The Star That Isn’t There

By Harley White posted 04-14-2022 08:29

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Image credit: NASA, ESA, B. Welch (JHU), D. Coe (STScI), A. Pagan (STScI)

The Star That Isn’t There

A star was revealed that’s no longer there,
called Earendel, nicknamed for ‘morning star’,
‘the dawn’, ‘rising light’, seen from farthest far
in time and space ever found by the stare

of Hubble, amazingly so they say
in terms of its so-called limited scope,
though Hubble often has shown it could cope
with whatever challenge was thrown its way.

The dubbing inspired from Tolkien ‘tis said,
moreover deriving from English Old,
arose from verse which of ‘Morningstar’ told
poeticized in that language now dead.

At nearly a whopping thirteen billion
light-years from the spot where our blue dot lies,
it is, or was, as its light meets our eyes
within the Cetus cosmic pavilion.

The light was emitted when universe
was merely a billion years old or less
and in thirteen billion more they assess
it’s ‘now’ twenty-eight billion, to be terse.

So it was four billion light-years remote
when starlight left it and after became,
in terms of comoving reference frame,
the twenty-eight billion scientists note,

assuming that universe is as thought
and not with other dimensions which fill
spacetime unbeknownst to our senses still
yet would bring schematic current to nought.

But let me continue along the drift
of how this great sighting is understood
which starwatchers say in all likelihood
we’re observing at a record redshift.

The CMB is the measure they use
to ascertain how far off it is ‘now’
in comoving scale of ‘now’ they avow
within cosmological p’s and q’s.

Astronomers tell us the star’s long gone,
so huge and brilliant it must have been then
that eons before its light reached our ken
it most likely burst soon after its dawn,

some million years later in astral time
or only a bit after being born,
emerging, that is, with its stellar morn
to shortly explode in a midnight chime.

‘Twas gravitational lensing that gave
this glimpse to us into ages ago
with aid of a galaxy cluster so
gigantic, much nearer, hence to behave

as natural made magnifying glass
through warping the fabric of time and space
thus showing the miniscule starlight’s trace,
to speak of what brought this finding to pass.

Five hundred times it may be, or have been
more massive than Sun in its glory days
whomever was there for it to amaze
in whatever multiverse brane was kin,

my model preferred for infiniteness,
or seen holographically perhaps,
if not other natures of cosmic maps,
to follow my fancies— yet I digress,

for to my mind it is simply absurd
or counterintuitive to infer
an end or beginning state as it were
for cosmos which by a ‘big bang’ was spurred.

A favorite phrase, I’ve written before
in poetry penned or passages prose
to open a mind beyond what it ‘knows’
is capsuled in maxim, ‘unless there’s more’.

While some may the heavens earnestly quest,
only a few seek enlightenment true;
others will limitless power pursue;
even so Mankind is merely a guest.

How stupid and greedy humans can be
like fiends incarnate who’d rule land and sea
with a King Midas touch at their decree
defeating themselves to the nth degree.

No matter the sweep we see in the skies
or what scientific savvy we gain,
it’s not just IQ or grasp of the brain,
but whether our knowledge helps us be wise.

Versed lines Shelley wrote with his lyric slant
evoked how my senses may walk tightrope
in ‘passionate tumult of clinging hope’,
albeit ofttimes but a murmured chant,

existential potential webbed in whole,
amidst weft and warp of ‘Nature’s frame vast’,
averting ‘pale despair’, softly steadfast
susurrant sigh like ‘the voice of the soul’.

~ Harley White

* * * * * * * *

Passages from ‘Alastor’, by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

Image and info ~ Meet Earendel, the Most Distant Star Astronomers Have Observed ~ Sky & Telescope (March 30, 2022)…
https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/meet-earendel-most-distant-star-astronomers-have-observed/

Image and info ~ Hubble Space Telescope Spots Most Distant Star Ever Seen ~ Scientific American…
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/hubble-space-telescope-spots-most-distant-star-ever-seen/

Info ~ Record Broken: Hubble Spots Farthest Star Ever Seen ~ NASA…
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/record-broken-hubble-spots-farthest-star-ever-seen

Image explanation: The most distant star yet seen, called Earendel, is indicated by an arrow in the inset of this image from the Hubble Space Telescope that captured the star from 12.9 billion light-years away using a gravitational lens. It is positioned along a ripple in spacetime that gives it extreme magnification, allowing it to emerge into view from its host galaxy, dubbed the Sunrise Arc, which appears as a red smear across the sky. The whole scene is viewed through the distorted gravitational lens created by a massive galaxy cluster in the foreground. The two red dots on either side of Earendel are actually one star cluster whose light has been split into two images, which mirror each other on either side of the ripple. Earendel’s unique position right along the critical curve allows it to be detected, even though it is not a cluster, due to more extreme magnification

Image credit: NASA, ESA, B. Welch (JHU), D. Coe (STScI), A. Pagan (STScI)

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