Fearful symmetry

duderino

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What immortal hand or eye dare frame thy fearful symmetry? Or mortal... Is that actually square, or is that from lens distortion in the optics? (I'm only asking because it looks a lot like lens flare -- but I'll trust the Ph D.s on this one.)

Stunning, anyway you look at it.

The Red Square Nebula. More glorious beauty from the cosmos.

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ClaireTalon

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The Red Square Nebula. More glorious beauty from the cosmos.

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Beautiful it is, indeed. However, such symmetry is no miracle. A lot of it is innated: It's physical principles that, in the absence of external forces, such as gravity, govern the patterns, and these principles tend to give things simple shapes, which hold a lot less energy than more "arbitrary" ones, and therefor are more stable.
 

GoneA

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Beautiful it is, indeed. However, such symmetry is no miracle. A lot of it is innated: It's physical principles that, in the absence of external forces, such as gravity, govern the patterns, and these principles tend to give things simple shapes, which hold a lot less energy than more "arbitrary" ones, and therefor are more stable.

Take that, Neal Stephenson. :wink:
 

Fireballs

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Beautiful it is, indeed. However, such symmetry is no miracle. A lot of it is innated: It's physical principles that, in the absence of external forces, such as gravity, govern the patterns, and these principles tend to give things simple shapes, which hold a lot less energy than more "arbitrary" ones, and therefor are more stable.

Perfect circles, yes.
Perfect squares? Far less common.
How 'bout hexagons?
 

JustAsking

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You're trying to tell me I'd make a great America (!!) Shaftoe? At least I'm not into fantasy rolegames. But his books are still good.
Yes, thats perfect. You would make a great America Shaftoe.

Perfect circles, yes.
Perfect squares? Far less common.
How 'bout hexagons?
I agree with Claire that simple symmetrical shapes are probably more stable than arbitrary ones, but I have to say that squares are very unlikely. That is really amazing. If I was the first to see that thing late at night through a telescope I would be sleeping with the lights on for a week. It looks disturbingly artificial.