Throughout the history of the observable universe, we find absolutely nothing that directly or indirectly testifies to the theological claims of the existence of supernatural forces, supernatural principles, or supernatural creatures.
Our galaxy is a giant star island that includes the sun. The vast majority of galaxy stars, estimated at over 200 billion today, are concentrated in the flat disk we see in the sky as a luminous lane of the Milky Way, as well as in spiral branches. In the center of the Galaxy is a compact condensation of matter - the nucleus, whose physical nature and the physical processes that take place in it are now the subject of detailed study.
If we talk about the mass of the visible substance of our galaxy, then about 95% of it is in the dawn, and about 5% - in interstellar gas and dust. The space of the Galaxy is riddled with streams of charged particles of enormous energies, and a magnetic field acts on the interstellar gas.
One of the major difficulties astronomers have to deal with when studying the Galaxy is our internal position in this star system. The second is the absorption of distant galactic objects by interstellar matter.
These difficulties can be overcome by studying the Galaxy in all ranges of electromagnetic waves. Where we cannot observe something directly, we should turn to theoretical considerations that help to restore the missing links of processes and phenomena.
Finally, in this case, the method of comparison already familiar to us plays an important role. Outside our galaxy, there are many other star systems that we can observe from different angles, and at different stages of development.
Comparing them to each other and to our galaxy, revealing their similarities and differences, finding out the reasons for this, we learn the general laws of the structure and evolution of these star systems, and therefore our star island.
The world of galaxies
Galaxies are the basic structural units of our universe. One of them is contained in the constellation Andromeda. It is a giant galaxy, similar in structure to ours, and consists of hundreds of billions of stars. The light from it goes to Earth for about 2 million years.
The Andromeda Galaxy, together with our Galaxy and several other smaller galaxies, form a so-called Local Group. Some of the stellar systems in this group, such as the Big and Small Magellanic Clouds, are satellites of our Galaxy. Together with it, they revolve around a common center of mass.
Another cluster of galaxies is located in the constellation Virgo. It is the center of an even more gigantic than the Local Group, the star island systems - the Cluster of Galaxies, which includes the Local Group with our Galaxy.
Modern astronomical research has access to a vast area of space with a radius of about 10-12 billion light-years. There are billions of galaxies on this site, called the Metagalaxy.
By their appearance, galaxies are divided into three main types:
- elliptical,
- spiral,
- irregular shape.
Our galaxy is spiral. And such galaxies make up about 50% of the star islands. This makes it easier to use the comparison method.
Universe. In recent years, scientific and popular literature can be found expressions such as "age of the universe", "beginning of the universe in time", "radius of the universe" and more.
At first glance, such statements contradict our ideas about the eternity of matter, the law of conservation of matter and motion. However, this contradiction is imaginary. It is related to the change in the content of the concept of "universe", which has occurred in recent years as a result of the development of astronomical ideas and philosophical thought.
Previously, the concept of "Universe" was considered identical to the concept of "material world", but now there is a need to distinguish them, which is connected not only with the deepening of our knowledge of cosmic phenomena but also with the understanding that the process of scientific knowledge is a process of sub ' object interaction.
To be continued in the next part https://zen.yandex.ru/media/id/5d92f1673d873600b11d9f29/our-galaxy-is-like-a-giant-star-island-part-2-5d946d6aa660d700ad74dfe1