a game of Trivial Pursuit – Universe Edition. OH! and here’s where it meets Japanese history – they named this blob Himiko after a mysterious Japanese Queen. And thats all they had to say to get me to look her up. Apparently she ruled her particular kingdom through shamanism and sorcery! Of course, details are kind of spotty because she lived so very long ago (yeah, just like the blob!). And keep in mind the intrigue doesn’t stop there – just imagine that this picture of Himiko is reaching you after travelling across space for 12.9 billion light years! Imagine what it looks like now…woah.
Emilily, and 
Carmen are discussing.
Emilily 4:35 pm on August 20, 2009 Permalink
That was an awesome article. There are SO MANY concepts there I could ponder on for hours! My favorite was when the guy said “The farther out we look into space, the farther we go back in time.” What a great way to conceptualize the fourth dimension (time still is considered the fourth dimension, right?) It just makes sense! A one dimensional line increases into a two dimensional plane, which then increases into a three dimensional shape, and if you increase three dimensions far enough, you get closer and closer to a four dimensional space…although I guess we are always moving in the fourth dimension…but in a straight line, maybe traveling through deep space is like traveling through the fourth dimension in something other than a straight line…whoa. That makes a telescope the closest thing we have to a time machine.
Or, wait, maybe this one is my favorite “…according to the concordance model of Big Bang cosmology, small objects form first and then merge to produce larger systems…” Okay, for lack of my knowledge of any alternative, I can go along with that, but what if this Himiko blob IS a small object? What if it only looks large to us because we only have the things within our current reach to compare it to, maybe on the scale of the rest of the universe, the Himiko blob is a brand spankin’ new teeny tiny speck?!
I’m going to go read that article again.
Carmen 5:00 pm on August 20, 2009 Permalink
Yeah! Thats what i’m saying! Maybe we should get this book about the TEN dimensions so we really know what we’re talking about. http://www.tenthdimension.com/flash2.php
Emilily 12:31 pm on August 21, 2009 Permalink
I think we’ve looked at this book before. According to the psychobiologist who reviewed, we should read this, and I am inclined to agree with psychobiologists. We should read it at the same time so we can discuss it.