Blogs

Close Cosmic Encounter

By Harley White posted 09-20-2021 06:30

  


Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA



Close Cosmic Encounter

 
 
A barred spiral galaxy in the Giraffe
has one of the arms curled in front of its core
where dust laden lanes in the grouping outpour
as Hubble has shown it for earthlings’ behalf.
 
Some sort of encounter perhaps came along
for bent NGC Two One Four Six once took,
which lent it that loopy anomalous look,
engendering forces colossally strong.
 
So lively in midwifing star births is it
that this galaxy earned the term starburst kind
like clusters of blooms Mother Nature designed
in tropical gardens terrene to visit
 
or namely the clerodendrum called starburst
which effloresces in a canopy bright
as do starburst galaxies at cosmic height
with budding sidereal young being nursed.
 
The galaxy’s less large than Milky Way’s size
just slightly, they say, to astronomers’ eyes,
with starry creation in lavish supplies
thus adding to worlds in stelliferous skies.
 
What habitants will these celestials see fit
to bring to fruition as creatures, to wit,
allow them to flourish as features permit
then blossom as lifeforms evolved bit by bit?
 
About eighty thousand light-years end to end
it lies ninety million light-years from our place,
this mortal abode of humanity’s race
that’s wending its oft wayward way round the bend,
 
or so it seems, though there are stargazer dreams
as reveries reaching existence’s plane
whence deeper dimensions of being may reign
embracing the whole of reality’s streams
 
in sensory oneness with all great and small,
beyond unenlightenment’s treacherous thrall,
a doomed irredeemable fate to forestall
which sadly might ever more likely befall.
 
We dwell in a realm where delusions benight,
enraptured in spell making wrong appear right
with vision too blurry to notice our plight.
Such times find it vital to seek out the light.
 
 
~ Harley White
 
 
* * * * * * * * *
 
 
Some sources of inspiration were the following…
 
Info and image ~ Feeling the strain (ESA)…
https://esahubble.org/images/potw1134a/
 
Info ~ NGC 2146, a starburst galaxy in Camelopardalis (Anne’s Astronomy News)…
http://annesastronomynews.com/photo-gallery-ii/galaxies-clusters/ngc-2146-by-ken-crawford/

 

 Image explanation ~ This celestial region was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. It reveals the never-ending beauty of a galaxy located more than 90 million light-years from Earth in the northern constellation of Camelopardalis (The Giraffe)… The galaxy being stretched out of shape has been imaged by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Known as NGC 2146, it has been severely warped and deformed so that an immense dusty arm of glittering material now lies directly in front of the center of the galaxy, as seen in the image. NGC 2146 is a barred spiral galaxy of about 80,000 light-years across. The forces required to pull this peculiar galaxy out of its natural shape and twist it up to 45 degrees are colossal… It is probable that we are currently witnessing the end stages of a process which started about 80 million years ago. NCG 2146 is undergoing intense bursts of star formation, to such an extent that it is referred to as a very active “starburst galaxy”…

Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

 

 
#poetry
0 comments
22 views

Permalink