Master of The Universe: 2 Galaxies

A galaxy is a system of stars, dust, and gas held together by gravity.

Scientists estimate that there are more than 100 billion galaxies scattered throughout the visible universe. Astronomers have photographed millions of them through telescopes. The most distant galaxies ever photographed are as far as 10 billion to 13 billion light-years away. A light-year is the distance that light travels in a vacuum in a year -- about 5.88 trillion miles (9.46 trillion kilometers).

Galaxies are normally found in groups called clusters. A cluster may contain from a few dozen to several thousand galaxies. Clusters of galaxies, in turn, are grouped in larger structures called superclusters.

The Milky Way Galaxy

The Milky Way is a galaxy -- a huge group of stars and other objects in space. The Milky Way includes the Sun, the Earth, and the rest of our Solar System. It also includes hundreds of billions of stars. Huge clouds of dust and gases lie throughout the galaxy.

The Milky Way galaxy is shaped like a disk with a bulge in the center.

The Milky Way - An impression

The Spiral Galaxy

A spiral galaxy is shaped like a disk with a bulge in the center. The disk resembles a pinwheel, with bright spiral arms that coil out from the central bulge. The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy.

Like pinwheels, all spiral galaxies rotate -- but slowly. The Milky Way, for example, makes a complete revolution once every 250 million years or so.

Elliptical galaxies range in shape from almost perfect spheres to flattened globes. The light from an elliptical galaxy is brightest in the center.

Galaxies of a third kind, irregular galaxies, lack a simple shape. Some consist mostly of blue stars and puffy clouds of gas, but little dust. The Magellanic Clouds are irregular galaxies of this type

Origin of Galaxies: Shortly after the big bang, masses of gas began to gather together or collapse. Gravity then slowly compressed these masses into galaxies.

Whirlpool galaxy

Eagle Galaxy

A Zoo of Galaxies

Sombrero Galaxy

Do you know that Planets are named after Greek Gods & Goddess.

Mercury - Mercury represents the messenger god, Hermes, because Mercury revolves around the sun the fastest and Hermes was known to be swift of foot

Venus - Venus represents the goddess of love & beauty, Aphrodite. Venus is known as the most beautiful planet in the solar system, thus it's named after the goddess of beauty.

Earth - Earth represents Terra. From what I understand, she was a goddess of land.

Mars - Mars represents the god of war, Ares. Mars of course is red which is also the color of war (symbolic of blood). The two moons of Mars are named after the two sons of Ares, Phobos and Deimos

Jupiter - Jupiter represents the ruler of the gods, Zeus. The planet is the largest and most magnificent which is representative of the great Zeus. Jupiter has 16 moons. The 4 largest are named after some of Zeus' affairs, Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. The other 12 moons represent more of Zeus' lovers, a few of his children, and others linked the great god. They are: Adrasta, Amalthea, Ananke, Carme, Elara, Himalia, Leda, Lysithia, Metis, Pasiphae, Thebe, and Sinope.

Saturn - Saturn represents the father of Zeus, Cronus. The 18 moons surrounding Saturn are named after various Titans, Gods, Goddesses, and other important figures in Greek mythology. They are: Atlas, Calypso, Dione, Enceladus, Epimetheus, Helene, Hyperion, Iapetus, Janus, Mimas, Pan, Pandora, Phoebe, Prometheus, Rhea, Telesto, Tethys, and Titan.

Uranus - stands for starry sky and thought to have come out from earth

Neptune - Neptune of course represents the god of the sea, Poseidon. I think the reason for this is because it's a blue planet and the sea looks blue under the sky. Neptune's largest moon is named after Poseidon's son, Triton. The rest are named after sea nymphs and others associated with the water. They are: Despina, Galatea, Larissa, Naiad, Neried, Proteus, and Thalassa.

Pluto - Pluto represents the god of the dead and underworld, Hades. It's the coldest and most desolate of the planets. Very appropriate for representing the cold, desolate state of being we call death. It's one moon is named after the ferryman of the dead, Charon.

The Mythologies of Greek and Roman Times are far more complex and warped than the brief description above.

Planets and Their Influence on you Zodiac Signs

What are Ruling Planets?:
Each of the planets has rulership over one or two of the Zodiac signs.

How were Ruling Planets assigned to the Zodiac Signs?:
Based on their observations over time of qualities and "energies" of both the planets and the Zodiac signs, early astrologers started to match them up.

When were they first assigned? :
Some have remained unchanged since the earliest days of Astrology, while other pairings were made after the discovery of Uranus in 1781, Neptune in 1846 and Pluto in 1930. The discovery of Chiron in 1977 and the recent demotion of Pluto to dwarf planet may alter these associations further.

What does it mean that a planet is "Ruler" of a particular sign?:

It means that the Ruling Planet, and all its energies, are in charge and is the primary influence. For example, if your Sun is in Gemini, the influence of Mercury prevails as far as your Sun sign is concerned. The "energy" of the Sun is harnessed by Mercury, whose influence overrules the Sun's unique qualities, and determine the way that solar power is expressed.

The Sun rules Leo.
The Moon rules Cancer.
Mercury rules Gemini and
Virgo.
Venus rules Taurus and Libra.
Mars rules Aries and
Scorpio.
Jupiter rules Sagittarius.
Saturn rules Capricorn.
Uranus
rules Aquarius.
Neptune rules Pisces.
Pluto rules Scorpio.

Constellations & Zodiac

Constellations are not real. They are totally imaginary things that poets, farmers and astronomers made up over the past 6000 years by breaking up the sky into manageable bits, more like diagrams to help them locate the stars they see above.

The accepted view is they have been used by farmers and travellers to know the times for harvest and identify their location on earth.

Today Stars are named according to their coordinates eg NTTS 045251+3015. (IAU), definitely less mysterious and less romatic as those named by the Greeks, Romans and Arabs.

Different constellations may be viewed in different months of the year, and over time they become associated with human birth and horoscopes.

Enjoy some Kagaya Art depicting Constellations and the Zodiac.

How was the Earth Formed ?

The Solar System is believed to be formed during the explosion of a nearby Star (A Supernova). From the clouds of gas and dust, gravity pulled them together forming a solar nebula and gradually from these our sun, planets and moons were formed.

The inner core of planets around the Sun became rocky and could stand the heat from the Sun. Those Planets formed in the Outer Core coalesced in gas Planets. The Sun with its mass pulled most of the Planets and dusts (asteroids) into an elliptical path around it.

Our Sun is estimated to have another 5 Billion years of life when it will eventually become a Red Giants sucking all the planets and dust into it. Planet Earth would probably be destroyed by then.

How LIfe Began on Earth ?

The Earth, the Sun and our whole Solar System was formed some 4.5 billion years ago. Earth was an inhospitable place, however as the Earth cools down, and the land masses formed, somehow the basic elements of Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen combined to form organic matter (now indentified as Stromatolites, Cyanobacteria) which could tap the energy locked in the elements and molecules particularly breaking down Methane and Carbon Dioxide releasing Oxygen.

Over the billions of years, Oxygen accumulated in the Atmosphere, providing for an environment for Organic Matter to further evolve into microorganisms and developing the ability to multiply. Diversity and Complxities of Life has already been proven to have existed some 550 million years ago.