Because We're All About The Science Here At BooMama

Yeah, whatever. But I did want to up the science ante a little bit today.

I've mentioned, oh, 647 times that D. and I saw a great concert this past Thursday night. Around the middle of the show, Louie Giglio talked for 45 minutes or so (I wasn't timing him with my stopwatch or anything - that's just a guess) about what "God of the universe" really means. He addressed how we tend to see God as just a wee bit larger than life, but if you look at the scope of the universe, the vastness of His creation, you can't help but be awed. There is no way for simple-minded me to do his message justice...I just want to share one little part of it with y'all (and since the tour is over, odds are you won't get to see him deliver the message in person).

Now I have NEVER been a fan of science. Physical science, biology, chemistry - didn't like any of it. I liked physics a little bit more, but it was math, really - it actually made trigonometry seem useful, and I didn't think, when I was in high school, that trig could EVER be useful.

But as Louie (Mr. Giglio? Dr. Giglio? LG? I don't know what to call him, seeing as how we're not, you know, buds) talked the other night, I was fascinated. It was so logical but so creative at the same time. He took us through various points of the universe and managed to put it all in perspective through some creative analogies (I didn't feel like my head was going to explode or anything, which is to the great credit of my pal Louie's teaching techniques).

Alex loves planets - loves to name them all, loves to see pictures of them, loves to talk about them. So that may be one reason why this topic resonated with me...because I knew that I could show these pictures to A. and talk to him about God's creation. Even as I showed him some of the pics this morning, he was shouting, "It's Uranus, Mama! Uranus!" and I hear y'all giggling, so just stop it right now. He's TWO - he doesn't get the joke quite yet.

ANYHOO, at the end of the sermon? talk? speech? (words are failing me today), we saw this example. It's 28 million light years away from earth, which, as best as I could understand, is, um, really far away (he actually had an example to help us realize exactly how far away it is, but I can't remember it right now). So here's the Whirlpool Galaxy (photos courtesy of www.hubblesite.org/gallery/):

My homes Louie (really, I have no idea what to call him) said that scientists were blown away by the discovery of this galaxy, and while initially they thought it might consume the separate galaxy that you see to the right, they actually are millions of miles apart. So they're pretty much huge. All those little red dots you see are stars waiting to be born (billions of them, in fact), and while there were all other sorts of nifty science factoids about this galaxy, I think you'll be most interested in what's at its core.

The Hubble telescope is apparently a pretty handy piece of machinery, because it was actually able to take photos of the very center of the whirlpool. Here's what it found (and you can link directly to this photo here):

Pretty cool, huh?

Scientists call this discovery "The X Structure" - but, um, freaky, isn't it? A friendly little reminder from God, maybe? Personally, I think it's a big ole "HEY PEOPLE, I MADE ALL OF THIS!"

Just thought I'd share. Since Alex was interested, I figured some of y'all (and your young'uns) might be, too. If you have any questions, please direct them to, you know, a scientist, or to Louie Giglio, because I will be of no help at all.