But once the larva passes through the surface and flies away as a dragonfly, there is no return. The larvae in the water will never hear the story of life on the other side. Time then replaces space and all possible paths point inwards, the flow of time carrying everything towards an inescapable end at the singularity figure 2.
You will not feel anything if you fall through the event horizon of a supermassive black hole. From the outside, no one can see you falling in and your journey towards the horizon continues forever. Peering into a black hole is not possible within the laws of physics; black holes hide all their secrets behind their event horizons.
Even though we cannot see the black hole, it is possible to establish its properties by observing how its colossal gravity directs the motions of the surrounding stars. Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez each lead separate research groups that explore the centre of our galaxy, the Milky Way. Shaped like a flat disc about , light years across, it consists of gas and dust and a few hundred billion stars; one of these stars is our Sun figure 3. From our vantage point on Earth, enormous clouds of interstellar gas and dust obscure most of the visible light coming from the centre of the galaxy.
Using the orbits of the stars as guides, Genzel and Ghez have produced the most convincing evidence yet that there is an invisible supermassive object hiding there. A black hole is the only possible explanation. For more than fifty years, physicists have suspected that there may be a black hole at the centre of the Milky Way.
Ever since quasars were discovered in the early s, physicists reasoned that supermassive black holes might be found inside most large galaxies, including the Milky Way. However, no one can currently explain how the galaxies and their black holes, between a few million and many billion solar masses, were formed. One hundred years ago, the American astronomer Harlow Shapley was the first to identify the centre of the Milky Way, in the direction of the constellation of Sagittarius.
Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez each started projects to attempt to see through the dust clouds to the heart of the Milky Way. Along with their research groups, they developed and refined their techniques, building unique instruments and committing themselves to long-term research.
Figure 3. The Milky Way, our galaxy, seen from above. It is shaped like a flat disc about , light-years across. Its spiral arms are made of gas and dust and a few hundred billion stars. One of these stars is our Sun. Its mirrors are almost 10 metres in diameter and are currently among the largest in the world. Each mirror is like a honeycomb, consisting of 36 hexagonal segments that can be controlled separately to better focus the starlight.
However big the telescopes, there is always a limit to the detail they can resolve because we live at the bottom of an almost kilometre-deep atmospheric sea. This is why the stars twinkle and also why their images are blurred. The advent of adaptive optics was crucial in improving observations. For almost thirty years, Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez have followed their stars in the distant stellar jumble at the centre of our galaxy.
They continue to develop and refine the technology, with more sensitive digital light sensors and better adaptive optics, so that image resolution has improved more than a thousandfold. The researchers track some thirty of the brightest stars in the multitude.
The stars move most rapidly within a radius of one light-month from the centre, inside which they perform a busy dance like that of a swarm of bees.
The stars that are outside this area, on the other hand, follow their elliptical orbits in a more orderly manner figure 4. One star, called S2 or S-O2, completes an orbit of the centre of the galaxy in less than 16 years. This is an extremely short time, so the astronomers were able to map its entire orbit.
Figure 4. The agreement between the measurements of the two teams was excellent, leading to the conclusion that the black hole at the centre of our galaxy should be equivalent to around 4 million solar masses, packed into a region the size of our solar system. This is next on the list because, just over a year ago, the Event Horizon Telescope astronomy network succeeded in imaging the closest surroundings of a supermassive black hole.
A Generic black suit and a comb-over. This is also useful for identifying slaves to the man. Approximately 75, light years.
To give an idea of how far that is. A beam of light will travel around the Earth 8 times in one second. So light from the far side of the galaxy left when man was first creating tools from flint. The word is 'Heroine'. He, referring to a man, Her, referring to a woman, Hero, referring to a great man, Heroine, referring to a great woman.
All of the galaxies we can see outside of our local 'cluster' are moving away from us, The majority of other galaxies are moving away from us. Log in. Earth Sciences. Milky Way Galaxy. Study now. See Answer. Best Answer. Study guides. Astronomy 20 cards. How long does it take for the solar system to make one orbit around the Milky Way galactic center. What layer of the sun moves heat from the radiative layer to the photosphere. Which of these determines the intensity of a volcano.
