Yes, even Dark Lords of the Sith deserve good tidings on this special occasion.
We hope you're able to spend some quality time with your dad from this galaxy, and that you enjoy this tender moment caught between a famous father/daughter duo from a galaxy far, far away!
The number of galaxies in the universe may be in the trillions — and that’s a lot of suns, planets and possibilities for life. By Lee Speigel
Using “natural magnifying lenses in space,” the acclaimed Hubble Space Telescope has photographed amazing close-up glimpses of what NASA refers to as “the universe’s brightest infrared galaxies.”
“The
galaxy images, magnified through a phenomenon called gravitational
lensing, reveal a tangled web of misshapen objects punctuated by exotic
patterns, such as rings and arcs,” NASA says. “The unusual forms may
have been produced by spectacular collisions between distant, massive
galaxies in a sort of cosmic demolition derby.”
It’s
not just the glitz, glamour and garish-looking spectacle of the galaxy
clusters. These galaxies are producing more than 10,000 new stars a
year. And their glow is so bright in the infrared range that they shine
with the intensity of 10 trillion to 100 trillion suns.
“We have hit the jackpot of gravitational lenses,” galaxy researcher and astronomer James Lowenthal, of Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, said in a NASA statement.
“These ultra-luminous, massive starburst galaxies are very rare.
Gravitational lensing magnifies them so that you can see small details
that otherwise are unimaginable.”
Astronomers
“want to understand what’s powering these monsters,” Lowenthal said,
“and gravitational lensing allows us to study them in greater detail.”
As more and more planets are discovered in our home galaxy, the Milky Way, the sheer numbers are quite staggering.
The following video explores the question of how many galaxies there are.
Our Universe Has Trillions of Galaxies
Hubble Study - Video
Galaxies range in different sizes and shapes, and include billions or trillions of stars, or suns.
In
April, Time magazine announced its “100 most influential people in the
world” list, which included three planet hunters. One of those
scientists, Natalie Batalha ― the first woman at NASA to make Time’s list ― made some truly eye-opening statements about the detection of new planets.
“These
exoplanet discoveries are really changing how we see the universe,”
Batalha said during an interview with her fellow planet hunters. “You
know, we look up in the sky and instead of seeing stars, we see other
solar systems, because now we know that every star in the sky has at
least one planet.”
In 2015, Forbes magazine
suggested that, after the 25th anniversary of the stunning achievements
of the Hubble Space Telescope, “We may yet find closer to a trillion
galaxies within our visible universe.”
That’s a lot of galaxies, with a lot of suns, and a lot of planets ― and dare we speculate, a lot of life?
An Army of Cats Protect One of The Largest Museums in The World
Around 70 kitties live in the cellars of the Hermitage.
Cats Take Up Residence
At the Hermitage Museum
Why do house-cats roam the halls of the Hermitage? And why did they disappear during World War Two? Since the era of Catherine the Great, the Hermitage has been home to hundreds of house cats. They earn their keep by keeping the museum vermin free. Today, the cats are fed and cared for by dedicated volunteers. But there was one brief period in Hermitage history when cats were nowhere to be found. This was during the Second World War when St. Petersburg, then known as Leningrad, was under siege by the Nazis. The Hermitage was under siege too -- marked for destruction by Adolf Hitler. As the staff of the Hermitage crafted a plan to save the museum's masterpieces, the housecats disappeared one by one.
These cats ‘work’ in Russia’s biggest museum keeping the exhibits safe from rodents.
Around
70 kitties live in the cellars of the Hermitage. They’re ‘paid’ with
food and care. The first cats were brought from Tatarstan in the 18th
century by order of Elisabeth of Russia (SOURCE: The New Yorker).
The
cats have three caretakers, as well as their own press secretary. And on
Hermitage Cat Day visitors can thank them for “guarding” the museum.
Cats Fight Rats at Russian Museum
One of the largest art galleries in the world is relying on feline power to keep it rodent-free.
For more than 200 years, cats have had a full-time job at the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Today, a new generation of about 60 felines live in the building, the proud descendants of a long line of Aristo-cats.
Hermitage Magazine
Honors Museum's Cats
With Formal Russian Portraits
Hermitage
Magazine is honoring the cats that have patrolled the Hermitage Museum
since the days of Catherine the Great, commissioning an artist to create
six portraits of cats in the style of 18th and 19th century Imperial
Palace Servants. Jen Markham has the story.
Subscribe to our channel: http://www.youtube.com/buzz6 0 Meow! Secret Hermitage Helpers (RT Documentary)
Russia's State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg is home to countless pieces of art from around the world. RT goes behind the scenes of the former imperial palace on the Neva River to meet volunteers of all kinds...including cats.