” What else is out there, waiting to be found?”
Not “what”, but “who”.
Amelia Erhart, Jimmy Hoffa, Bigfoot, Klingons, and Nessie (among many). (You DID ask!)

If those “who’s” (& bunyips too? ) are out beyond our own Galaxy floating around in space they’re in big trouble indeed!

Unless they’re on a rogue world like Mongo – in which case they’re in only slightly less trouble!

Also they’ll be a little hard to spot even with the likes of Hubble.

Also if “Nessie” is way out in space beyond our Milky Way then that’s disappointing news to a lot of Scots!

Brane theory link here :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brane_cosmology

for those wondering about that reference.

The other Circinus section via Kaler here :

http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/cru-t.html

Plus the wikipedia entry on the Circinus galaxy here :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circinus_Galaxy

Incl. a note that it’s the closest Seyfert galaxy and & active galaxy generally to our own.

Phil – Jesus is out there, waiting to be found.
No one’s tried scanning the holy ghost spectrum, have they?? Huh??

I guess you’re joking there (right?) but the idea that what we consider the the “supernatural” could be part of an extended from of the “electromagnetic” (plus?) spectrum is one that has occurred and has a certain appeal to me.

Not saying its true or not, just a neat idea.

Alternatively – assuming the big “if” that there is actually something to the “supernatural” (for want of a better word) phenomena – could they be related / emanting from one or more of the many other postulated extra dimensions or branes in that genuine cosmological theory thereof?

Until 1975, an entire nearby galaxy was hidden from our view! What else is out there, waiting to be found?

The Circinus galaxy isn’t alone in being a large nearby galaxy hidden behind the more crowded “Zone of Avoidance” for the Milky Way there’s also :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maffei_1

the closest elliptical galaxy which would otherwise be prominent in our skies. It and its similarly hidden companion galaxy Maffei 2 were found in 1968.

Mind you, I wouldn’t have thought Circinus :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circinus

&

http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/tra-t.html

was that obscured by galactic star clouds.

I wonder if we have found everything hidden in this zone yet or not? Great post.

Not “what”, but “who”.

Amelia Erhart, Jimmy Hoffa, Bigfoot, Klingons, and Nessie (among many). (You DID ask!)

No one’s tried scanning the holy ghost spectrum, have they?? Huh??

So thats what all those space probes are doing, I knew it!!!

Ethane lakes on Titan? We’ll take those too.

Usually, that wavelength comes from warm dust and long-chain organic molecules called PAHs

10:1 that we see an abiogenic oil comment before this post is buried.

PAHs, for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons — basically, smelly soot

Aw, Phil, fancy you falling for that one. Aromatic chemical compounds are not named for being, y’know, aromatic (although some of them smell pretty powerfully – yes, pyridine, I’m turning my nose up at you!). Aromatic compounds are a class of cyclic compounds that contain conjugated pi bonds (in addition to the more usual sigma bonds) and therefore have delocalised electrons. Admittedly, it’s more complicated than this in reality, but I’m simplifying here to save space*.

* And, a bit, because my memory of molecular bonding orbital theory is a bit shaky.