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We have the Hexagon on Saturn, the Red Rectangle nebula — and now there's a squarish galaxy for astronomers to deal with.
"It's one of those things that just makes you smile because it shouldn't exist, or rather, you don't expect it to exist," Alister Graham, a professor at Australia's Swinburne University of Technology, said this week in a news release. "It's a little like the precarious Leaning Tower of Pisa, or the discovery of some exotic new species which at first glance appears to defy the laws of nature."
And yet, there it is: LEDA 074886, a rectangular-looking dwarf galaxy that's part of the NGC 1407 Group of more than 250 galaxies in the constellation Eridanus, 70 million light-years away. The "emerald-cut galaxy" was spotted in a wide-field image taken using Japan's Subaru Telescope, and discussed in a research paper to be published in The Astrophysical Journal.
Most galaxies are either spheroidal, disk-shaped or irregular and lumpy, Graham noted. LEDA 074886 seems to have four rounded corners. Graham and his colleagues suspect that the galaxy is actually shaped like a shallow cylinder or an inflated disk, seen somewhat side-on. That would fit with observations from the Keck Telescope, which picked up the signs of a rapidly spinning, thin disk embedded in the galaxy's center.
"One possibility is that the galaxy may have formed out of the collision of two spiral galaxies," said Swinburne Professor Duncan Forbes, one of the study's co-authors. "While the pre-existing stars from the initial galaxies were strewn to large orbits, creating the emerald-cut shape, the gas sank to the midplane, where it condensed to form new stars and the disk that we have observed."
Studying the dynamics behind the squarish shape could provide insights for modeling the development and interaction of other galaxies in collision, the researchers said.
"Curiously, if the orientation was just right, when our own disk-shaped galaxy collides with the disk-shaped Andromeda galaxy, about 3 billion years from now, we may find ourselves the inhabitants of a square-looking galaxy," Graham said. Maybe Huey Lewis was right: It's hip to be square.
Where in the Cosmos?
Three Cosmic Log correspondents were definitely hip to the square-shaped galaxy: The Subaru Telescope's view of the galaxy served as this week's "Where in the Cosmos" picture puzzle on the Cosmic Log Facebook page, and it took Paul Burley, Karl J. Martin and Charles Britten less than three minutes to come up with the answer.
The fact that Paul provided the geometrical answer first is particularly fitting, because he's the author of a book about cosmic geometry titled "The Sacred Sphere: Exploring Sacred Concepts and Cosmic Consciousness Through Universal Symbolism."
"I've found that a very specific spherical geometry may be expressed at all scales, from subatomic to universal, including the untold number of circular sacred symbols that all cultures throughout time and location have used to express relationships between each other, Earth, Cosmos and Creator," he told me in an email.
Sounds like Paul would enjoy "The New Universe and the Human Future," a book by Nancy Ellen Abrams and Joel Primack about new perspectives in cultural cosmology. I'll be sending him a copy, along with a pair of 3-D glasses and other goodies. Karl and Charles will be getting 3-D glasses as well. Click the "Like" button on the Cosmic Log Facebook page, and get ready for the next "Where in the Cosmos" contest in a week.
In addition to Graham and Forbes, authors of "LEDA 074886: A Remarkable Rectangular-Looking Galaxy" include Lee Spitler, Thorsten Lisker, Ben Moore and Joachim Janz.
Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding Cosmic Log's Google+ page to your circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.
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Maybe some beings giant space toy!
Stupid astronomers - looking at a square picture.
Just maybe, just maybe it being 70 million light years away they could be looking at it with the wrong lens at the wrong angle.
Right now a bunch of alien frat boys in a big gravity-tug ship are laughing at us.
They all look like Sponge Bob
Square? Geometry sure has changed since I was in high school. We were taught the shape of that galaxy is a rectangle. :p
The idea is that you're looking at this thing a bit side-on. As as I noted, it's probably not square or rectangular on a side, but more like a shallow cylinder projected onto two dimensions. I might sprinkle a few rectangles in there just to cover all the bases (as in a diamond), but please don't make me take out the reference to Huey Lewis and the News!
New meaning to Squares Vill , I guess ....
Thanks Alan ....
