DNA Shaped Nebula

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serak_the_preparer

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Much as I hate adding a new thread...<br /><br />Astronomers Report Unprecedented Double Helix Nebula Near Center of the Milky Way by Stuart Wolpert (UCLA News)<br /><br />March 15, 2006<br /><br /><i>. . . The </i>[80-light-year-long]<i> double helix nebula is approximately 300 light years from the enormous black hole at the center of the Milky Way. (The Earth is more than 25,000 light years from the black hole at the galactic center.)<br /><br />The Spitzer Space Telescope, an infrared telescope, is imaging the sky at unprecedented sensitivity and resolution; Spitzer's sensitivity and spatial resolution were required to see the double helix nebula clearly.<br /><br />"We know the galactic center has a strong magnetic field that is highly ordered and that the magnetic field lines are oriented perpendicular to the plane of the galaxy," Morris said. "If you take these magnetic field lines and twist them at their base, that sends what is called a torsional wave up the magnetic field lines.<br /><br />"You can regard these magnetic field lines as akin to a taut rubber band," Morris added. "If you twist one end, the twist will travel up the rubber band..."</i>
 
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serak_the_preparer

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Well, I suppose I could've checked Space.com's front page first (but I tend to dive straight into the boards). Just checked it now, so the link to the biggest thing on that page:<br /><br />Cosmic 'DNA': Double Helix Spotted in Space by Bjorn Carey<br /><br />On the other hand, the UCLA version comes without pop-ups.<br />: )<br /><br />Just did a search on the double-helix-in-space story, and came up with something completely unrelated. Still, it's interesting and perhaps salvages something from my mistake:<br /><br />APOD: 2003 May 10 - NGC 7293: The Helix Nebula<br /><br />So there you have it - a nice pic of God's eye. Maybe there's a mote hiding in it somewhere...<br /><br />(Yes, I know, the original nebula containing that iconic mote is supposed to be the Coal Sack, but fun is fun - and here is the APOD featuring that nebula: APOD: May 3, 1996 - The Milky Way Near the Southern Cross.)
 
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rhodan

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<i>Much as I hate adding a new thread...</i><br /><br />Why? There's nothing to hate in this news. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br /><br />From your first link: <ul type="square">...What launches the wave, twisting the magnetic field lines near the center of the Milky Way? Morris thinks the answer is not the monstrous black hole at the galactic center, at least not directly.<br /><br />Orbiting the black hole like the rings of Saturn, several light years away, is a massive disk of gas called the circumnuclear disk; Morris hypothesizes that the magnetic field lines are anchored in this disk. The disk orbits the black hole approximately once every 10,000 years.<br /><br />"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.</ul>That is rather fascinatinig. This is an amazing correlation to find, or imagine and calculate.
 
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2709

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I already had a friend e-mail me asking about the "cosmic DNA strand" that was discovered. They even wondered if it may hold a "blue print" to the universe. Good grief! Same person who kept sending me that silly "Eye of God" e-mail last year.<br />http://www.snopes.com/photos/space/eyeofgod.asp<br /><br />Mike
 
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yevaud

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The Princeton Physicist John Archibald Wheeler: "Beware of seeing order in things. The Human eye is a great deceiver for seeing order in everything."<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>
 
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serak_the_preparer

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<b>Much as I hate adding a new thread...</b> <br /><br /><i>Why? There's nothing to hate in this news. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /></i><br /><br />True enough. A pet peeve of mine is, I suppose, disorganized information. It's very easy to add a new thread every time a new thought pops into one's head. But that leads to the Internet equivalent of sprawl. So I generally try to contribute to existing threads rather than start my own.<br /><br />My daughter had mentioned 'the DNA nebula' to me, so I went looking for it on-line and found a link. Right after posting it here, of course, I find the story plastered all over Space.com's front page. I think 'sheepish' would best describe my reaction. : )<br /><br /><i>That is rather fascinatinig. This is an amazing correlation to find, or imagine and calculate.</i><br /><br />It is truly amazing. If someone lives and breathes this stuff long enough, it becomes second nature. Remarkable nevertheless. I am always impressed by the amount we can learn simply by looking up at the sky.
 
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