A Crime Scene in the Sky !

Our troubles here on planet Earth seem puny in comparison with what is happening in the sky above our heads.  The galaxies are at war with one another and it seems that size matters.  When a big galaxy approaches a smaller constellation of stars its gigantic gravity imbalance starts to suck hydrogen - and hydrogen is the building block of star life.

Its simply a big stage production of the old earth habit of conquering other lands to create an empire.  As the hydrogen is extracted the old galaxy winks out and dies, and the new expanded galaxy has the added hydrogen to allow it to compress this gas to create new stars.

Science points out that this is happening in an area of the sky we can monitor without the need for a telescope.  The Small Magellenic Cloud is a dwarf galaxy that orbits the Milky Way.   It consists of several hundred million stars, a  small fry compared with the hundreds of billions that its near neighbour controls.

All this is about 200,000 light years away but we can see the Small Magellenic Cloud as a fuzzy patch in space with the naked eye.  It is being steadily eaten by two bigger approaching galaxies - and one day it will be entirely gone.

Now we will be able to follow this form of evolution - or view the crime scene as some would prefer - through the CSIRO's new Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder radio telescope.  We can actually watch the restructure of the universe as it is happening in real time and this will allow science to accurately predict what will happen to our modest little solar system sometime in the distant future.

What worries some scientists is our assumption that other life forms in the universe will be not only  technically far advanced - but also friendly.  When Marconi invented radio back at the start of the twentieth century we have been blasting recognition of our presence here with endless radio signals followed by television that depicts our lifestyle away from this planet at the speed of light.  By now it might be driving denizens of other planets crazy if it intrudes into their communication systems.

We would do well to remember what happened when we discovered the way to cross oceans using the wind to power sailing ships.  We arrived as conquerors of new lands and when we planted our flag we imposed our laws and customs on those we regarded as inferiors.  That was also the era of the slave trade.   We shipped people against their will to where they would labour in chains to make us wealthy.

Perhaps the biggest danger to the human race would be the discovery of alien life form from anther planet - that had exactly the same mental process and style of thinking - as us !   If they had developed the means of space travel they would probably have a life style far advanced on our development.   It is unlikely they would greet us as equals.

Perhaps watching what is happening to the Small Magellenic Cloud illustrates that the universe is not the friendly place of our imagination !