04.27.08
A Tale of Two Galaxies
Credit: Debra Meloy
Elmegreen, Hubble Heritage Team
Astronomers predict that NGC 2207, the larger galaxy on the
left, will eventually incorporate IC 2163, the smaller galaxy on the right. The
space between stars is so vast that when galaxies collide, the stars in them
usually do not collide.
What’s significant about this picture is how it brings you and me to mind.
Dancing across the universe…
Waltzing through
time…
Colliding but not destroying each other…
A union so near yet so far…
An astral interconnection in creation,
not
written in the stars but we ourselves being the stars writing our own story…
“O, he doth teach
the torches to burn bright!
It seems he hangs
upon the cheer of night
As a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear;
Beauty too rich for use,
For earth too dear!
The measure done, I’ll watch his place of stand,
And, touching his,
make blessed my rude hand.
Did my heart love till now?
Forswear it, sight!
For I ne’er saw true beauty till that night.”
Act I, Scene V
Romeo and Juliet
William Shakespeare
