Introduction In nursing particularly, absolute competence is a must…

A spiral galaxyin the process of forming that’s somehow appearing at an earlier developmental stage than it should be based on its distance?

An interacting pair of galaxies which we can’t disentangle yet?

An Sa,SB, SBc type spiral masquerading as an SO type spiral? Could the central-bulge-size-spiral type law be wrong at least in this case?

Whichever turns out to be the case a great image and great set of questions. Love to hear what BA’s friend finally says.

Finally, stars like galaxies are termed ‘later’ or ‘earlier’ regarding spectral type with no (or very tenuous?) evolutionary connection – for example Vega (type A0) is termed an earlier spectral type than Altair (A7), Tau Ceti (G8) is of “later” spectral type than our Sun (G2) and in the whole system spectral types O-F are generally termed ‘early’ and F-M (or now T~L?) described as ‘late.’ As I understand it anyhow.

Stars and galaxies do evolve and transform from one type to another but in complex ways and not just from “early” to “late” … Galaxies often change (esp. via merger) from “late” spiral types to “early” ellipticals. (Our Milky Way will merge with M31 Andromda and undergo this shift.)The same can occur with stars too. Eg. the star that became Supernova 1987A moved from being a “late” type red supergiant to an “early” type blue supergiant star before blowing itself apart.

Misleading word use perhaps? But still useful as a descriptive term if you understand the underlying concepts?

( But was Mark in “Airplane!” with Leslie Nielsen? )

Ivan.

“What is it?”

“It’s an interogative statement designed to elicit information, but that’s not important right now!”

On a different tack now, what about the common depiction of the curved space ie. the saddle? Is our ‘line of sight’ confined to the curvature of space– our ‘straight’ view is actually curved. In other words, can we not really see across that curve? Only along the curved plane, as though it was a light pipe?

If so it would imply that light is reflected off that boundary. Of course the angles would remain small, and what would the boundary be made of? Gravity again?

Ivan. (obviously I’m trying to wear out my Question Mark key, don’t you think?)

And would Gravity rule the idea out anyway?

Ivan.

I’m reminded of this question because I use the view in a nearby store window when reversing into a parking space. If available, it does give a different view.

Ivan.

Maybe I should not get out as much.

Ivan.