Thursday, December 29, 2005

Rebirth Cycle

The "Cat's Eye" nebula and a nearby nebula with starbirth. At the center of the "Cat's Eye"(left), the remains of an exploded star. With time, the dust and gas from this star will collect (globules on the right) and form new stars (blue). With one star's death, one thousand new ones are born. This cycle of renewal takes place at all levels. Posted by Picasa

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Could this be the start of reincarnation through the stars??

One must think!

Di

Luke Fallon said...

As I learned in Astronomy, stars have lifetimes just like us. They are born in celestial "cradles" of gas & dust. Newborns are usually blue, but change colour to yellow, white or orange as they get older. As they get closer to the end of their lives, they turn red (Red Giants) and expand to hundreds of times their former size. Like an elastic, the star quickly shrinks down again causing an incredible explosion (nova or supernova). Most of the star's mass is shot out into space as dust and gas.
Some don't even reach the nova phase. They just keep shrinking and shrinking. These very dense stars are called neutron stars. Their material is so dense that one teaspoon would weigh as much as a aircraft carrier. Some continue to shrink and become one of those mysterious Black Holes. These are so dense that not even light itself can escape.
The Universe is constantly changing, evolving. But it can only do this through Chaos (another one of those wacko theories). Al Einstein could not accept certain parts of his Relativity Theory. He exclaimed, "God does not play dice!".
My point is : We can find examples of human change/growth in the Universe. Chaos is part of every aspect of our lives. Not chaos as in complete confusion, but more as in change and rebuilding. That's why my idea of God is the Universe as a whole.
Again, Einstein said, "My sense of God is my sense of wonder for the Universe."