This was my favourite star constellation when I was younger:
I did say this was. What happened? Men in Black happened. Orion’s belt was a cat’s collar. The cat being Orion took the charm out of stars for a while (though the thought of a universe being a bauble on the cat’s collar tickles me still).
When I look up at these stars, I imagine, billions upon billions of flaming balls. Each of them possibly has planets surrounding it, the laws of gravity working perfectly, each of the planets and satellites sitting in their own gravitational well, sinking in with each round made. Every star out there, burning a high heat by means of fusion. Fusion that converts lighter, simpler elements out there like hydrogen into heavier elements like oxygen and carbon. Every twinkling star, a massive furnace that throws out heat and light. I stand in awe in nature’s awesomeness.
This is not an example of gravitational lensing, unfortunately. This is merely a lens flare. Shot with a 30 second exposure, look at all the stars. Some of these weren’t even picked up by the human eye. Most of these stars are too far away, the light we’re seeing from these stars are very old. We’re looking at the universe’s history, be it stars that are a year away from us, or a few centuries away from us. Sometimes you can’t help but to just wonder, how many of these stars we see are in actuality, dead and gone, leaving behind its legacy – new planets and new stars? How many have evolved life?
Everyday, out there somewhere in the universe, at least a star dies, and a star is born. From within the furnaces of supernovas, heavier elements are forged, and when the stars go supernova, these heavy elements are seeded, spread across the universe. The dust of a ‘nova forms new stars and planets through gravitational attraction. And within these planets, in an infinitesimally small chance, life exists. Some of these lifeforms may evolve intelligence, and some will not.
If you think about it, the atoms in our bodies are literally forged in the cores of the old stars. Stars that died to give us life. I couldn’t have put it more eloquently than Carl Sagan – “we are literally star stuff”
The world is a wondrous place. And it is wonderful to live. Think about it, to think by now, we could have been traveling the stars, traversing across the universe. Instead of squabbling about, humanity could have worked together (even if its Cold War racing situation).
Oh well, here’s a picture of my friends and I, as we mess about the 30 second exposure:
Also, here’s something relevant for you (it has Richard Feynman on bongos!!):
