Somehow, it still doesn't feel right to move on with daily business. Does anyone else share the feeling that nothing feels appropriate after Friday's events? I know I spent much of this weekend away from my news feed, looking to the sky for answers. I did listen to one podcast, in which an astrophysicist discussed the old notion that we come from stars. And maybe that's where we eventually return.
-
Hide caption
"Thousands of sparkling young stars are nestled within the giant nebula NGC 3603, one of the most massive young star clusters in the Milky Way Galaxy."
NASA
-
Hide caption
"This bubble of ionized gas and warm dust, called RCW 79, lies in the southern Milky Way. ... [NASA's telescopes] have found at least three generations of stars forming in this expanding envelope."
NASA
-
Hide caption
"A view of one of the most dynamic and intricately detailed star-forming regions in space, located 210,000 light-years away in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way."
NASA
-
Hide caption
"A pillar of gas and dust called the Cone Nebula resides in a turbulent star-forming region."
NASA
-
Hide caption
"The Orion nebula is the brightest spot in the sword of the Orion, or the 'Hunter' constellation. The cosmic cloud is also our closest massive star-formation factory, and astronomers believe it contains more than 1,000 young stars."
NASA
-
Hide caption
"This infrared image ... shows the Rosette Nebula, a pretty star-forming region more than 5,000 light-years away in the constellation Monoceros."
NASA
-
Hide caption
"Infant stars 'hatching' in the head of the ... constellation Orion."
NASA
-
Hide caption
"This glowing region reveals arcs and bubbles formed when stellar winds ... collide with material in the Orion Nebula."
NASA
-
Hide caption
"Star birth in the graceful, curving arms of the nearby spiral galaxy M83."
NASA
-
Hide caption
Throughout the center of the Messier 82 starburst galaxy, "young stars are being born 10 times faster than they are inside our entire Milky Way Galaxy."
NASA
-
Hide caption
This swirling landscape of stars is known as the North American nebula.
NASA
-
Hide caption
"[In] a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way located about 160,000 light-years from Earth, [many] new stars, some of them very massive, are forming in the star cluster NGC 1929."
NASA
-
Hide caption
The star cluster Cygnus OB2, home to many young stars.
NASA
-
Hide caption
"While perhaps not quite as well-known as its star formation cousin Orion, the Corona Australis region ... is one of the nearest and most active regions of ongoing star formation."
NASA
-
Hide caption
"This image ... shows what lies near the sword of the constellation Orion — an active stellar nursery containing thousands of young stars and developing protostars."
NASA
-
Hide caption
"This image of the Rho Ophiuchi dark cloud ... shows newborn stars peeking out from beneath a dust blanker."
NASA
-
Hide caption
"A small portion of one of the largest seen star-birth regions in the galaxy, the Carina Nebula."
NASA
-
Hide caption
"In this wispy star-forming region, called W5, the oldest stars can be seen as blue dots in the centers of the two hollow cavities. ... Younger stars line the rims of the cavities, and some can be seen as pink dots at the tips of the elephant-trunklike pillars."
NASA
-
Hide caption
"Stars are sometimes born in the midst of chaos," reads NASA's caption for this image of nearby galaxy M33.
NASA
-
Hide caption
NGC 6752, a globular cluster that is more than 10 billion years old, contains a high number of "blue straggler," or younger, stars.
NASA
Today, some words from last night's address by President Obama. And some photos of young stars forming, via NASA.
"Why are we here? What gives our life meaning? What gives our acts purpose? We know our time on this Earth is fleeting. We know that we will each have our share of pleasure and pain; that even after we chase after some earthly goal, whether it's wealth or power or fame, or just simple comfort, we will, in some fashion, fall short of what we had hoped. We know that no matter how good our intentions, we will all stumble sometimes, in some way. We will make mistakes, we will experience hardships. And even when we're trying to do the right thing, we know that much of our time will be spent groping through the darkness, so often unable to discern God's heavenly plans."
NASA!["This bubble of ionized gas and warm dust, called RCW 79, lies in the southern Milky Way. ... [NASA's telescopes] have found at least three generations of stars forming in this expanding envelope."](http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2012/12/17/112745main_image_feature_307_ys_full-b7930347c369c5933313ee546df47c12ec19eda5-s6-c30.jpeg "\"This bubble of ionized gas and warm dust, called RCW 79, lies in the southern Milky Way. ... [NASA's telescopes] have found at least three generations of stars forming in this expanding envelope.\"")
NASA
NASA
NASA
NASA
NASA
NASA
NASA
NASA
NASA
NASA!["[In] a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way located about 160,000 light-years from Earth, [many] new stars, some of them very massive, are forming in the star cluster NGC 1929."](http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2012/12/17/683259main_chandra08312012_full-2bdb7920b696500c5886a41c09217442826d06ba-s6-c30.jpeg "\"[In] a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way located about 160,000 light-years from Earth, [many] new stars, some of them very massive, are forming in the star cluster NGC 1929.\"")
NASA
NASA
NASA
NASA
NASA
NASA
NASA
NASA
NASA
