I’m still in Outer Space at the moment.
Exploring various parts of the Universe that have only recently been discovered by us ‘mere’ Earthlings.
Everywhere I look right now, I see the Phoenix. On the side of a lorry, in a book, in a blog post, on TV. It even cropped up whilst I was researching my Chameleon post at the weekend.
It has to be a sign.
Hence, I’m still in Outer Space, exploring. Exploring today the Phoenix constellation.
In 2010, a whole new galaxy cluster was discovered within this constellation. It has a technical name, but it’s more friendly referred to as the Phoenix Cluster. As time went on, observers began to see the immensity of what they had discovered.
I have the idea that it is more a ‘Star Nursery’ than a galaxy, as it is creating brand new stars at, well, a rate of knots. One report I read says it creates 740 new stars a year… quite a lot considering our Milky Way galaxy creates one new star a year. There are three trillion stars alone in the cluster’s central galaxy. That’s a lot… the Milky Way only has 200 million stars, give or take a couple.
At the centre of the Phoenix Cluster, there’s a black hole. This black hole is sending out enough energy to enable the gases and whatnot to create the new stars, as it doesn’t give the gases time to cool.
I suppose as more of these ‘starlings’ are born, the Phoenix Cluster galaxy will expand further outwards, getting constantly larger and larger. Well, the Universe is always expanding anyway, just now it can be observed!
It’s also billions of light years away, so there’s not much chance of an immediate collision with our galaxy just yet.
The odd thing about this cluster, is the fact that it appears to have been sprung back into life, after being dormant for a few million years.
Quite apt, considering we can see it in the Phoenix constellation – the Phoenix being the bird that rose from the ashes.
New beginnings.
Like I said, it has to be a sign.
The Mansionic Perspective 
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