Aww come on Alan. Admit it. You excelled at school in writing but were terrible in math. Don't worry, there is no shame in that. You write magnificently! But just to point out, there are no diamonds in mathematics. That's for 6 year olds to believe in. A diamond is referred to as a rhombus, which coincidentally is like a crooked square. I believe the most accurate description would be a "superellipse". And if it were more square-like, you could have called it a "squircle". Now what would Huey think of that! :-)
"It's one of those things that just makes you smile because it shouldn't exist, or rather, you don't expect it to exist," Alister Graham, a professor at Australia's Swinburne University of Technology, said this week in a news release. "It's a little like the precarious Leaning Tower of Pisa, or the discovery of some exotic new species which at first glance appears to defy the laws of nature." This guy must not get out much, cause from what i have learned from living is that literally anything is possible.
Sure does mess up the big bang theory, doesn't it.
...how?
Duh, by proving that a Pie R Square, maybe Rectangularish Quote from the Santorum Institution for Space Cadet Math Theories
Jensen shaking in Boots, seeing if Life Insurance covers being Burned at the Stake...
Hahahaha....you guys are funny, thanks for the laugh!!! :)
No.
Pi are ROUND. CORNBREAD are SQUARED! Give the gummint of Tennessee a chance and we'll all be there.
Ha ha ha ...thanks for the witty repartee. I needed that. Rick scares me.
Delusional people will find any reason to reinforce and justify their current delusions, regardless of any rational thought proving them otherwise.
It's astounding to see people thought of as crazy just because their delusion isn't widely accepted by others, yet Christians believe that a man, by himself, built a boat large enough to carry all species on earth (supporting that mass alone would be an engineering impossibility), that a man suddenly rose from the dead, and that he could walk on water, or that another man parted the seas.
Any other statements like that in this day would land you straight in a mental asylum, yet because it's mass delusion, it's acceptable.
Religion needs to back away from making statements about the physical world and stick to philosophical statements. Science has proven religion wrong in every regard in all statements about the physical world. The only way religion will be able to survive is if it switches from a system of authority(It's this way because we said so) to philosophical mindset of beliefs on how you can make yourself a better person by not murdering, stealing, and respecting others.
Myth is a vital part of human culture, and the bible is exactly that, mythical story telling used as a medium to convey good morals upon others. The problem is when people take it for it's literal value.
kreuz - The text of the Bible nowhere suggests Noah built the ark by himself. After all, he did have a family and likely had great wealth to hire other workers. Besides, the Bible states that there were 120 years to build it before the flood came. Your statement about every species on the ark is false, since the Bible says every "kind" which is broader than the species level.
Regarding Jesus Christ, the evidence is overwhelming that He bodily rose from the dead, so you are on the wrong side of history. There were vast numbers of eyewitnesses of this fact, historians such as Josephus wrote of it, the whole world's calendar was reset because of it, and the tomb is EMPTY. Hardly the stuff of myth!
The Bible is not a science textbook, but where it speaks of the physical world it is accurate. It would be nice to see you back up your fallacious universal claim with some supporting evidence!
Science has claimed that the Big Bang is the origin of the universe, that all mass-energy came from a quantum fluctuation... i.e. nothing created everything. Do you think this is scientific?
Kruez, Although I agree with you in all respects, just what has that topic got to do with the story? you are just baiting the religous types. Keep to the subject please.
Hmm-m-m-m.....pi r round, brownies are square and now galaxies r 2...
I can not help but wounder how plazma cosmology might account for this structurecture and other galactic formations. Surely the great powers of electromagnetism and super sized plazma structures that are pervasive in gallactic structures have equal or greater influance on their formation as gravity. Also are its red shift properties in any way anomalous? The more we see the greater the diversity and wounderment.
Looks more like the shape of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway's track.
God is playing with his lego blocks and misplaced one.
I think you misplaced your article. What does impartiality have to do we a square galaxy? I was tempted to put scriptures that show the significance of the square and did not do so. Hopefully you posted here in error, because you are not doing God a service as you would think if it was the case that you did not post on error. Even Satan tried to misuse the Word against the Lord. Even in almost all college level general education courses, you have to take college composition; and to write an essay in college composition you have to have a thesis and then support it. If the thesis has to do with square, you sure picked the wrong scriptures to support it.
To the guy quoting the bible. Fox news isn't spelled msnbc.
i wish they could figure the demensions on this. that would be cool.
see previous post, obviously photonic camera artifact. WE need to see this in all possible energies, maybe that will shed some light on what we are seeing, else, I am the first to jump at the coke bottle goggle theories on what we see and what really is. Worth more than a glancing look, thanks Alan.
