Sunday, February 7, 2010
11/25/2006 Shapes in Nature
It's interesting how various shapes seem to repeat themselves often in nature. Add the creativity of the human brain and we frequently "see" things in natural settings. As a child I would lay in the grass and watch clouds as they took the shape of trains, clowns, ducks, or whatever object caught my fancy that day. As an astronomical observer I'm amazed by the shapes we see in outer space.
Ever notice how spiral galaxies and seashells can appear identical? Or how the smoke from a nearby fire can ebb and flow in shapes that look exactly like an emission nebula? There are so many examples of the repetitive nature of shapes. Actually these fascinating shapes can usually be explained by the science of Physics using some detailed calculus. Turns out our Universe does indeed have some order and maybe we should be glad about that, if there were not "rules" about how matter interacts then I suppose we'd have a tough time making a go of it.
Scientifics aside, it would be awful to ignore the magnificence of these patterns in nature. The snail does not care one bit that his shell is a perfect match to the spiral arms of M33, but I could spend hours marvelling at it. Likewise, a Jellyfish in the ocean really isn't aware that his tiny slithery mass of gelatin-like life closely resembles a gigantic remanant from an ancient supernova explosion, nor does he care that the atoms making up his living being are the very same type of atoms that the supernova blew out into space; but I find it utterly mindboggling, and as a result I spent last night taking this image of IC443, also known as the Jellyfish Nebula, in an attempt to capture this exquisite object.
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