Poetic, Inspirational Living

This image of a ‘death star’ galaxy firing a jet of radiation at its neighbouring galaxy is the first time such behaviour has been recorded. Images of jets have been caught on camera, but never with another galaxy on the receiving end of one. To find out more about the science, read up on it on the NASA sight.

Besides the spectacular beauty of these images, I find the media coverage it’s receiving strange. It keeps being referred to as an act of violence. Yahoo New’s article starts off with “The latest act of senseless violence caught on tape is cosmic in scope…” - as if somehow this is intentional. The researchers involved in its discovery are describing it themselves as “A truly extraordinary act of violence” and while it is a violent act, it’s not intentional. There is something disturbing about attributing negative, human behaviour to this event.

Rather it should be seen as a great deveopemnt for science. NASA website has posted this:

Jets produced by super massive black holes transport enormous amounts of energy far from black holes and enable them to affect matter on scales vastly larger than the size of the black hole. Learning more about jets is a key goal for astrophysical research.

Violence sells, I know. But so does inspiration and development.

(Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/D.Evans et al.; Optical/UV: NASA/STScI; Radio: NSF/VLA/CfA/D.Evans et al., STFC/JBO/MERLIN )