At this rate the human race will be lucky to survive another 100 years, when the galaxies collide I doubt there will be much if any life on earth to see what happens. Animals go extinct more and more often these days, too many people/animals and not enough resources to sustain them all. It's depressing. :/
Contrary to modern media's hysteria, there has been species dying throughout Earth's history, one day we will too. It's INCREDIBLY human-centric to think the cosmos cares about one little planet and it's inhabitants. Get over it, we ALL die sometime. That being said, just WHAT does that have to do with the article?
Get over what? I don't care what lives on earth thousands of years from now. I'll be dead by 2100, not losing any sleep over it. The article said,
"Curiously, if the orientation was just right, when our own disk-shaped galaxy collides with the disk-shaped Andromeda galaxy, about 3 billion years from now, we may find ourselves the inhabitants of a square-looking galaxy," Graham said. Maybe Huey Lewis was right: It's hip to be square."
The point is we won't be the inhabitants of anything, we will all be dead. I was making a comment that didn't require a response, but if you just WANT to be rude by all means go ahead.
Wrong Kayla30000. If you died without receiving Christ you would not be asleep but suffering eternal torment during the 1000 yrs reign without rest, just as everyone else that was not saved is suffering without rest. You just did not know it. Then after more or less 1000 yrs of torment without interruption you will be resurrected given a body, judged by Jesus; all your sins will be recorded in the books. The good you have done will avail to nothing. Next, your name will not be found in the book of Life because you did not believe. So Jesus will order His angels to cast you in the Lake of Fire where all the unbelieving like you are and the demons and the false prophet and the antichrist and the fallen angels and the devil - your father. This is your destiny if you do not believe and of course there are no showers, no food, no sleeping, etc. for ever. Everything I had told you is 100% scriptural.
And one more thing, the people on earth during the Millennial Kingdom will be enjoying life to the uttermost with Christ while the losers and the lost - you- will not be there but suffering. Then after 1000 yrs we will be enjoying a new heaven and earth while you enjoy a new Lake of Fire and we will not care about you or miss you but you sure will care forever and ever and ever.
By the way our Lord will fix the earth when He comes back and after a 1000 years He will destroy both this heaven and earth and create a new heaven and earth astoundingly fast - no evolution, so where are your vain words that there will be nothing? The soul and spirit are indestructible only material things get burned up. He tells galaxies what to do and they obey Him.
I never said my religious beliefs but I'm pretty sure calling people you don't know 'damned' and harping on about how you won't miss us is judgemental and goes against your own precious beliefs about 'thou shalt not judge' and pretty much the opposite of what a 'good' Christian believes in.
You should be more 'concerned' about the fact that you are a hypocrite and yes you will go to Hell just like every other 'sinner' if there is an afterlife. If it takes a blathering religious nut such as yourself to tell me I'm going to Hell then somehow I'm not scared. Troll somewhere else.
To me it looks oblique, not rectangular, the interesting part to me is the other galaxy at the bottom with an obviously large black hole (assuming of course it is futher away than the one featured)
Oops.
The final phase of two galaxies merging?
Take two galaxies of similar size and superimpose them at about 45 degrees in the same plane and voila, a squarish result.
The ellipse at the center could indicate two black holes of equal strength.
Truly, "a marriage made in Heaven." :-)
The Borg, resistance is futile.
nice...
The Flat Earth Society will have no problem with a square galaxy.
So basically, what they are seeing is not what they are looking at and as is most often the case, they have no idea what it is they are observing.
I'd compare it to the Red Rectangle, where something takes a really wild shape when you see it in two dimensions, and becomes more understandable once you work out the three-dimensional dynamics behind it. But even then, it turns out to be really wild.
Those who look favorably upon the Bible and are inclined to accept Jesus Christ as God's Spokesman ought to be interested in knowing the Bible's view. You perhaps recall that Jesus once spoke of two roads, a "broad and spacious . . . road leading off into destruction" and a "cramped . . . road leading off into life." He explained how to identify those traveling on each road, saying: "By their fruits you will recognize them." By what kind of fruits? Not by what they say, but by what they do, as Jesus clarified: "Not everyone saying to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but the one doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens will." Professing belief in God is not enough. We must do God's will. Logically, we must first have accurate knowledge of what God's will is.—Matthew 7:13-23.
Jesus plainly showed that it is possible for humans to gain knowledge about God. He said: "This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ." (John 17:3) Clearly, we can acquire the wisdom and the knowledge that God reveals—but only if we exert ourselves in seeking such. However, God's gift to those who do so is everlasting life, so this search is surely worthwhile. - That means , if you have everlasting life , you will be able to make it to the most distant planet out there that can sustain human life .
