At the Heart
by Harley White
- Published: Wednesday, October 30 2019 00:28
‘Perspective is everything’, so it’s said,
which might seem a truism true.
Or is there reality too instead
not dependent on point of view?
Two galaxies in collision appear
although this discernment misleads
from seeing each in its different sphere
which the chance alignment impedes
While they have millions of light-years between
and aren’t at all tangibly tied,
I saw a heart shape at once in the scene
where parts overlapped coincide.
Indeed that’s the image which served to stir
my creative poetry muse,
albeit erroneous, as it were,
yet with force enough to enthuse.
The duo in Hydra assemblage lies
with mythology all its own,
a constellation of very large size,
as ‘water snake’ frequently shown,
Single termed NGC three three one four
is a pair, with ‘A’ in the front
plus ‘B’ further back with seeming rapport,
for this optic illusion stunt.
Through how these two galaxies are aligned
astronomers have a unique
occasion to measure features they find
in dust interstellar oblique
of the face-on foreground system of stars
that’s making its barred spiral mark,
as surveyed behind our perspective bars
which cause the dust lanes to look dark.
Outer arms of the one in nearer place
appear to change from bright to dim,
for first they’re projected before deep space
then against B on background scrim
whose dust lanes in disk are lightened by haze
of stars that are closer to us,
whereas A’s are backlit by astral rays
from B silhouetting them thus.
The larger lenticular in the rear,
seventy thousand light-years wide,
is dominated by its pinwheel peer,
fifty-five thousand, side to side,
from our own perceptual earthly spot,
which means the smaller seems as big,
or just about, but is really not…
as round we go in solar jig
on this singular planetary ship
in the precious Goldilocks zone,
where mortals take their precarious trip,
whatever their titular throne,
from cradle to grave, in a life too brief,
despite its endlessness in youth,
till robbed of existence by death the thief
we’ve no more time to seek the truth.
Thus perspective perhaps is at the heart
lest we regret with passing sigh
a lifetime lost when the world we depart,
having frittered the moments by…
~ Harley White
* * * * * * * * *
Some sources of poetic inspiration were the following…
A trick of perspective — chance alignment mimics a cosmic collision…
https://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1208/
NGC 3314, a pair of overlapping galaxies in Hydra…
http://annesastronomynews.com/photo-gallery-ii/galaxies-clusters/ngc-3314-by-martin-pugh/
Image ~ Hubble view of NGC 3314…
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic1208a/
Image explanation ~ The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced an incredibly detailed image of a pair of overlapping galaxies called NGC 3314. While the two galaxies look as if they are in the midst of a collision, this is in fact a trick of perspective: the two are in chance alignment from our vantage point.
Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration, and W. Keel (University of Alabama)
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