The main component of this graphic is an artist's representation of M33 X-7, a binary system in the nearby galaxy M33. In this system, a star about 70 times more massive than the Sun (large blue object) is revolving around a black hole. This black hole is almost 16 times the Sun's mass, a record for black holes created from the collapse of a giant star. Other black holes at the centers of galaxies are much more massive, but this object is the record-setter for a so-called "stellar mass" black hole.
In the illustration, an orange disk surrounds the black hole. This depicts material, fed by a wind from the blue companion star, which has been swept into orbit around the black hole. Rather than flowing unimpeded and uniformly into space, wind from the star is pulled towards the black hole by its powerful gravity. The wind that does make it past the black hole is disrupted, causing turbulence and ripples beyond the disk. The companion star itself is also distorted by the gravity from the black hole. The star is stretched slightly in the direction of the black hole, causing it to become less dense in this region and to appear darker.
The inset shows a composite of data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue) and the Hubble Space Telescope. The bright objects in the inset image are young, massive stars around M33 X-7, and the bright, blue Chandra source is M33 X-7 itself. X-rays from Chandra reveals how long the black hole is eclipsed by the companion star, which indicates the size of the companion. Observations by the Gemini telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii track the orbital motion of the companion around the black hole, giving information about the mass of the two members of the binary. Other observed properties of the binary were also used to help constrain the mass estimates of both the black hole and its companion.
Image credit: ration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss; X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/P.Plucinsky et al.; Optical: NASA/STScI/SDSU/J.Orosz et al.
[Similar in shape to the gods’ entrance to Hades in the story]
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Time for a few facts about this Place. So far there are two ways into Hades and no way out unless you are or have been consummated by one of the beloved gods or goddesses. By most accounts there are the major twelve on Mt. Olympus.
As this is many years later and people are more prone to science fact than fiction the real Place of the Dead, if there is one, need be no more than a thought in size. How large would you make such a Place? You may think you can feel a heart or soul or mind from time to time, but as you can’t see any of the three materially and as they have no physical weight (I am excluding the brain here as well as the potential for physical work by each separately or altogether), then proof of existence is relatively difficult to come by even if you are categorized a ‘gifted’ person in any field of human endeavor.
If you want the names of the eleven Zeus dominated Mt. Olympus you can look them up. Stories have to cut things short just as films do. Inference is important, so are other nuances of language so keep that in mind.
For example, things haven’t changed that much in the Place of the Dead though now the Living have added different dynamic dimensions to the concept. Over the centuries people have done some thinking relative to religions, the sciences, philosophies and cultural media of presentation especially in the twenty-first century.
It is time some new ideas are thrown into the mix of metaphorical and/or spiritual stories. That’s the reason I’m the narrator, and while I am only a shadow of the Supervisor, it is still better to be shadow than to be nothing at all. That’s the butt-end of a joke among most of the Dead since, well, a long, long time ago, just about the time this major battle between the humans and their gods and goddesses was settled.
Since the conclusion of this battle epic at the end of book seven the Dead have been treated equally as always, but a bit differently also. If you live long enough, that is if the author lives long enough to complete the sixth and seventh books you can read more of a sense of how it is to be among the Dead.
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Let’s go back now to how it was during the evening of the first day. Salamon is resting alone in his bed. He looks dead, that is he isn’t breathing. He doesn’t appear to be dreaming yet either. The restlessness is between his heart and mind. His question is How do I know what the right thing is to do when I don’t know if my view on the demonstration, which is to take place in to more days, is objective and correct?
Tomorrow we will learn what took place tonight with Aeneas’ meeting with the Supervisor. I cannot imagine it is easy for a human being meeting a god face to face. Fortunately, I never have to.
Let’s drift over to Kassi’s stone privacy and peer down. She looks cute enough in her settling after having just made love with Thales. Being dead and making love should not be equated with being alive and making love. Gently holding hands with intensity is rudimentary, the bare basics. Sex is really all in the mind just as it is with the Living but not it is not interrupted by biophysics and cultural conditioning. Plus, for the Dead a sense of timelessness exists for the best of reasons. Their recent ‘snuggled holding’ helps them calm their anxiety over the day’s events.
Marios and Sophia are finally lying together. Marios is staring right up at me but doesn’t know it. Sophia is asleep but she will have the first of many restless nights. She is thinking in her heart, I know what is right. This is a good and just cause, to be heard directly. The Supervisor needs to see we are resolved and stand together in this thought on going Home to rest and to listen to our children’s grandchildren.
That’s how it is at the end of the first night.
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