At http://phys.org/print258659797.html … astronomers have uncovered a clue about how our galaxy emerged from the Dark Ages – by looking at nearby galaxies. During the Dark Ages hydrogen fog, it is theorised, condensed and stopped light emissions from stars and black holes. What was happening inside all that fog? Ionisation, it seems, drove out the foggy bits and continues to stop it from forming (published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society).
Meanwhile, at http://phys.org/print258658079.html … the growth of black holes in some galaxies isn't performing to prevailing theoris. They are growing faster than the galaxies themselves – so what are they gobbling up? Apparently, we are informed, gas at the core of the galaxies is consumed by black holes – and the gas and black hole existed before the stars. This will probably be up-ended rather sharply but for the moment it can be found in the Astrophysical Journal (June 2012) and is another theory that may be short in the oven as space telescopes are providing such a large amount of new information that each new thoey tends to have a shorter and shorter shelf life.
At www.thunderbolts.info/wp/2012/06/05/the-sun-and-its-spoilspot/ is a piece by Rens Van Der Sluijs which is thought provoking – but can be interpreted in different ways. It concerns the Transit of Venus, in a way, and the idea that Aristotle, or so he says, claimed the face of the Sun was actually unblemished and a perfect creation. Hence, any dark body on the face of the Sun was explained away as an optical illusion or a physical object moving in front of the Sun. Did he did he not observe the transit of Venus or Mercury? Sun spots were not allowed. Sounds like Aristotle would have done well if he was living today – plenty of mental blocks around as far as modern science is concerned.
Rens then turns his attention to Venus as perceived by ancient cultures, and peoples – in particular the idea of Venus as a day star. Was the Transit associated with the idea of Venus visible in the day – or are we talking about some object that came much closer? In Egypt, the Eye of Horus is generally thought to be cypher for Venus – but is this just conjecture? Could a tiny speck on the face of the Sun be regarded as an Eye of Re? The morning star of mythology was associated with an episode of darkness – the disappearance of the Sun for a day or longer. For example, in the legend of Phaethon the Sun, stricken with grief that the 'would be' Sun had bolted, hid his face – darkness. Other peoples described the Morning Star as an awe-inspiring being with a long tail, be it a dragon, a crocodile, a great serpent, or a bird with very long tail feathers