“A Supermassive Black Hole Is on a Collision Course With The Milky Way”

 

 

A Milky Way collision with a supermassive black hole might be closer than we thought.

Hidden deep in the Large Magellanic Cloud dwarf galaxy that orbits the Milky Way on an ever-closing loop, signs of a massive invisible object clocking in at around 600,000 times the mass of the Sun have been detected.

Since the Large Magellanic Cloud will one day collide with our own galaxy, that means the black hole is also destined to come crashing in.

Click here to read the full article.



“‘It’s almost science fiction’: Scientists say the shape of Earth’s inner core is changing”

 

 

Scientists who just months ago confirmed that Earth’s inner core recently reversed its spin have a new revelation about our planet’s deepest secrets — they identified changes to the inner core’s shape.

Earth’s innermost layer is a hot, solid ball of metal surrounded by a liquid metal outer core. For decades, planetary scientists suspected that the solid inner core deformed over time as it spun. Now, researchers have found the first evidence of changes taking place over the past 20 years in the shape of the inner core.

Link contributed by Gene Savoy, Jr.

Click here to read the full article.



Share Knowledge and Truth with Those Who Seek it

 

“Speak concerning the truth to those who seek it and of knowledge to those who, in their error, have committed sins. Make sure-footed those who stumble, and stretch forth your hands to the sick. Nourish the hungry, and set at ease those who are troubled. Raise up and awaken those who sleep. You are this understanding that seizes you. If the strong follow this course, they are even stronger. Turn your attention to yourselves. Do not be concerned with other things, namely, that which you have cast forth from yourselves, that which you have dismissed. Do not return to them to eat them. Do not be moth-eaten. Do not be worm-eaten, for you have already shaken it off. Do not be a place of the devil, for you have already destroyed him. Do not strengthen your last obstacles, because that is reprehensible. For the lawless one is nothing. He harms himself more than the law. For that one does his works because he is a lawless person. But this one, because he is a righteous person, does his works among others. Do the will of the father, then, for you are from him. For the father is sweet and his will is good. He knows the things that are yours, so that you may rest yourselves in them.”

-The Gospel of Peace

Speak to Those Who Seek

We should share our spiritual knowledge with others, but only to a point. Some spiritual knowledge can be shared with all, but some must be reserved only for those who are ready to comprehend the true meaning and who will use the knowledge to do God’s Will and not just whatever they want. As for those who have “committed sins,” we all have at some time so it applies to everyone.

Stretch Forth your Hands to the Sick

There are three kinds of illnesses: physical, mental, and spiritual. When people are physically sick, they may not be able to practice spiritual development. The same is true for the mentally sick. Most of all, however, those who are spiritually sick will not want to engage in spiritual development or may be engaging in a sort of spiritual development with the wrong kind of spirits. As a popular meme being shared on social media says, demons and devils are spirits too. So to stretch fort our hands to the sick primarily means that we should try to awaken them to the need for spiritual development and to have the proper attitude so they are communicating with Angels, not demons.

Awaken Those Who Sleep

This is similar to the sickness problem. Those who sleep are the ones who have the potential for significant spiritual growth but don’t know it. It would also include those who thing the time for spiritual development is after the death of the physical body. We need to awaken them to the fact that spiritual development needs to be done now and always. It isn’t something you can do for a week or two and then you are done.



“A Strange New Cosmic Explosion May Have Just Been Discovered”

 

 

A bizarre cosmic explosion has puzzled astronomers. It’s either a very rare case of the stars aligning just right (literally) – or something powerful never seen before.

The event is designated EP240408a, as it was first detected by the Einstein Probe, an X-ray space telescope, on 8 April 2024. At a glance, it appeared to be a run-of-the-mill gamma ray burst, which typically emits bright X-rays too.

Click here to read the full article.



“An Amazing JWST Image of a Protostar”

 

 

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has been giving us a fabulous new view on the universe since its launch. This new image of the protostar HH30 is in amazing new detail thanks to the JWST. It was first discovered using the Hubble Space Telescope but this Herbig-Haro object, which is a dark molecular cloud, is a perfect object for JWST. The image shows the protoplanetary disk seen edge on with a conical outflow of gas and dust with a narrow jet blasting out into space.

Click here to read the full article.



“Our Best Look at the Cosmic Web”

 

 

At first glance the large scale structure of the Universe may seem to be a swarming mass of unconnected galaxies. Yet somehow, they are! The ‘cosmic web’ is the largest scale structure of the Universe and consists of vast networks of interconnected filamentary structures that surround empty voids. A team of astronomers have used hundreds of hours of telescope time to capture the highest resolution image ever taken of a single cosmic filament that connects to forming galaxies. It’s so far away from us that we see it as it was when the Universe was just 2 billion years old!

Click here to read the full article.



“Why We Think Theia Existed”

 

 

The giant-impact hypothesis posits that billions of years ago a Mars-sized body named Theia collided with the early Earth.

The immense energy from this impact not only significantly altered Earth’s rotational dynamics but also resulted in debris being ejected into space. Over time, this debris coalesced to form the Moon.

