Sunday, February 21, 2010

Gluttonous Galaxy



Why is the Milky Way, in the night sky, perpindicular to our skyline? Why are we not oriented with the galactic plane?

If you're like me, you have been lost for several years and completely missed that it may be because our solar system is currently crucified on the planes of TWO galaxies. Yep, TWO GALAXIES. (excuse my CAPS, but this is really really surprising for me).





So, see the Milky Way above? And what's that other ringy thing that I HAVE NEVER EVER SEEN BEFORE? Why, its another galaxy being eaten by ours, of course! It's the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy- gone undetected by us because its stars can only be seen with infra red sight... (does this mean that insects see this thing in the night sky??)




See that yellow dot in the crosshairs of the Milky Way spiral arm and the debris from the SagDEG? That's the "You Are Here" dot.

For all sorts of theories on this:

Go Here, Here, Here, Here, ad nauseum.

HOLY SHIT

2 comments:

  1. LOVED this, B! So much that I had to use all caps myself! I had never heard of any mention at all of the Sag Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy and I am fascinated. Glad to know we speak the same language w/ this one. :) Great post!

    ~ Dawn

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  2. and how does this configure with 12-21-12?

    ReplyDelete