.
.
Nebula Saturn
.
.
Saturn Nebula gets its name
from resemblance to the planet.
While slight in likeness, much the same
are the rings around that span it.
.
In shades of rosy pinks and blues
the central cavity’s bounded,
‘midst gasses of enthralling hues
of density all surrounded.
.
Positioned in Aquarius
with duo of ‘ansae’, handles,
gaseous clouds precarious
that glimmer like astral candles,
.
the nebula planetary,
by previous watchers misnamed
in visions preliminary,
is in Hubble’s imaging framed.
.
It’s near five thousand light-years far
from where humans strut and bluster,
for fools indeed we mortals are
in our earthly-starred blockbuster.
.
How beautiful the skies on high,
with their pathways ever wending,
the infinite the eyes belie
in the cosmos never-ending.
.
Oh may we o’er the earthly woes
that trouble our fretful ponders
just now and then take brief repose
in the refuge of blue yonders.
.
.
~ Harley White
.
.
* * * * * * * * *
.
.
Some sources of inspiration were the following…
.
Like NGC 6826, NGC 7009 has a bright central star at the center of a dark cavity bounded by a football-shaped rim of dense, blue and red gas. The cavity and its rim are trapped inside smoothly-distributed greenish material in the shape of a barrel and comprised of the star’s former outer layers. At larger distances, and lying along the long axis of the nebula, a pair of red “ansae”, or “handles” appears. Each ansa is joined to the tips of the cavity by a long greenish jet of material. The handles are clouds of low-density gas. NGC 7009 is 1,400 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius. The Hubble telescope observation was taken April 28, 1996 by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2.
.
This colorful view is an optical image captured using the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) installed on the Very Large Telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. MUSE not only produced an image but also provided a detailed map of the intricate features created by dust in the Saturn Nebula. At the center is the dying star, surrounded by a bright elliptical inner shell in light blue color, enveloped by an outer shell in light pink color, and an almost transparent halo surrounding the entire structure. The image also shows two streams extending from either end of the nebula’s long axis, with bright pink ansae at the ends. Ansae means ‘handles’ in Latin.
.
Planetary Nebula NGC 7009 (NASA Hubble site)…
https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/images/1997/38/575-Image.html
#poetry