Photo #2 (Feb 2012)

CYGNUS-X: THE INNER WORKINGS OF A NEARBY STAR FACTORY

I like the stars. It's the illusion of permanence, I think. I mean, they're always flaring up and caving in and going out. But from here, I can pretend... I can pretend that things last. I can pretend that lives last longer than moments. Gods come, and gods go. Mortals flicker and flash and fade. Worlds don't last; and stars and galaxies are transient, fleeting things that twinkle like fireflies and vanish into cold and dust. But I can pretend...
                               ― Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 7: Brief Lives

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Harvard-Smithsonian CfA

How do stars form? To help study this complex issue, astronomers took a deep infrared image of Cygnus X, the largest known star forming region in the entire Milky Way Galaxy. The above recently-released image was taken in 2009 by the orbiting Spitzer Space Telescope and digitally translated into colors humans can see, with the hottest regions colored the most blue. Visible are large bubbles of hot gas inflated by the winds of massive stars soon after they form. Current models posit that these expanding bubbles sweep up gas and sometimes even collide, frequently creating regions dense enough to gravitationally collapse into yet more stars. The star factory Cygnus-X spans over 600 light years, contains over a million times the mass of our Sun, and shines prominently on wide angle infrared panoramas of the night sky. Cygnus X lies 4,500 light years away towards the constellation of the Swan (Cygnus). In a few million years, calm will likely be restored and a large open cluster of stars will remain -- which itself will disperse over the next 100 million years.

Our lives on earth are often chaotic. We live each of our lives but briefly, with chances to learn and grow and heal; with opportunities to leave blessings in our legacies. Alternatively, we may provide others with difficult challenges that help them to rise above their usual selves. The choices in how we live and play the games of life are ours. Choose well, and we blossom and the world around us blossoms. Choose poorly, and we will have a devastated world. I pray we all choose wisely and well. I would like my children and granchildren to enjoy some of the many opportunities I have in my necklace of memory beads that I periodically touch and fondle and whose sparkling images and feelings I enjoy.
                                            - Dan Benor, MD