Photo # 1 (Aug 2009)

YOUNG STARS IN THE RHO OPHIUCHI CLOUD

KEEPING QUIET
Now we will count to twelve and we will all keep still.
For once on the face of the earth,
let's not speak in any language;
let's stop for a second,
and not move our arms so much.

It would be an exotic moment
without rush, without engines;
we would all be together in a sudden strangeness.

Fisherman in the cold sea would not harm whales
and the man gathering salt would not look at his hurt hands.

Those who prepare green wars,
wars with gas, wars with fire,
victories with no survivors,
would put on clean clothes and walk about with their brothers
in the shade, doing nothing.

What I want should not be confused with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about…
                            - Pablo Neruda

Credit: NASA JPL-Caltech, Harvard-Smithsonian CfA

Cosmic dust clouds and embedded newborn stars glow at infrared wavelengths in this tantalizing false-color view from the Spitzer Space Telescope. Pictured is of one of the closest star forming regions, part of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex some 400 light-years distant near the southern edge of the pronounceable constellation Ophiuchus. The view spans about 5 light-years at that estimated distance. After forming along a large cloud of cold molecular hydrogen gas, newborn stars heat the surrounding dust to produce the infrared glow. An exploration of the region in penetrating infrared light has detected some 300 emerging and newly formed stars whose average age is estimated to be a mere 300,000 years -- extremely young compared to the Sun's age of 5 billion years.

In cosmic time, what is a moment?

Can we make time regularly to be still for some moments,
to contemplate where we are and where we're going
and where we truly want to be going?

Where are our governments going?
Where is our planet going?
What can each of us do to shift the course of humanity towards survival
rather than self-destruction?
                            - Dan Benor, MD