Upstart Galaxies Flirt With the Milky Way
source: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/12/magellanic-clouds/ferris-text
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- coolplanet
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Looming near the mighty sweep of the southern Milky Way, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds resemble detached pieces of our galaxy. Astronomers once assumed they had always orbited the Milky Way at approximately their current distances, like the other, lesser satellite galaxies in the Milky Way's gravitational thrall. But new evidence suggests that the Magellanic Clouds have instead spent most of their careers farther away and are currently experiencing a rare close encounter with our galaxy. If so, we may be witnessing the onset of an intergalactic pas de trois—a dance of the sort that can shatter the composure of galaxies, forging billions of new stars and planets while flinging others into the depths of space.
With the clarity of hindsight, astronomers can now make sense of conspicuous clues that suggested a more regal status for the clouds all along.
For one thing, the clouds are much brighter than our galaxy's other satellites—bright enough to have captured the attention of naked-eye observers like Ferdinand Magellan's chronicler, Antonio Pigafetta, who remarked upon the "many small stars congregated together." They're bright because they're close by and contain lots of stars. The Milky Way's known satellites harbor up to ten million stars each. The Small Magellanic Cloud holds some three billion stars, and the Large Cloud perhaps 30 billion.
For another, the clouds don't look like the disheveled spheroidal dwarf galaxies that closely orbit the Milky Way and other major spirals. More likely, they're previously distant galaxies that have only recently ventured close enough to our galaxy to be perturbed by its gravitational field. Prior to its gambol with the Milky Way, the Large Magellanic Cloud may even have been a classic spiral like the Triangulum galaxy, M33, which looks imposing but is actually not much more massive than the Large Cloud.
In 2006 a team of astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope measured the motion of the Magellanic Clouds by clocking them against background quasars, which lie billions of light-years beyond and so approximate a static background in a universe where nothing really stands still. These measurements suggest the clouds are pursuing lanky, eccentric orbits that would have brought them into proximity with our galaxy only one time previously since the universe began.
The notion that the clouds have passed our way just once before gains support from the fact that both still contain ample amounts of gas from which to make new stars. Satellites that orbit close to major galaxies eventually forfeit their interstellar gas to the greater galaxy. Unable to fashion new stars, these satellites evolve into celestial retirement communities, inhabited by bald old stars and little else. In time, many of the spheroidal dwarfs circling the Milky Way will likely be cannibalized by it, as others like them have been in the past.
In contrast, astronomers have found that the Small Cloud is still making new stars in bursts, some within just the past few hundred million years. The Large Cloud, for its part, is a star-making factory, full of freshly minted star clusters and the soap-bubble skins shed by hot young stars that have exploded. Conspicuous in the Large Cloud is the glowing red Tarantula Nebula, a gigantic star-forming region that lies 160,000 light-years from Earth but shines so brightly that when observed through a big observatory telescope, its light pours out of the eyepiece like a flashlight beam.
The Tarantula's ruddy glow comes from what astronomers call excited hydrogen gas. The gas is excited by powerful light from giant stars burning furiously enough to deplete their nuclear fuel within only millions of years, rather than the billions of years it takes more modest stars like our sun. They then explode, as supernovae. When a blue giant star in the Tarantula region went supernova, seen on the night of February 23, 1987, it captured the attention of astronomers worldwide. They've been observing its remnants ever since.
The Milky Way and the Magellanic Clouds appear destined to see a lot more of one another in the eons ahead. Will their dynamic dance eventually result in a merger? Or will the clouds just come and go, spending their careers as a quiet, composed couple that comes downtown for a star-making binge every couple of billion years? Nobody will live long enough to witness the fate of these galaxies, but sooner or later scientists should be able to learn their dance steps, and to catch faint echoes of the music.
By Timothy Ferris
Photograph by Miloslav Druckmüller
December 2011 National Geographic
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- tags:
- Space, Magellanic Clouds
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- recommended by:
- pjacobs51
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squarethecircle
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I used to check the weather once or twice a week...now I start with space and work my way down everyday. Our perspectives and awareness are most certainly expanding...great post.
- 6 months ago
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squarethecircle
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coolplanet
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squarethecircle:
What strikes me most about this finding is that "the clouds are pursuing lanky, eccentric orbits that would have brought them into proximity with our galaxy only one time previously since the universe began."
That would mean they haven't been this close in almost 7 BILLION years! - 6 months ago
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coolplanet
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squarethecircle
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coolplanet:
amazing to think of our place in the midst of all that energy being added to the mix...these galaxies are a birthplace for stars, maybe ours is a birthplace for souls. It's all coming together it would seem.
