Thursday, January 17, 2008

"A nebula is an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen gas and plasma. It is the first stage of a star's cycle. In these regions the formations of gas, dust and other materials 'clump' together to form larger masses, which attract further matter, and eventually will become big enough to form stars." -Wikipedia

Our ancestors envisioned an aeolian universe, and longed to listen to the 'music of the spheres'. They may not be faulted for thinking as such, as these marvels of nature do indeed bring to mind the whalesong of the deep oceans.

As Douglas Adam's wrote, "The deep roar of the ocean. The break of waves on further shores than thought can find. The silent thunders of the deep,"

Beautiful, isn't it? This is Singapore's great failing - the sky is so polluted you don't get much to look at. In Hawaii, I could lie on the beach and gaze up at a sky - no - an ocean of stars. Their sheer multitude giving the sky a depth that I could not have previously understood.

It is the only time in my life I can remember being awed into silence, and also why, gods be damned, I hold science and our universe in the highest regard.