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Cosmic Hamburger
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A nebula protoplanetary,
called ‘Gomez’s Hamburger’ for its mien
plus name of the man who found this very
unusual ‘burger’ sandwiched between
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a bun’s top and bottom, so it appears,
in fact is a Sun-like star, thus it’s held,
approaching the end of its stellar years
with much dust and gas already expelled.
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This hamburger ghostly is mostly made
from dust and light, the ingredients prime
by chef culinary of cosmic grade.
Albeit a vegetarian, I’m
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struck by the image and what it evokes
so grounded in earthly appetites some,
and flames of imagination it stokes
for those who to this repast would succumb.
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It’s about ten thousand light-years away
in region of Sagittarius bunch
as the Hubble’s telescope eyes portray
well fit for a far-off luncheon or munch
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if eaten by hungry sidereal
with craving galactically inclined
in celestial manner ethereal
or just astronomically designed…
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When the stargazer that hamburger spied
instead of his wondering ‘what’ or ‘why’,
perhaps in astonishment Gomez cried,
‘Oh my, there’s a hamburger in the sky!’
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~ Harley White
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* * * * * * * * *
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Inspiration derived from the following…
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Arturo Gomez: Life among the telescopes…
https://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/april-2013/arturo-gomez-life-among-the-telescopes?language_content_entity=und
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Gomez’s Hamburger - Astronomy Magazine…
https://www.astronomy.com/science/gomezs-hamburger/
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Gomez’s Hamburger: A Proto-Planetary Nebula (APOD)…
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap020807.html
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Explanation: Gomez’s Hamburger (IRAS 18059–3211) is another of those deep-sky objects with a strange name. Arturo Gomez, an astronomer at Chile’s Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, discovered it in 1985… Sometimes astronomers see things on the sky they don’t immediately understand. In 1985 this happened to Arturo Gomez, and the object became known as Gomez’s Hamburger for its distinctive yet familiar shape. After some investigation, the object was identified as a proto-planetary nebula, a gas cloud emitted by a Sun-like star just after its central hydrogen fuel has all been fused to helium. Gomez’s Hamburger is on its way to becoming a full-fledged planetary nebula in a few thousand years. The light seen (the bun) is reflected by dust from the central star, although the star itself is obscured by a thick dust disk that runs across the middle (the patty). Gomez’s Hamburger, pictured above in a recent image from the Hubble Space Telescope, is only a fraction of a light year across but located approximately 10,000 light years away towards the constellation of Sagittarius.
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Credit: Arturo Gomez (CTIO/ NOAO), Hubble Heritage Team, NASA
#poetry