- 6 months ago
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squarethecircle
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coolplanet
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squarethecircle:
Perhaps g19 at galactic center is trying to tell us something.
- 6 months ago
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coolplanet
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coolplanet
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coolplanet:
Many Peoples consider the heart of the Milky Way to be the origin of souls.
Science neither rejects this nor has it confirmed it.
The journey is the destination. - 6 months ago
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coolplanet
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Gravity_Man
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coolplanet:
You have grown to love the unanswerable; it agrees with your demon-derived superiority.
You're afraid to unplug from the demonbrainbattery.
- 6 months ago
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Gravity_Man
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Gravity_Man
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Divine power should make us LIVE LONGER. Even trees on Earth live 5,000 years. Turtles can live 200 years. Why are humans worth less than a mindless tree and the turtles?
A Re-Creation Event is to happen soon => Matthew 19 v 28. Shake-up time soon. Adam & Eve time for those who trust Jehovah and son Jesus. Everybody else not so much.
A very Wonderful and Happy message [for some: see Rev. 7].
- 6 months ago
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Gravity_Man
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Gravity_Man
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Gravity_Man:
Proof of that time being near is HERE => http://www.newpath4.com/9182011antichristfacingsatan69daysabbath112611countdown2...
- 6 months ago
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Gravity_Man
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coolplanet
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Gravity_Man:
Please G_Man, if you want to have a conversation about Jehovah please post your own thread.
This is a story about science, not religion. - 6 months ago
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coolplanet
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Gravity_Man
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coolplanet:
Your fervent begging for censorship has been noted.
- 6 months ago
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Gravity_Man
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Gravity_Man
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coolplanet:
Here we are facing our very own self-unraveling Species Extinction of the Human Race it is my duty to tell everybody THERE IS A DOOR OUT OF HERE. Sorry you want everybody to MAN UP AND DIE IGNORANT [of Bible Prophecy]. The locust must continue stinging a third of the men a while yet, informing them that being spiritually dead will soon mean being dead dead.
Let it go my censor.
- 6 months ago
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Gravity_Man
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coolplanet
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Gravity_Man:
A few replies from a religious perspective is fine (as I voted up, below).
But Jesus, G_M, please don't take over my thread evangelizing for Jehovah!
Isn't that what a front door is for? - 6 months ago
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coolplanet
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Gravity_Man
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coolplanet:
When I determine that you have authority over me to tell me what I can and can not post perhaps your ideas would merit consideration. Your accusing me of "taking over your thread" is false. You posted glorious information about our Universe and presented it as a smarmy "flirt" overlay, godless and void.
YOU opened the door first my friend. I walked in it. Perhaps you should open a private Members-Only blog somewhere. You wouldn't have to tolerate other people's religious views there. Here you do.
You presented your godless ideas couched in flirt-speak, denigrating God's Creative Works as a human act reminiscent of Carl Sagan. Did you expect me not to see it? You engage in much wishful thinking.
Thank you again for showing me such a beautiful picture of a man in a robe inside a ring of stars... that very much looks like a prophet standing in an hourglass.
- 6 months ago
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Gravity_Man
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coolplanet
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Gravity_Man:
You're welcome.
- 6 months ago
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coolplanet
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JanforGore
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Divine power is everywhere in the universe and it is in us as well. Our abuse of it brings you what we see today. Btw, both photos are amazing.
- 6 months ago
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JanforGore
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coolplanet
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JanforGore:
Yes, 'we are stardust, we are golden, and we've got to get ourselves back to the garden.'
I like stories like this because they remind me just how puny and insignificant we self-important humans really are when it all comes down to It. - 6 months ago
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coolplanet
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JanforGore
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coolplanet:
Yes and as Carl Sagan said, "The cosmos is also with in us, we're made of star stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself." Learning about the universe reminds us as you said, about how rare and precious it all is. And perspective is something we definitely need now.
- 6 months ago
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JanforGore
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JanforGore
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JanforGore:
Now I need my fix .;-).
- 6 months ago
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JanforGore
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coolplanet
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JanforGore:
That is SO beautiful!
Thanks for sharing. - 6 months ago
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coolplanet
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Gravity_Man
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Thanks for posting about these things. Yes indeed, everlasting life will be filled with great perks.
