One of the closest star nurseries to you. Someone named it R136.
Some of these baby stars are over 100 times bigger than your sun.
Most will pop off as supernova firecrackers in only a few million years.
Kinda looks like a Christmas tree there in the middle, doesn't it?
"It all happened in a flash but there is no way of rendering it in less than so many consecutive words." --Vladimir Nabokov from Pnin
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Some Saian mountaineer
Struts today with my shield.
I threw it down by a bush and ran
When the fighting got hot.
Life seemed somehow more precious.
It was a beautiful shield.
I know where I can buy another
Exactly like it, just as round.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I am not a well educated man except that I have educated myself, and, because I have educated myself, what I say will not stand up, for lack of recognized authority. This in turn leaves me free to say what I will, in the hope that, like those small forces that do not threaten empires and are thus not fully pursued, the things in which I believe can survive in some high and forgotten place until the power of empire subsides."
--Mark Helprin
(A real writer)
Excerpt from
"Il Colore Ritrovato"
In his collection The Pacific
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
my user name at gmail