Submitter must be happy that his mother has been found.

FTFA:Such a feature, which astronomers call a "boxy"

me texan: FTFA:Such a feature, which astronomers call a "boxy"

YOUS BE TROLLIN!

/just waiting for that pic

Hotdog in a hallway indeed!

me texan: FTFA:Such a feature, which astronomers call a "boxy"

DANG, beat me to it.....

Well i guess One big one is better than 7 small ones......

Man, that galaxy is pretty.

I was going to say something along the lines of "Gee, I would have thought Courtney Love's vagina would have been bigger than that, and on earth."

but alas, the mother's vagina card has been played

JC

Reminds me of a picture I saw once. It was a long, narrow box that extended to the horizon with the visible end labeled: "Contents: One Infinite Universe. Open other end.". It was funnier to actually see it.

I came for the following references:

Boxy
Subby's mom
Colloquialism that references female anatomy

I'm leaving immensely satisfied after just 4 posts.

When I was little my mother told me the best way to make myself feel better was to write down all the things wrong with me and put them in a box and look at them another day to see if I had improved. I wrote lots of things and put it in that box, but lost it ...

glad to see it's been found.

Who ordered the 50,000 light-year box of rape?

Do astrophysicists ever figure anything out? Or do they only find stuff they've no explanation for?

looks like the dust follows the usual shape of stars that go nova, but on a galactic scale. You can see a slight parabolic curve going from the galactic center out to the poles - must be a big and stable super-massive singularity in the center of that one.

When staring directly at the centre of the galaxy, one can detect a faint, ethereal "X"-shaped structure.

Quick to the Exoship Professor X has signled us X-Men and needs us in the X Galaxy.

My first thought upon reading the headline was "Borg Cube!"

Then I RTFA and don't know what to think.

That's where it went. I thought it might have been sucked into a black hole.

but is less common in spirals with arms tightly wrapped around a more prominent bulge,

Should I not be turned on by that?

Contrabulous Flabtraption: Do astrophysicists ever figure anything out? Or do they only find stuff they've no explanation for?

It's not an easy task, but my guess would be that if you viewed it face on it would take on a roughly donut shape (a torus). Thus it is likely an artifact of galactic mergers, or, rather, galactic cannibalization. If a small, dense galaxy were slowly stripped apart as it circled the center of the larger, more diffuse yet more massive parent galaxy, it might leave a trail similar to this, and, over time, it could diffuse into a pattern that has this shape when viewed from the side. Conversely, if a dense companion galaxy pulled on a dense parent galaxy, it might pull the spiral arms out, leaving a halo where there used to be spiral arms, in a roughly torus-shaped ring. Or it could also be a coincidence, and there are in fact 2 ring-like planes of gas crossing the center at an angle that makes it seems as if it is a box or torus, with the diffuse area above and below the galactic plane adding to the illusion by filling out the center. Like I said, it's not an easy task to prove one thing or another, but with powerful and accurate computer simulations, one might be able to discern the cause.

I think we should avoid that low sec space. Even with that huge cargo container.I just got a new implant and and finished paying off my mining barge, and I don't want to get blow to hell by a fleet of Amarr Zealots.

Opps sorry thought that was an eve online ad.

Contrabulous Flabtraption: Do astrophysicists ever figure anything out? Or do they only find stuff they've no explanation for?

It takes longer to make sense of things happening so far away than saying "God did it, QED," so there's some patience involved.

And god damn, galaxies are beautiful. I love em.

Hey, that's my box! I left it in the Universe; that's where I keep all my stuff.

And then I read the article.

FTA:

Still an astrophysical mystery, the evolution of the bulges in spiral galaxies led astronomers to the edge-on galaxy NGC 4710. When staring directly at the centre of the galaxy, one can detect a faint, ethereal "X"-shaped structure. Such a feature, which astronomers call a "boxy" or "peanut-shaped" bulge, is due to the vertical motions of the stars in the galaxy's bar and is only evident when the galaxy is seen edge-on. This curiously shaped puff is often observed in spiral galaxies with small bulges and open arms, but is less common in spirals with arms tightly wrapped around a more prominent bulge, such as NGC 4710. Credit: NASA & ESA

When staring directly at the centre of the galaxy, one can detect a faint, ethereal "X"-shaped structure. Such a feature, which astronomers call a "boxy" or "peanut-shaped" bulge, is due to the vertical motions of the stars in the galaxy's bar and is only evident when the galaxy is seen edge-on. This curiously shaped puff is often observed in spiral galaxies with small bulges and open arms, but is less common in spirals with arms tightly wrapped around a more prominent bulge, such as NGC 4710. Credit: ESA/Hubble

When staring directly at the centre of the galaxy, one can detect a faint, ethereal "X"-shaped structure. Such a feature, which astronomers call a "boxy" or "peanut-shaped" bulge, is due to the vertical motions of the stars in the galaxy's bar and is only evident when the galaxy is seen edge-on. This curiously shaped puff is often observed in spiral galaxies with small bulges and open arms, but is less common in spirals with arms tightly wrapped around a more prominent bulge, such as NGC 4710.