- 6 months ago
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Gravity_Man
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coolplanet
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The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds
- 6 months ago
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coolplanet
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coolplanet
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"the clouds are pursuing lanky, eccentric orbits that would have brought them into proximity with our galaxy only one time previously since the universe began."
- 6 months ago
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coolplanet
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coolplanet
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This is the 20th anniversary photo of Supernova 1987a in the Magellanic clouds.
Nicknamed 'the string of pearls' it first appeared in 1987 and is the brightest supernova in 400 years. - 6 months ago
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coolplanet
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Gravity_Man
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coolplanet:
Your Supernova appears to have a man standing wearing a robe in the center. Surrounded by a VERY LARGE HALO.
24 years ago. Reminds me of the 24 Elders in Revelation.
Thank you very much Coolplanet! Great find!
- 6 months ago
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Gravity_Man
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Gravity_Man
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Gravity_Man:
Picture of Jesus in 1987 the light reached Earth from the Tarantula Nebula. Observe Jesus standing in the middle of an HOURGLASS => http://mrbarlow.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/supernova-1987a.jpg
The Tarantula is 2,000 Light-years across! Imagine that!
- 6 months ago
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Gravity_Man
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coolplanet
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Gravity_Man:
That would be cosmopomorphism.
Here's an x-ray of 'Jesus.'
;~D - 6 months ago
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coolplanet
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Gravity_Man
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coolplanet:
I'm sure your mental acceptance of every conceivable possibility but the one you fear has been duly noted.
- 6 months ago
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Gravity_Man
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coolplanet
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Gravity_Man:
Let me share a little story about SN1987a.
When my Dad died in 1985 I experienced a vision. Over a black lake Erie September night sky appeared a single bright light oscillating in the same spot for about 15 minutes making no sound. Suddenly I was struck in the forehead by a cold blob of slush and it started to hail like hell.
When the storm passed I returned to the spot and fell on my face when I saw the outline of a man 1,000 feet tall in the clouds with arms raised filled with stars.
The next days I painted a canvas with an image that looks just like supernova 1987a, TWO YEARS before it appeared! - 6 months ago
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coolplanet
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Gravity_Man
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coolplanet:
That is very amazing. Several weeks ago it occurred to me that during Armageddon it would be like during Creation, a great howling. California and many other states were just subjected to great howling.
Unlike yours I posted mine somewhere. Documentation is everything. No one believes ya later if you didn't do some dated documentation. Except me. I believe you.
I think in that area there might be a lot of metal ore underground perhaps also lodestone, so I could see where a possible energy connection could've brought you a magnification.
It is always a shame when stuff like that happens to ya and no one else is around. But, thanks to you showing these pictures I was able to see your man. It rather looks like he wanted you and me to see the same thing. Or something.
But of course you're way too smart to listen and be fooled by someone like me, obviously a Poor Charlatan, inventor of engine systems that MAKE NO MONEY TO PAY THE RENT. On disability. HAHAHAHA
- 6 months ago
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Gravity_Man
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Gravity_Man
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coolplanet:
The fact that in my post above over on the San Diego Forums I referenced Back to the Future, released in 1985 the year your Dad died & you saw your vision.
We seem to be hitting several cylinders. Perhaps Jesus saw your pain. JW's have a different understanding of the condition of the dead than other religions...
- 6 months ago
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Gravity_Man
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Gravity_Man
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coolplanet:
My guess is the moisture in the air (water droplets) were acting as a suspended magnification system, and perhaps the magnetic energy in the ground provided a polarization that was drawing the magnified image in stronger, plus the gravity... bouncing a holographic image off the lake that penetrated your forehead and the image was reproduced in your visual cortex.
But if you want to insist it was a miracle that's up to you.
Put the soft touch on ya at any rate. Amazing. You received the image ahead of the scientists and their telescopes. You had a Goliath experience without the getting dead part. HAHAHA
- 6 months ago
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Gravity_Man
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coolplanet
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Gravity_Man:
'Dawn of the Dead' and 'Day of the Dead' were showing at the drive-in movies across the road from where my dad died.....
I left out a few parts of the story, like the high pitched sound in my head that turned into my dad's voice. He exclaimed 'Finally someone can hear me!'
I told him to hop a ride on Halley's Comet and visit us on its return pass around the sun.
Apparently he took my advise..... - 6 months ago
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coolplanet
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Gravity_Man
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coolplanet:
If you knew the true condition of the dead you wouldn't fall so hard for the demon's tricks. They imitate dead people real well. It's their Specialty.
They also prey mostly on women. Apparently you don't have as thick a skull as we do. Or something. We're too dense?
