(05-10-2011, 08:42 AM)zenmaster Wrote: The logical explanation is that these are not actually elliptical galaxies; they are the tightly wound, rapidly rotating, giant spirals which have reached the end of the road as galaxies and are ready to take the next step in the evolutionary cycle.
I wonder what the next stage for galaxies is, given the fact that they usually hold black holes in their centers (I think)!!
Guys, any correlation from the following with the spiritual knowledge of the LOO --
Quote:How The Milky Way Was Built
Practically every star you see on a clear dark night lives in the galaxy we call home – the Milky Way. But how did it all get here? How did the simplest ingredients form the vast structure we see today?
1) Sowing the seeds
After the Big Bang, huge clouds of hydrogen and helium and small amounts of lithium filled the Universe. These are the basic ingredients needed to make stars – and therefore galaxies. Small fluctuations in density throughout the Universe, left over from right after the Big Bang, caused parts of these clouds to collapse under gravity. This collapse would have been aided by the added gravitational influence of dark matter similarly clumping together due to the density fluctuations, or waves. The seeds of the Milky Way had been sown.
2) Let there be light
Around 200 million years after the Big Bang, the first stars are thought to have formed, as the pressure and temperature at the centres of the collapsing clouds became great enough to begin nuclear fusion reactions. Around 500 million years after the Big Bang, the first galaxies would have emerged as small, irregular gatherings of stars. If we could go back in time, we would see vast networks of young galaxies spread throughout space. Somewhere in this cosmic web are the smaller, ‘building block’ galaxies from which the Milky Way was formed.
3) From small beginnings
Today’s most widely accepted theory of how the galaxies we see today were formed suggests that they were created by much smaller galaxies coalescing. Observations made by the Hubble Space Telescope support this idea, as they seem to show this process happening in the early Universe. Our Milky Way probably formed by drawing in stars and other material from these smaller galaxies.
4) An early elliptical
As smaller galaxies merged together, they probably formed a larger elliptical galaxy – the first sign of the Milky Way’s ‘body’. Soon objects called globular clusters appeared. These are very tightly packed balls of stars that are today found sprinkled, like a swarm of bees, around the Galaxy. Studies show that they are over 10 billion years old.
5) Growing arms
The Milky Way is thought to have two main spiral arms. They are made of countless stars and are formed by a density wave rippling throughout the disc of the Galaxy. As the wave moves around the Galaxy, it encourages the gas clouds within the disc to collapse, causing new stars to form. However, to make the stars in the spiral arms, galaxies need fuel in the form of hydrogen gas. It’s likely that, as the Milky Way was growing it drew in lots of gas to create the new stars – and therefore the spiral arms – we see today.
6) Meetings with other galaxies
Even today, the Milky Way is interacting and growing by eating smaller ‘dwarf’ galaxies nearby. In fact, in the last 15 years, astronomers have found the leftovers of these dwarf galaxies being slowly incorporated into the Milky Way. One of the dwarf galaxies, found in 2003, has left a trail of stars throughout the Galaxy as the Milky Way’s gravity rips it apart.
7) Modern day maelstrom
Today the Milky Way is home to between 200 and 400 billion stars, countless gas clouds and vast streams of interstellar dust. Travelling at the speed of light, it would take around 100,000 years to cross. Yet there is still so much astronomers don’t know about it.
source: http://bbcknowledge.com/asia/liberating/...was-built/