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The most obvious difference between the terrestrial and the jovian planets is. Q: Which man is resposible for identifying the milky way galaxy? Write your answer Related questions. Which man is responsible for identifying the milky way galaxy? What man is responsible for identifying the milky way galaxy?
Which man was responsible for identifying the Milky Way Galaxy? What man is responsible for identifying the milky way? Is galaxy bigger than milky way? Experiments conducted under conditions intended to resemble those present on primitive Earth have resulted in the production of some of the chemical components of proteins, DNA, and RNA.
Some of these molecules also have been detected in meteorites from outer space and in interstellar space by astronomers using radiotelescopes. Scientists have concluded that the "building blocks of life" could have been available early in Earth's history. An important new research avenue has opened with the discovery that certain molecules made of RNA, called ribozymes, can act as catalysts in modern cells. It previously had been thought that only proteins could serve as the catalysts required to carry out specific biochemical functions.
Thus, in the early prebiotic world, RNA molecules could have been "autocatalytic"--that is, they could have replicated themselves well before there were any protein catalysts called enzymes. Laboratory experiments demonstrate that replicating autocatalytic RNA molecules undergo spontaneous changes and that the variants of RNA molecules with the greatest autocatalytic activity come to prevail in their environments. Some scientists favor the hypothesis that there was an early "RNA world," and they are testing models that lead from RNA to the synthesis of simple DNA and protein molecules.
These assemblages of molecules eventually could have become packaged within membranes, thus making up "protocells"--early versions of very simple cells.
For those who are studying the origin of life, the question is no longer whether life could have originated by chemical processes involving nonbiological components.
The question instead has become which of many pathways might have been followed to produce the first cells. Will we ever be able to identify the path of chemical evolution that succeeded in initiating life on Earth?
Scientists are designing experiments and speculating about how early Earth could have provided a hospitable site for the segregation of molecules in units that might have been the first living systems. The recent speculation includes the possibility that the first living cells might have arisen on Mars, seeding Earth via the many meteorites that are known to travel from Mars to our planet.
Of course, even if a living cell were to be made in the laboratory, it would not prove that nature followed the same pathway billions of years ago. But it is the job of science to provide plausible natural explanations for natural phenomena. The study of the origin of life is a very active research area in which important progress is being made, although the consensus among scientists is that none of the current hypotheses has thus far been confirmed.
The history of science shows that seemingly intractable problems like this one may become amenable to solution later, as a result of advances in theory, instrumentation, or the discovery of new facts. Creationist Views of the Origin of the Universe, Earth, and Life Many religious persons, including many scientists, hold that God created the universe and the various processes driving physical and biological evolution and that these processes then resulted in the creation of galaxies, our solar system, and life on Earth.
This belief, which sometimes is termed "theistic evolution," is not in disagreement with scientific explanations of evolution.
Indeed, it reflects the remarkable and inspiring character of the physical universe revealed by cosmology, paleontology, molecular biology, and many other scientific disciplines. The advocates of "creation science" hold a variety of viewpoints. Some claim that Earth and the universe are relatively young, perhaps only 6, to 10, years old.
These individuals often believe that the present physical form of Earth can be explained by "catastrophism," including a worldwide flood, and that all living things including humans were created miraculously, essentially in the forms we now find them. Other advocates of creation science are willing to accept that Earth, the planets, and the stars may have existed for millions of years. But they argue that the various types of organisms, and especially humans, could only have come about with supernatural intervention, because they show "intelligent design.
This document has summarized the vast amount of evidence for the great age of the universe, our galaxy, the solar system, and Earth from astronomy, astrophysics, nuclear physics, geology, geochemistry, and geophysics.
Independent scientific methods consistently give an age for Earth and the solar system of about 5 billion years, and an age for our galaxy and the universe that is two to three times greater. These conclusions make the origin of the universe as a whole intelligible, lend coherence to many different branches of science, and form the core conclusions of a remarkable body of knowledge about the origins and behavior of the physical world.
Nor is there any evidence that the entire geological record, with its orderly succession of fossils, is the product of a single universal flood that occurred a few thousand years ago, lasted a little longer than a year, and covered the highest mountains to a depth of several meters. On the contrary, intertidal and terrestrial deposits demonstrate that at no recorded time in the past has the entire planet been under water.
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