Started This Blog Because Everyone Needs A Place To Dump Their Space Porn And YW Fandom Stuff....right?

Inside a Neutron Star

Credit: Karl Tate, via SPACE.com

New Galactic Supercluster Map Shows Milky Way’s ‘Heavenly’ Home

A new cosmic map is giving scientists an unprecedented look at the boundaries for the giant supercluster that is home to Earth’s own Milky Way galaxy and many others. Scientists even have a name for the colossal galactic group: Laniakea, Hawaiian for “immeasurable heaven.”

Image 1: Scientists have created the first map of a colossal supercluster of galaxies known as Laniakea, the home of Earth’s Milky Way galaxy and many other. This computer simulation, a still from a Nature journal video, depicts the giant supercluster, with the Milky Way’s location shown as a red dot. Credit: [Nature Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rENyyRwxpHo)

Image 2: This computer-generated depiction of the Laniakea Supercluster of galaxies, which includes the Milky Way galaxy containing Earth’s solar system, shows a view of the supercluster as seen from the supergalactic equatorial plane. Credit: SDvision interactive visualization software by DP at CEA/Saclay, France

The scientists responsible for the new 3D map suggest that the newfound Laniakea supercluster of galaxies may even be part of a still-larger structure they have not fully defined yet.

"We live in something called ‘the cosmic web,’ where galaxies are connected in tendrils separated by giant voids," said lead study author Brent Tully, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii at Honolulu.

Galactic structures in space

Galaxies are not spread randomly throughout the universe. Instead, they clump in groups, such as the one Earth is in, the Local Group, which contains dozens of galaxies. In turn, these groups are part of massive clusters made up of hundreds of galaxies, all interconnected in a web of filaments in which galaxies are strung like pearls. The colossal structures known as superclusters form at the intersections of filaments.

The giant structures making up the universe often have unclear boundaries. To better define these structures, astronomers examined Cosmicflows-2, the largest-ever catalog of the motions of galaxies, reasoning that each galaxy belongs to the structure whose gravity is making it flow toward.

"We have a new way of defining large-scale structures from the velocities of galaxies rather than just looking at their distribution in the sky," Tully said.

Okay, so I’ve just started Games Wizards Play book 10 in the Young Wizards series, which means it’s time for some thoughts on my FAAAAAAAV YA SERIES OF ALL TIME. (No offense HP, no offense)

ROSHAUN MY CHILD MY SON COME BACK TO ME!!! COME BACK TO ME BABY! IT HAS BEEN ONE WHOLE BOOK  AND HE’S NOT BACK YET I AM NOT OKAY! I AM NOT ALRIGHT! THE MADNESS MUST END! PLEASE GOD MAKE IT STOP JUST BRING BACK MY BABY PLEASE OH PLEASE OH PLEASE! WE LOST PONCH I CAN’T HAVE THIS TOO I CAN’T TAKE THIS OH GODDDDDDD *INCOHERENT SOBBING*

And I am done. This is basically my internal stream of consciousness all through A Wizard of Mars tbh. I have basically been a blithering, sobbing, screaming wreck since Wizards at War. Life’s been hard. And since my house burned down, I don’t even have my ENTIRE COMPLETE collection to reference : |

Some further reviews on the Young Wizards series:

So You Want To Be a Wizard…

You will cry because of a car

Deep Wizardry

You will cry because of a shark

High Wizardry

You will cry because of a space turtle

A Wizard Abroad

You will cry because of Ireland

A Wizard’s Dilemma

You will cry because of a parrot. Also cancer.

A Wizard Alone

You will cry because of autism

Wizard’s Holiday

You will cry because of a barren hellscape

Wizards at War

You will cry because of OH GOD NOT THE DOG PLEASE NOT THE DOG OH GOD NO

A Wizard of Mars

You will cry because you are no longer capable of feeling anything because the last book emotionally broke you.

Great series. 10/10. Would recommend to all your friends and loved ones and then you can all cry together.

So I recently got ebooks of the new revised versions of the Young Wizards series by Diane Duane because I loved the originals so much growing up and I wanted to reread them and see the changes (especially A Wizard Alone) and I was terribly unhappy to discover that the revised editions aren’t available in print in the US probably won’t be for years. But I’ve always wanted to learn book binding, so I’m just going to print out the ebook and attempt to make my own print copy. To that end I spent all day today rapturously fantasizing about end papers and book jackets. This started as an attempt at designing my own endpapers, but it may be a bit much for that actually…

This is a simulation of what scientists believe Jupiter’s atmosphere looks like from the inside. Source

"Don't be afraid to make corrections. Don't be afraid to lend a hand. And don't look down."

-- Peach (Machu Picchu); So You Want to Be a Wizard, by Diane Duane

I think this one might be my favorite book in the series...

Chapter Titles: Deep Wizardry

The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.

Neil deGrasse Tyson (via cynicsdream)

A Knot Zoo.