Picture of the day - May 19, 2008

Logarithmic spirals in nature

Photo courtesy of NASA. A couple of days ago NASA published a short, but very interesting article on how common logarithmic spirals are in nature, and they used the image above to help them make their points. While the two objects pictured here look strikingly similar, they are actually quite different... On the left is Galaxy M101, commonly known as "The Pinwheel Galaxy". It stretches an astronomical 170,000 light years across its breadth, and it consists of billions of stars along with countless planets, moons, nebulae and other heavenly bodies all spinning around what is most likely a massive black hole. On the other hand, the photo on the right depicts Typhoon Rammasun which was a 600 mile wide mass of clouds and moisture rotating around a central "eye" of very low atmospheric pressure. While spiral galaxies and typhoons are vastly different in composition and size, they do share one very obvious trait: they are both logarithmic spirals with their "arms" rotating very fast and packed tightly together near the center of the spiral but progressively slower and farther apart as the distance from the center increases. Whirlpools such as the one you see while draining your bathtub are also logarithmic spirals. Isn't the "nature" that the Creator blessed us with nothing short of amazing?   Click here to comment on this picture.   Visit the POTD Archives for previous "Pictures Of The Day"!     Submit a photo of your own!                                 Place the "Picture of the Day" on your website, for free! Why I publish the "Picture of the Day"