As a teenager (without any particular person's influence) I was very fascinated with (layman's) astronomy descriptions of the Cosmos, galaxies, constellations, stars, black holes, "red dwarfs", nebulae...
I remember when I was around 11 or 12 I read my first astronomy introductory book written by Issak Asimov (who at that time was one of my favourite writers since at the time I was reading a lot of science-fiction).
The names of this stellar objects and events have always sounded very mysterious to me.
For some reason I always felt the most fascinated with the word "nebula".*
It sort of rolls on the tongue, an implosion of sound.
The thought of it is absolutelly unfathomable, impossible, beautiful.
Here is a picture taken by NASA's Hubble telescope of the Helix Nebula in 2003. A very rare (and incredibly mysteriously beautiful) event.
For its grandeur and mystical beauty it was dubbed by some as "The Eye of God".
The Helix Nebula (what a name!) is the closest to us, standing at 690 light years from the Earth.
It's unimaginable.
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*A diffuse mass of interstellar dust or gas or both, visible as luminous patches or areas of darkness depending on the way the mass absorbs or reflects incident radiation.
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2 comments:
As one said once:
"Your arms would not be able to stretch as far as necessary
to form an adequate gesture for beauty (You know that, don't you?)
So, beauty remains in the impossibilities of the body"
Finally!!! A comment! A proof that I exist! And a proof that there is someone out there!(And this interstellar-related post is EXACTLY the right place for it)...
Been feeling so forlorn, and lost, a galaxy away...Thank you M. for being out there and reaching out across a continent!
And your comment is "spot on", or should I say Blixa's lyrics are ;)
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