Astronomy: Way of a Galaxy

Viewed through the far-sighted optical telescopes of modern astronomy, the great spiral galaxies that dot the depths of space look as stable as anything in the universe. But the view may be a cosmic illusion. Astrophysicists Fred Hoyle and William A. Fowler, from Caltech. told the American Physical Society that galaxies often explode with improbable energy. Even the Milky Way Galaxy, of which the earth and the entire solar system are only a tiny part, may have blown up many times already—and could pop off again.

Hoyle and Fowler base their theory on the mysterious double sources of radio energy...

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