Photo # 2 (Aug 2009)

LYMAN ALPHA BLOB

The universe is a living entity that is continuously sustained by the flow-through of phenomenal amounts of energy in an unutterably vast and intensely alive process of awesome precision and power. We are beings the universe inhabits as much as we are beings who inhabit the universe. (...) The 'power of now' derives from the fact that the entire universe arises in the Now as an extremely precise flow. When we are in the now, we are riding the wave of continuous creation. Each moment is a fresh formation of the universe, emerging seamlessly and flawlessly. (...) The understanding that most of our universe is invisible and all of it continuously emerges from nothing visible points to the existence of an extraordinarily powerful, generative ground. (...) I speak of the "Mother Universe." but what is being described is beyond words or concepts and beyond the space and time of our particular universe. The Mother Universe is nothing other than the infinitely subtle and creative ocean of aliveness in which we are immersed.
                                       - Duane Elgin, The Living Universe

Credit: NASA / ESA, CXC, JPL-Caltech, STScI,
NAOJ, J.E. Geach (Univ. Durham) et al.
Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss

Dubbed a Lyman-alpha blob, an enormous cloud of hydrogen gas spans several hundred thousand light-years in this remarkable image (left), a composite of x-ray, optical, and infrared data from space and ground based observatories. The gigantic, amoeba-like structure is seen as it was when the universe was a mere 2 billion years old (about 12 billion years ago). Lyman-alpha blobs are so called because they strongly emit radiation due to the Lyman-alpha emission line of hydrogen gas. Normally, Lyman-alpha emission is in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum, but Lyman-apha blobs are so distant, their light is redshifted to (longer) optical wavelengths. X-ray data (blue) indicates the presence of a supermassive black hole feeding at the center of an active galaxy embedded in the blob. Illustrated close up in the right hand panel, radiation and outflows from the active galaxy are thought to be a source for energizing and heating the blob's hydrogen gas. In fact, Lyman-alpha blobs could represent an early phase in galaxy formation where the heating is so great it begins to limit further rapid growth of active galaxies and their supermassive black holes.

We humans are energy as well a matter. We are a part of All That Is. Just as we can be influenced by distant planets and stars, so too can we contribute to the deepening of understanding of All That Is through the lessos of our experiences and our responses to them.

There is an incredible, growing community of people motivated to heal the misdirected energies of our elected governmental representatives. See, for instance, the wonderful array of groups coming together for planetary healing on www.wiserearth.com.
                                       - Dan Benor, MD