Photo # 2 (Apr 2010)

THE HEART GALAXY AND BEYOND : MAFFEI 1 AND 2

The truth is, there is no privileged revelation, no hidden knowledge reserved for initiates only or an esoteric elite. Our cosmic connection is always present (hardwired in us by Nature herself) and absolutely inviolable. It is our inalienable birthright. We need only claim it. Or reclaim it, as the case may be. For we are all natural sensitives – psychic from the start, mystically attuned to the larger rhythms of the cosmos since before our physical birth and forever after our physical death. Only we have forgotten.

- Joseph M. Felser
  The Way Back to Paradise:
    Restoring the Balance between Magic and Reason

Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, WISE Team

The green central image resembles an x-ray view of an animal heart. The two galaxies on the far left were unknown until 1968. Although they would have appeared as two of the brighter galaxies on the night sky, the opaque dust of the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy had obscured them from being seen in visible light. The above image in infrared light taken by the recently launched Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), finds these galaxies in great detail far behind -- but seemingly next to -- the photogenic Heart nebula (IC 1805). The spiral galaxy near the top is the easiest to spot and is known as Maffei 2. Just below and to its right is fuzzy-looking Maffei 1, the closest giant elliptical galaxy to Earth. The above false-colored image spans three full moons from top to bottom. The Maffei galaxies each span about 15,000 light years across and lie about 10 million light years away toward the constellation of the Queen of Ethiopia (Cassiopeia). On the image right, stars, gaseous filaments, and warm dust highlight a detailed infrared view of the Heart nebula.

Gazing out into the vastness of cosmic space, we are reminded of the vastness of the reach of our personal consciousness. We are limited only by our disbeliefs in our personal powers of awareness.

                                                          - Dan Benor, MD