An old galaxy breaks cosmic records, producing new stars at a fast and furious pace in a new galaxy cluster.
Image courtesy of nuttakit / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
By Dianne E. Butts:
Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-Ray telescope have spotted a new galaxy cluster – the birth of many new stars–within the Pheonix galaxy.
Here are some interesting points from the article “Supermom galaxy birthing stars on cosmic scale discovered” posted on www.FoxNewx.com August 16, 2012.
- The galaxy is about 5.7 billion light years away
- It is at the center of a recently discovered cluster of galaxies that give off the brightest X-ray glow astronomers have seen.
- It is the biggest creation of stars that astronomers have seen for this kind of galaxy. (Other types, such as colliding galaxies, can produce more stars.)
This galaxy is considered fairly mature, “maybe 6 billion years old” the article says. At that stage, galaxies don’t usually do anything new. But this one is churning out stars at a rate never observed before: about 740 new stars per earth year. “By comparison, our Milky Way galaxy spawns just about one new star each year” according to the article.
The lead author of a study in the journal, Nature, Michael McDonald of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said, “It seems to have come back to life for some reason.”
Co-author of the study, Harvard University astronomer Ryan Foley, said the number of stars being produced is “very extreme. It pushes the boundaries of what we understand.”
According to Psalm 147:4, “[God] determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.”
God is also the only one who can bring someone, or something, back to life. As astrologers stare through their X-Ray telescope (and who knew there even was such a thing?), I hope they will think of the God who creates the stars. Then they will be finding God even in a new galaxy cluster.
© Dianne E. Butts. Dianne’s newest book is Grandparenting through Obstacles: Overcoming Family Challenges to Reach Your Grandchildren for Christ (Pix-N-Pens, August 2012). She wrote Deliver Me (CSPA “Book of the Year” and finalist for the 2012 Golden Scroll Nonfiction Book of the Year) for those who need to be delivered from the guilt or shame of an unplanned pregnancy—whether in their present or past. www.DeliverMeBook.blogspot.com
