[image: nyx5012.jpg]
*Nyx: Primordial Goddess of Night*
Before the mythological Universe took form, Chaos alone encompassed all of
reality. Chaos was a dark, formless and empty region of indeterminate
depth and without duration. At some point, for reasons we cannot fathom,
the primordial deities emerged. Among the first to arise from the
unknowable chasm was Nyx, the goddess of night. She was described as the
most formidable of all goddesses, including even her powerful descendants
Hera and Athena. In fact, such was her ferocity that Zeus, himself,
feared her. Though she rarely figured into any mythological tales, Nyx
gave birth to a wide retinue of fearsome and benevolent spirits. After
coupling with Erebus (darkness), Nyx delivered Aither (aether and light),
Hemera (day). With Erebus, she conceived Thanatos (death), Hypnos
(sleep), Geras (old age), Eris (strife), Nemesis (retribution), and the
three Fates: Clotho (the "Spinner"), Lachesis (the "Alloter") and Atropos
(the "Inflexible.) Once Helios' chariot descended into the sea and
the glow of Astraeus, god of evening twilight, faded into gray, Nyx drew
her veil over the world, enshrouding it in a darkness softened only by
starlight and moonglow. Just as each night Hypnos temporarily conveyed
mortal spirits to a realm adjacent to that of death, Nyx covered the
verdant Earth with the blackness that once dominated the Universe. Only
when Aurora, goddess of dawn, illuminated the eastern would Nyx withdraw
from the sky and permit Helios' Sun chariot to once again ascend into the
heavens. His eventual descent would usher Nyx into the sky again and the
cycle would begin anew. Apart from Erebus, Nyx took no lovers and never
desired any. She was bereft of such passions and, being both winged and
steeped in shadow, she never aroused any. Even Zeus, himself, never
pursued her. We can ascribe his restraint to both her unalluring nature
and the morbid fear she likely inspired in him. Nyx had no interest in the
petty affairs of gods and mortals. Instead, her function was merely to draw
darkness over the land and coax it into sleep.
THE SOUTHWORTH PLANETARIUM
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Founded January 1970
Julian Date: 2459191.16
2020-2021: LV
"Reminding ourselves of the great qualities we share with all
human beings acts to neutralize the impulse to think we're bad or
undeserving. Many Tibetans do this as a daily meditation practice.
Perhaps that's why in Tibetan culture self-hatred never took hold."
From "The Art of Happiness"
His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Dr.
Howard C. Cutler
THE DAILY ASTRONOMER
Monday, December 7, 2020
Remote Planetarium 129: Laniakea
This week we'll continue and then complete our progression through the
cosmos. We'll begin this final stage with a rapid review of what we've
seen so far.
Remember in March we started with the night sky: the comparatively
minuscule region surrounding Earth. The ten thousand stars visible within
that sky represent 0.0000025% of all the stars within the Milky Way
Galaxy. (For comparison, imagine a sheet of 8.5" x 14" paper. On that
sheet one could draw 10,000 small black dots. Each dot would represent one
of these visible stars. In order to draw enough dots to represent every
star in the galaxy, one would require a sheet of paper measuring 8.5" by
1500 miles)
Our Milky Way is part of the Local Group, a collection of at least 80
galaxies. This group is dumb-bell shaped, with the Milky Way at one lobe
and the larger spiral galaxy of Andromeda at the other. A swarm of
satellite galaxies surround both the Milky Way and Andromeda. That
Local Group is, itself, a small part of an immensely large collection of
galaxies called the *Virgo Supercluster. *
[image: Local_supercluster-ly.jpg]
As a group of astronomers led by Richard Brent Tully at the University of
Hawaii determined in 2014, the Virgo Supercluster is just part of a much
larger structure known as Lanaikea, a name derived from the Hawiian term
for "Immense Heaven."
[image: Laniakea.gif]
Laniakea, also known as the Local Supercluster (colored yellow in the above
image) consists of 100,000 galaxies. Apart from the Virgo Supercluster,
Lanaikea contains the Hydra-Centaurus Supercluster, Centaurus Supercluster,
and the Pavo-Indus Supercluster. The entire Local Supercluster extends
over 520 million light years and contains more than 100,000 times the Milky
Way Galaxy's mass.
Unlike other highly massive structures, Laniakea is bound together
tenuously. Dark Energy should cause this Local Supercluster to disperse,
albeit in billions of years from now.
Though its mass and extent are both impressive, Lanaikea is only a part of
an even larger structure called the Pisces-Cetus Supercluster Complex,
tomorrow's destination.
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