We do not know for sure if Theia existed and if it collided with the young proto-Earth, but the evidence is compelling.

Click here to read the full article.



Philosophy of the Tibetan Book of the Dead

big bang

 

“As we gracefully transition from the meditation and visualization practices that unravel the sublime Clear Light of Reality, it is time to gently steer our minds toward the profound philosophical doctrines embedded within the Chikhai Bardo1. One of the first doctrines we encounter illuminates the intrinsic purity and luminosity of the mind, often referred to as “Rigpa” in Tibetan Buddhism. This state, akin to the vastness of the clear sky unmarred by passing clouds, is the inherent nature of the mind. Recognizing and resting in this nature is key to liberation. We are guided through practices such as sky-gazing, where we allow our minds to merge with the vast openness, experiencing the unobstructed nature of Rigpa, and witnessing the transient nature of phenomena without attachment or aversion. We then delve into the transient nature of life, as vividly portrayed in the Chikhai Bardo. Here, we learn that embracing impermanence opens the heart to the infinite possibilities of each moment and fosters a deep appreciation for the preciousness of human life. Visualizing an ever-flowing river, we internalize the fluidity and transient nature of existence, fostering a deeper acceptance of change and loss.

“At the heart of the Chikhai Bardo’s philosophical wisdom is the teaching of liberation through recognition. The teachings resonate as a call to awaken to our intrinsic purity and to see through the illusions that veil our true selves. Meditating on a rainbow, practitioners explore the transient and ungraspable beauty of phenomena, inviting a non-dualistic perception of reality. The resonance of compassion and the cultivation of Bodhicitta play a significant role in guiding our journey. The melody of altruistic love and intention for enlightenment is enriched and emphasized, leading us through shadows and into the warm embrace of enlightenment.”

-Guide to the Tibetan Book of the Dead

Purity of Mind

Purity of Mind is important for spiritual development. What that means is that we practice thinking in terms of peace, love, tolerance, and joy while pushing away thoughts of anger, jealousy, and violence. There is also the idea of clearing the mind of all thought when engaging in spiritual practices, but that is easier said than done. Learning to avoid negative thinking is the first step.

Sky Gazing

The author of this book may not know what is being hinted at here, but spiritual development doesn’t come from randomly looking at things in the sky. You have to look at the sun in a proper way that is safe (never stare at the sun!) with the idea of eventually seeing beyond the physical sun to the Spiritual Sun. It is the Light from the Spiritual Sun that awakens and develops the spirit and soul.

Transient Nature of Phenomena

One thing materialists fail to grasp is that everything physical is transient. Some things may last only minutes, while others last for billions of years, yet nothing physical is eternal. Only the spiritual is eternal. That is why developing our spiritual Self is so important.

See Through Illusion

There are several levels of illusion (or veils) that we need to see through. Just within the physical realm we see people are distracted from the truth with pleasant things they are told are important when they are not. Trust me when I say that God doesn’t care one bit who wins the football game or the hockey game. We are told that such things are important so we allow ourselves to be distracted away from what is really important. Just on the physical level, the wealthy and powerful want to keep the rest of us distracted from their greedy activities.

Beyond the physical, we need to see the spiritual. It has been veiled from us for a long time, but the veils are now being lifted and slowly some people are awakening to the truth.

Altruistic Love

One other important thing that spiritual students need to develop is altruistic love or the love of all that God has created. It is difficult for some to grasp, but we need to learn that we can love a person even while disliking their behavior. God doesn’t like a lot of the things we do, but because he loves all of us, he can forgive wrong behavior (that doesn’t mean there won’t be a karmic debt to be paid). If you have a pet, sometimes the pet will misbehave by doing something like peeing in the house or chewing on the furniture. We don’t stop loving the pet because it occasionally misbehaves. That is how we must treat all people and all beings.

1Tibetan Book of the Dead



“Even Microquasars are Powerful Particle Accelerators”

 

 

The Earth is bathed in high-energy particles. Known as cosmic rays, most of them are protons striking us at nearly the speed of light. Fortunately, the atmosphere protects us from any significant harm, though the particles can strike with so much energy that they create a shower of lower energy particles that do reach Earth’s surface. That’s actually how we can detect most cosmic rays.

We aren’t entirely sure what accelerates these particles so tremendously. There are phenomena that can do it. Nearby supernovae can generate lower energy cosmic rays, but the origin of the highest-energy cosmic rays is less understood.

Click here to read the full article.



“White Dwarfs Pause Their Cooling, Giving Planets a Second Chance for Habitability”

 

 

When we first began searching for planets around other stars, one of the surprising discoveries was that there are planets orbiting white dwarfs. The first exoplanets we ever discovered were white dwarf planets. Of course, these planets were barren and stripped of any atmosphere, so we had to look at main sequence stars to find potentially habitable worlds. Or so we thought.

As we discovered more white dwarf planets, it became clear that some of them might retain atmospheres and water. Perhaps they were an outer planet with a thick atmosphere before their star swelled to a red giant, or perhaps some of the gas ejected by the star to become a white dwarf was captured by the world.

Click here to read the full article.