- 6 months ago
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Gravity_Man
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Gravity_Man
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coolplanet:
You Dad's mind & brain must have been genetically imparted to you. His being near those movies when he died told them something valuable about you that enabled them to home in on your brain & mind.
This is getting right interesting. You see, they knew you were special, possibly knew you were going to receive that "miracle" of ham radio-like skip from the Universe to a human mind. They had to stop you from telling others.
They've pulled that trick on me a number of times. Doesn't work here. I keep right on listening to Jehovah and getting whatever it is they were trying to stop me from seeing or understanding & POSTING TO OTHERS.
- 6 months ago
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Gravity_Man
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Gravity_Man
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coolplanet:
The "high-pitched sound in your head" that turned into your Dad's voice that was them tuning in to your exact frequency til your heart jumped when you recognized it as Dad's voice. At that point they knew they had struck the vein of Gold they were after.
- 6 months ago
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Gravity_Man
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Gravity_Man
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coolplanet:
All of which goes a long ways toward explaining why you get upset every time I mention Jehovah's name... They could be pushing some kind of "pain button" or other physical reaction on you whenever you hear it. But only you would be able to figure that one out.
Demons have more success with this trick against women. I had an experience in 2005. I was in the Master bedroom restroom and I began hearing a strange sound that sort of sounded like many voices all talking at the same time. I didn't respond to it by saying Is that you Mom or anything like that.
We have both been probed. If I had kicked in my memory of Mom's voice when they did that I would've told them what they wanted to know. I did not so they dropped off their probe. She had been gone 5 years. I was already deeply involved in having my engine systems, two since 2003. They waited too long to ever have a chance with me.
Plus my knowledge of the Bible offers me much protection. They can't stand probing through a mind that has such a firm grasp on Bible Truth as I have.
- 6 months ago
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Gravity_Man
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coolplanet
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Gravity_Man:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYkbqzWVHZI
Monty Python
The Life of Brian
Jehovah sceneJust thought this was such an appropriate response to your fervent rant.
- 6 months ago
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coolplanet
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Gravity_Man
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coolplanet:
You have grown to love the taste of this world.
- 6 months ago
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Gravity_Man
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Gravity_Man
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Gravity_Man:
Satan gives us whole cups of honeysuckle juice. The fool gets addicted to it.
- 6 months ago
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Gravity_Man
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Gravity_Man
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coolplanet:
The demons supplied you the power for your enhanced abilities. You're standing on a trap door.
When they fall you fall with em.
- 6 months ago
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Gravity_Man
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Gravity_Man
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coolplanet:
I envy your position. You have something few people ever have => the head of Satan on a platter.
- 6 months ago
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Gravity_Man
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Gravity_Man
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Gravity_Man:
I've never been one of those nutjobs who looks for pictures of Jesus in toast or sides of trees, or dog's hair as I saw once in the News. However, if Jesus did want to give a smashing "Sign in the HEAVENS" then a Prophet-looking shape standing inside a "Ring of Pearls" as we have here shown on this page, and in view of the fact Jesus gave a parable about PEARLS, is not grasping for images like toast, trees or dog hair.
Provided of course Jesus is alive to generate such a terrific representation in a Nebula. As of 2011 the stars involved were beginning to wax fiery hot and begin separating some => http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/12/magellanic-clouds/img/05-star-last-act...
One would expect that as Time draws nearer for Jesus to start a war on Earth called Armageddon that having his far off representation turning Supernova Red Hot Tamales is a natural progression for such a picture.
One does not draw fanciful conclusions based on only one occurrence, that's very poor form. Combined with the information HERE we begin seeing a "Preponderance of Evidence" that Jesus is now taking preliminary action towards Earth => http://tinyurl.com/2122012quakenotice
And for the record, all of the prophetic pronouncements of John found at Revelation 6 verses 12 thru 17 have just this day come true... placing us all backs-against-the-wall to Chapter 7 of Revelation... which happens to be a very exciting AND WONDERFUL MESSAGE. It tells of a Great Crowd of people blessed by God surviving out of the great tribulation.
I'm expecting that giant Jesus to arrive soon, accompanied by a large contingent of angels wearing those fancy clothes of theirs that has lightning bolts flashing all over. When they get here you all won't be needing my posts to tell ya who they are and what they are here for. They're taking over BEFORE THE SABOTEURS FINISH DESTROYING HIS PEOPLE AND HIS PLANET.
- 4 months ago
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Gravity_Man
