Re: ASTRONOMY: Engineered Galaxy?

From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Sun Sep 08 2002 - 08:05:32 MDT


On Sun, 8 Sep 2002, louisnews Newstrom wrote:

> I judge "not". See http://heritage.stsci.edu/2002/21/supplemental.html.

Actually, the URL of more interest is:
  http://heritage.stsci.edu/2002/21/lucas.html

It may indicate that the Hoag galaxy is not so unusual after all.

It does provide a distance to the object -- 600 million l.y.
I personally would not launch replicators across that distance
given that there are much nearer fish to fry.

> It is NOT unusual to see galaxies laid out in this manner. In fact, the
> picture of Hoag's Object you gave us has a second such galaxy.

Good point -- raises the issue of whether multiple entities
engineer their galaxies in this general direction.

> The only unusual part about Hoag's Object is that the cause of this
> formation is not known. Other galaxies laid out in this manner can be
> explained by nearby phenomenon.

Of course any intelligence would want to take advantage of
local resources. Would engineered galactic collisions be
a reasonable strategy?

> With many examples of this kind of galaxy, seeing one with no visible
> cause does not make me leap to the conclusion of engineering.

No, of course not -- but does it lead you to want to investigate
the galaxy further?

Robert



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