Spirals inside spiral inside spirals and so on... embedded in a hierarchical manner
...At the very centre of the Whirlpool galaxy there exists a spiral
structure. In no way it indicates that gases and stars are moving in any
circular orbits around the galactic center. The motions appear to be complexly
intertwined with the bifurcated branching arms, very similar to what one sees in
the cores of the turbulent whirlpools.
...Our own Milky Way galaxy, which is also a spiral galaxy, shows the presence
of a spiral structure at its center. In fact, there exists mini-spiral embedded
inside another spiral, which is embedded inside another spiral, and so on,
inside the nuclear region of our galaxy. It clearly shows that the model of the
galaxies and the motions of the stars and gases, which the Astrophysicists have
been using so far, may have weak foundation in reality. Presently the popular
theory about the formation of the spiral arms in the galaxies is known as the
density wave theory. The arms are believed to have formed by a wave moving
through the disk of matter, where gases were more homogeneously distributed in
the past. The wave has caused disturbances and generated ripples on the disk
giving rise to the spiral arms. The origin of such waves, and how the waves are
maintained for billions of years can not be answered by such models. In the case
of the Whirlpool galaxy, the smaller companion galaxy, known as NGC 5195, is
believed to have caused the disturbance in the bigger galaxy and thus generated
its spiral arms. All the peculiarities seen at the nuclei of galaxies, like the
presence of two distinct cores in many cases, are explained away with the idea
that the galaxy may have swallowed another smaller galaxy in the past, or may
be, two galaxies have once collided in the past before merging into one system.
...Cartwheel galaxy is another very good example which illustrates how the large cosmic structures embed self-similar structures in smaller and smaller scales. This galaxy lies in the constellation Sculptor. It is a faint galaxy which is difficult to observe without the use of professional telescopes. It is named Cartwheel because of its unique shape, which resembles the form of a wheel of a cart when viewed through the telescope. There is an inner ring within a large outer ring. Inside the inner ring lies the nucleus of the galaxy. The inner ring is connected with the outer ring, which appears as the rim of a wheel, with structures that remind the observer about the spokes in a wheel.
...The universe seems to create structures by embedding a universal pattern within each other. The large pattern carries a similar pattern in its womb as its daughter. The daughter in turn carries a similar pattern as its daughter, who in turn carries even smaller copy of the pattern in its womb and so on. One can see this hierarchical building of cosmic structures in the Cartwheel galaxy.
Inside the nucleus of the Cartwheel galaxy one can discover smaller and smaller structures, which resemble the large pattern, which is revealed in the dark field of the sky around the galaxy. There seems to exist a rule which the universe, when constructing the cosmic structures, does not seem to violate. The rule involves scaling and rotation - more like rings inside rings. These rings have “spokes” or tentacles. Some of the tentacles move outward and some point inward. With the outward tentacles the rings get connected with the even larger rings, inside which they themselves are embedded. Using the inwardly pointing tentacles they connect with the smaller rings existing in their own wombs. This hierarchical way of building a grand pattern by enwombing the same design in larger and larger, as well as smaller and smaller scales, seems to be a universal characteristic of structure formation in the cosmos.
This hierarchical building method of the universe can be seen in the
Cartwheel galaxy, by exploring deeper and deeper within the nucleus of the
galaxy. At the deep heart of the nucleus one finds the design, which appears to
be a spiral. This spiral structure lies at the foundations of all turbulence we
observe around us on Earth. In fact, the Maxi- Cartwheel structure, which embeds
the Cartwheel galaxy as a small structure near its center, is nothing but a
complex knitting of filamentary flows, which universally form the structures of
all turbulent flows. The structure we see is a typical structure one very often
sees in different galaxies one may observe. Not only in galaxies even in
clusters of galaxies and superclusters one can see this structure to appear
again and again...
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Copyright ©2006 Anup Rej, All Rights Reserved.