Please see my comment #9.2
Ron, I understand what you are saying and its the Truth. But since this is about science. I like the whole book of Ecclesiastes, but 3:11 is Eternal. You can take all the knowledge, of every single person in the last 50 yrs that was needed just to take this one picture and put it into one brain. That "knowledge" would only take up a small fraction of the brains capability. Take Electricity, 70 yrs ago it would have taken the average person a little over a week to learn everything about electricity and electrical components. Now, you can spend half a lifetime on just one field and still not learn everything there is to learn about it. You just keep finding new things.
It's an optical illusion. I have cups where if you look at them on the side, the lines through the glass look like squares. In reality, they're sin waves wrapping around in a circle.
Mazes tried to split in two and found its forces lacked in fuel And as a matter evident the forces call was never sent Laughing stops to hide the news from peering voices next to rule So lost to find its queering mate the cause of fans to meet its fate just as time was never their for fainting planets left to glare A cost was mined into its way for spending time inside delay Its so I stay not to comform to ballish dreams and sights of more No to stay far from your rule as I am lost for anothers pool Feathered leeves of colored wands touching fortune left to calm Im sure to find the mess I ve made just as you have left this shade Gone I will travel alone for seed and make my waggle a thrust for need If not to care I might again but not for us or uplifting trails...
Huh!
My guess is that God is getting a great laught out of these humans who think they are so smart.
Yes, God find's it hilarious that half of humanity is stupid enough to believe in him.
inb4 another evangelical atheist comes in with a verbal religious crusade against your god comment
you know most atheists claim to be so smart because they dont believe in god yet they are so quick to bash your views just like an overly conservative christian
atheists think they dont represent a religion but they have a religion called atheism its based on faith it has followers and it obviously has preachers as kreuz pointed out by preaching against your comment
the best part about evangelical atheists is that they think youre an idiot for not thinking what they think yet they follow the same logic as a religious person that doesnt think what you think is proper so they bash you for believing something different fueling the cycle of intolorance that most religious extremists fuel
so is atheism the new islam? not yet but it could be in the future
"LEDA 074886 seems to have four rounded corners.” Maybe Steve Job’s Spirt is hanging out there, happily ever after!
The space program is nothing more than a waste of resources that could be used to feed and clothe the poor and the forgotton. I do not want to feed a drug addict's addiction, but the children of this person must be shown there is a better life. I believe in America having the most technologically advanced weapons that are available, but the fact is mankind has and always will be a violent being. When you have a weapon that can kill every human being several times over where do you go after that. Can another country develope a defense against an nuclear bomb, No, can a country actualy believe they could stop an insane person from spreading a bacterial or viral weapon that would devastate a whole countries inhabitants, No. Where does it end? The Bible states that in is appointed once onto man to be born and then to die. There is nothing else, yes we can prolong a man's life a few years thru modern medicine but for what advantage? you will still die. If we were to take the life of every person who murdered another would you stop murder? No. But you would stop that person from killing another person because it has been proven that once a person has killed another, it becomes easier the next time. How can anyone not believe in a being that created all that there is. You cannot explain humanity through evolution just as you cannot explain God thru creation. Human being's most intelligent people are as ignorant as a the least educated person, but they both serve a purpose in life. Humanity is a lost cause, do you not know that nothing can survive forever, even in the heaven's there is constant destruction. So what is left? Is it better to live and pray and serve a Creator who promises eternal life after death who's only requirement is that we love each other and take care of each other in order to obtain this? Think about the athiest who claims they do not believe in a Creator, he is a liar and he knows it, but unless a great tragety occurs in their life they will not admit that in their very inter-being they know the truth. Ecclesiastes 12;13-14
13 Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the duty of all mankind.
14 For God will bring every deed into judgment,
including every hidden thing,
whether it is good or evil.
What is so hard about this? It is because God knows that man will not listen to him.
Jerry-1927474, Distortions in thought content (delusions). Paranoid schizophrenia. delusions of persecution, grandiosity, or persecution, or both. Jerry-1927474 is very sick. A good State hospital candidate .
I must say that Jerry-1927474, Does sound like Paranoid schizophrenia. Most likely a danger to himself. Should be committed.
Jerry,,, As we speak others are laughing at you on other planets --- The internet is part of the Space Program, quit bitching
Jerry is YET another person who doesn't understand the total monies involved, and probably willfully chooses to do so. Then to start spouting religous references is NOT doing anything for his credibility....
It's George W. Bush's fault
Optical illusion?
Optical conclusion