HOME | DD

Description
Cosmic Maelstrom
©2011 Michael C. Turner ~ Galactic Visions Space Art

Creation and chaos define the Universe . . . Light and darkness, beginning and ending, Alpha and Omega . . . Like the legendary Phoenix, the Universe is recreated from the ashes of chaos. Super massive black holes play an important role on the cosmic stage. Although agents of chaos, they are equally agents of creation. Active galaxies, especially quasar galaxies, are powered by super massive black holes cloaked deep within their cores. Although black holes can't be viewed directly, as no light can escape after it passes a black hole's event horizon, matter and energy create a visible accretion disk around the event horizon as they are pulled into the "cosmic maelstrom" and eventually enter the black hole's singularity. Super massive black holes interact with this matter and energy in a most dynamic fashion creating a "jetting" effect as its gravity creates super heated plasma that is ejected outward as it is being pulled into the galactic "dark lord." A black hole can bend light in its proximity. If a black hole passes between the viewer and a source of light very far away, the light will become highly distorted. The light can also be magnified by the effects of a black hole, like a magnifying glass, allowing astronomers to see objects in space farther away (this is called gravity lensing).

The effects of a super massive black hole are dramatically depicted from the surface of a volcanically active planet orbiting the outer bands of the galactic core of an active quasar galaxy. Matter and energy swirl into the singularity which is cloaked from intense light and obscured by the ecliptic transit of one of the foreground planet's molten moons. Such a vantage point would most certainly cast any spectator into a "cosmic maelstrom" on multiple levels.

Description
Cosmic Maelstrom
©2011 Michael C. Turner ~ Galactic Visions Space Art

Creation and chaos define the Universe . . . Light and darkness, beginning and ending, Alpha and Omega . . . Like the legendary Phoenix, the Universe is recreated from the ashes of chaos. Super massive black holes play an important role on the cosmic stage. Although agents of chaos, they are equally agents of creation. Active galaxies, especially quasar galaxies, are powered by super massive black holes cloaked deep within their cores. Although black holes can't be viewed directly, as no light can escape after it passes a black hole's event horizon, matter and energy create a visible accretion disk around the event horizon as they are pulled into the "cosmic maelstrom" and eventually enter the black hole's singularity. Super massive black holes interact with this matter and energy in a most dynamic fashion creating a "jetting" effect as its gravity creates super heated plasma that is ejected outward as it is being pulled into the galactic "dark lord." A black hole can bend light in its proximity. If a black hole passes between the viewer and a source of light very far away, the light will become highly distorted. The light can also be magnified by the effects of a black hole, like a magnifying glass, allowing astronomers to see objects in space farther away (this is called gravity lensing).

The effects of a super massive black hole are dramatically depicted from the surface of a volcanically active planet orbiting the outer bands of the galactic core of an active quasar galaxy. Matter and energy swirl into the singularity which is cloaked from intense light and obscured by the ecliptic transit of one of the foreground planet's molten moons. Such a vantage point would most certainly cast any spectator into a "cosmic maelstrom" on multiple levels.