In Greek a helix means twisted or curved,
a spiraling shape of utmost purport
midst nature's creations of every sort
from outer space to what science observed
for patterns of DNA molecules
essential for all the known forms of life,
of which our sublunary world is rife,
with helices found in coiling duals.
By contrast the nebula Helix huge,
termed NGC Seven Two Nine Three, too,
is causing a cosmic hullabaloo
as dying star sheds strands in dust deluge.
The varied wavelengths detected combine
in picture info from Chandra, X-ray;
with optical, Hubble; GALEX survey
for ultraviolet; then to entwine
some infrared data from Spitzer's scope.
While each by itself the nebula shows
the mix subtle differences bestows
with portrait that opens up sight myope
to clearer reaches of sweeping immense
beyond the supernal firmament's dome,
as darkness displaces the dimming gloam
to see with vision extending our sense.
A contest determined the Spitzer's name
which honored with eponym mountaineer,
astronomer, physicist, whose career
gave rise to the notion of what became
the outer space telescopes he conceived
among Lyman Spitzer's enterprises
of research in sidereal guises
plus plasma, distinct as substance, believed
to be matter's fourth state, the most, it's said,
abundant compared to all other forms
in universe's stelliferous swarms,
thus astral-linked midst infinity's spread.
‘The vastness of heavens, ' Feynman declared,
‘imagination stretches, ' to rephrase
his words, ‘on carousel stuck, our small gaze
can catch one-million-year-old light ensnared.'
Among planetary types various
this nebula closest to Earth they say
is six hundred fifty light-years away
within constellation Aquarius.
Accordingly pictured repeatedly,
iconic as astronomic image,
it dramatizes a stellar scrimmage
transforming its elements heatedly—
a gorgeous celestial display laid bare
that might resemble the look of our Sun
long after its welcoming days are done,
with humans' experiment wear and tear
in erstwhile abeyance, to reemerge
perchance enhanced into entities sage
somewhere on a stage in a future age
beyond Homo sapiens' reckless splurge.
Our tale might end where the next would begin
with caveat learned of losing last laugh
from Mankind's inglorious epitaph:
Here lies the species that did itself in.
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