Nice editing, guys.

Quasar: Contrabulous Flabtraption: Do astrophysicists ever figure anything out? Or do they only find stuff they've no explanation for?

It takes longer to make sense of things happening so far away than saying "God did it, QED," so there's some patience involved.

And god damn, galaxies are beautiful. I love em.

True, I just wish we actually invested in getting to those far away places. Stories like this just remind me how far short our vision for space exploration has fallen.

I got a bulge to put in a box.

/NGC 80085

Contrabulous Flabtraption: True, I just wish we actually invested in getting to those far away places.

Dude ... that's like, really far away.

Contrabulous Flabtraption: Quasar: Contrabulous Flabtraption: Do astrophysicists ever figure anything out? Or do they only find stuff they've no explanation for?

It takes longer to make sense of things happening so far away than saying "God did it, QED," so there's some patience involved.

And god damn, galaxies are beautiful. I love em.

True, I just wish we actually invested in getting to those far away places. Stories like this just remind me how far short our vision for space exploration has fallen.

If you could travel at the speed of light, it would take more than 60 million years to reach NGC 4710. That sort of technology, if even possible, is likely eons away.

Came for Boxy.

Take that however you want.

Contrabulous Flabtraption: Do astrophysicists ever figure anything out? Or do they only find stuff they've no explanation for?

They figure lots of stuff out. However, the articles in popular science publications are all "ooh look at this new weird thing we found", but don't bother to publish the followon two or five years later which explains it. Mostly because a 50,000 light year weird galaxy box is a way more interesting article than the later explanation that reads like "the inverted positron flux causes co-valent intramolecular coriolis banding and negative photon sub meson pressure results in a hyperbolic lensing on the galactic scale.^{12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20}"

Al!: Contrabulous Flabtraption: Quasar: Contrabulous Flabtraption: Do astrophysicists ever figure anything out? Or do they only find stuff they've no explanation for?

It takes longer to make sense of things happening so far away than saying "God did it, QED," so there's some patience involved.

And god damn, galaxies are beautiful. I love em.

True, I just wish we actually invested in getting to those far away places. Stories like this just remind me how far short our vision for space exploration has fallen.

If you could travel at the speed of light, it would take more than 60 million years to reach NGC 4710. That sort of technology, if even possible, is likely eons away.

Then obviously that's not the ideal way to get there.

Contrabulous Flabtraption: True, I just wish we actually invested in getting to those far away places. Stories like this just remind me how far short our vision for space exploration has fallen.

while they remind me that the whole place is very big, and one had best spend a LONG time looking in to things before leaving......

Maybe You already got this but..........

the fastest I have ever know anybody to travel is about 11.1 km/sec, which works out to 6.9 miles/sec, or 24,830 miles per hour. that is the Apollo guys......

The closest star to us is 4.2 light years away. that's 24689699200000 miles, so it would take us just about 1151 centuries to get their.... don't you think it is a good idea to make sure you invest at least 1% of the travel time to figuring out what is their?

I get you are antsy, but it is all just very big...

It is all reletive

So that's where I left my box.

How do you measure a box to be 50,000 light years in size? Should that be 50,000 cubic light years?

CapitolG: what is their?

WHAT IS THEIR!?

SoCalChris: How do you measure a box to be 50,000 light years in size? Should that be 50,000 cubic light years?

Depends on the size of the bulge!

/thanks for teeing that up.

thats mine! Whoops, sorry. I'll keep watch over it better next time.

it's your mom's box alright...

/not amused

/Resistance is futile

A box approximately 50,000 light years in size...

Sounds like my ex-wife.

CapitolG: The closest star to us is 4.2 light years away. that's 24689699200000 miles, so it would take us just about 1151 centuries to get their.... don't you think it is a good idea to make sure you invest at least 1% of the travel time to figuring out what is their?

Wow! Are you some kind of rocket scientist?

CornFedIowan: My first thought upon reading the headline was "Borg Cube!"

Then I RTFA and don't know what to think.

me too. came in here to make a "resistance is futile" reference.

artifact from collection and processing

"You have thirty minutes to move your cube"

NoxNoctus: Came for Boxy.

Take that however you want.

I usually would like to take boxxy with a ball-gag in place and operational.

It has been about a year since Boxxy surfaced, and I'm still really not sure where to place her on the fark/kill-axis.

Cornwell: NoxNoctus: Came for Boxy.

Take that however you want.

I usually would like to take boxxy with a ball-gag in place and operational.

It has been about a year since Boxxy surfaced, and I'm still really not sure where to place her on the fark/kill-axis.

I think she's underage so I have a feeling both of those options will open you to a legal altercation.

Trebeck, you know who else has a box that big?

Quasar:
I think she's underage so I have a feeling both of those options will open you to a legal altercation.

An altercation can't take place if they can't find the body afterward.

NoxNoctus: Quasar:
I think she's underage so I have a feeling both of those options will open you to a legal altercation.

An altercation can't take place if they can't find the body afterward.

Lack of evidence does not constitute lack of crime.

Whew! Thanks subby that had my d*ck in it.