Photo # 1 (July 2009)

NGC 6240: MERGING GALAXIES

The Rev. Fr. Thomas Berry, C.P. (November 9, 1914 – June 1, 2009) was a Catholic priest of the Passionist order, cultural historian and ecotheologian (although cosmologist and geologian — or “Earth scholar” — were his preferred descriptors).

Among advocates of deep ecology and "ecospirituality" he is famous for proposing that a deep understanding of the history and functioning of the evolving universe is a necessary inspiration and guide for our own effective functioning as individuals and as a species. He is considered a leader in the tradition of Teilhard de Chardin. (Wikipedia)

"If the dynamics of the universe from the beginning shaped the course of the heavens, lighted the sun, and formed the earth, if this same dynamism brought forth the continents and seas and atmosphere, if it awakened life in the primordial cell and then brought into being the unnumbered variety of living beings, and finally brought us into being and guided us safely through the turbulent centuries, there is reason to believe that this same guiding process is precisely what has awakened in us our present understanding of ourselves and our relationship to this stupendous process. Sensitized to such guidance form the very structure and functioning of the universe, we can have confidence in the future that awaits the human venture."

- Excerpted from "Some Thoughts on Thomas Berry's Contributions to the Western Spiritual Tradition"
by Rev. Matthew Fox, PhD (From Thought for the Day of Joel and Michelle Levey)

Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / STScI-ESA /
S. Bush, et al. (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA)

Explanation: NGC 6240 offers a rare glimpse of a cosmic catastrophe in its final throes. The titanic galaxy-galaxy collision is located a mere 400 million light-years away in the constellation Ophiuchus. One of the brightest sources in the infrared sky, the merging galaxies spew distorted tidal tails of stars, gas, and dust and undergo frantic bursts of star formation. The two supermassive black holes in the original galactic cores will also coalesce into a single, even more massive black hole. Soon, only one large galaxy will remain. This dramatic image of the scene is a multiwavelength composite; red colors trace infrared emission from dust recorded by the Spitzer Space Telescope, with Hubble visible light images of stars and gas in green and blue hues. The view spans over 300,000 light-years at the estimated distance of NGC 6240.

As on the front page of the IJHC-WHR eZines, we find the same patterns in the stars and galaxies that we find in nature on earth. We are one with the All.
                                  - Dan Benor, MD