How have I been able to live so long outside Nature without
identifying myself with it? Everything lives, moves,
everything corresponds; the magnetic rays, emanating either
from myself or from others, cross the limitless chain of
created things unimpeded; it is a transparent network that
covers the world, and its slender threads communicate
themselves by degrees to the planets and stars. Captive now
upon earth, I commune with the chorus of the stars who
share in my joys and sorrows.
~Gerard De Nerval
1808-1855
French Novelist, Poet
If anyone could not see this lecture by Mr. Margon--
The one thing strikes me from his talk-
is that a supernova is overdue in our galaxy and if it were
to happen, we would all be able to see it even in the
bright daylight. And gives an example of one star which is going through tramatic changes:
Eta Carinae
oposite.stsci.edu
Estimated to be 100 times more massive than our Sun, Eta
Carinae may be one of the most massive stars in our Galaxy.
It radiates about five million times more power than our
Sun. The star remains one of the great mysteries of stellar
astronomy, and the new Hubble images raise further puzzles.
Eventually, this star's outburst may provide unique clues
to other, more modest stellar bipolar explosions and to
hydrodynamic flows from stars in general.
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I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work
of the stars.
~Walt Whitman |
