Photo # 2 (Apr 2010)
THE HEART GALAXY AND BEYOND : MAFFEI 1 AND 2
The truth
is, there is no privileged revelation, no hidden knowledge reserved for
initiates only or an esoteric elite. Our cosmic connection is always
present
(hardwired in us by Nature herself) and absolutely inviolable. It is our
inalienable birthright. We need only claim it. Or reclaim it, as the
case may
be. For we are all natural sensitives – psychic from the start,
mystically
attuned to the larger rhythms of the cosmos since before our physical
birth and
forever after our physical death. Only we have forgotten.
- Joseph M. Felser
The Way Back to Paradise:
Restoring the
Balance between Magic and Reason
Credit: NASA,
JPL-Caltech, WISE Team
The green central image resembles an x-ray view of an animal heart.
The two galaxies on
the far left were unknown until 1968. Although they would have appeared
as two
of the brighter galaxies on the night sky, the opaque dust of the central band
of our Milky
Way
Galaxy had obscured
them from being seen in visible light. The above
image in infrared
light
taken by the recently launched Wide-Field Infrared
Survey
Explorer (WISE), finds
these galaxies in great
detail far
behind -- but seemingly next to -- the photogenic
Heart nebula
(IC 1805). The spiral
galaxy near the top is the easiest to spot and is known as Maffei 2. Just
below and to
its right is fuzzy-looking Maffei
1, the closest giant elliptical
galaxy to Earth. The above
false-colored
image spans three full
moons from top to bottom. The Maffei galaxies
each span
about 15,000 light years across and lie about 10 million light
years
away toward the constellation
of the Queen of Ethiopia
(Cassiopeia). On the image right, stars, gaseous filaments, and warm dust
highlight a detailed infrared
view of the Heart
nebula.
Gazing out into the vastness of cosmic space, we are
reminded of the vastness of the reach of our personal consciousness. We are
limited only by our disbeliefs in our personal powers of awareness.
- Dan Benor, MD
