Galactic Confluence Poem by Harley White

The NASA observatories great three
have studied a galaxy cluster vast
in the universe's family tree
less than a third of its age, from the past.

With name that's too long for poetic line,
IDCS One Four Two Six, for short,
is imaged in hues that brilliantly shine
midst northern skies where Boötes holds court.

This stretch multi-wavelength shows X-rays blue
from Chandra, with visible light in green
through Hubble; and then to complete the view,
infrared data by Spitzer is seen

in red— a huge structure considered rare.
Located ten billion light-years afar,
its staggering weight is said to compare
with five hundred trillion suns like our star!

‘Twas the Spitzer that discovered it first,
in two thousand twelve, not so long ago.
More observations were later dispersed,
while many theories started to flow

about formation of clusters massive,
galactic in nature plus scope and size,
with evolution in no way passive
as mergers their heftiness would revise.

Seemingly ninety percent matter dark
detected through gravitational pull—
a mysterious stuff in contrast stark
to the kind perceived and portrayed in full—

the group has astronomers quite intrigued
because of its mixture of mass and youth.
Stargazers with data together leagued
in search of the galaxy cluster's truth.

Yet of all the wonders this lot can boast
from its cooler core to its grand design,
the beautiful blue beguiles me the most
with a sense of serenity benign.

"Blue! ‘Tis the life of heaven, " Keats noted
in one of the stunning sonnets he penned,
that poet sublime so often quoted,
whose days came to such an untimely end.

Still his ‘bright star' ever steadfast will glow
to illuminate worldly senses dimmed,
while ‘in midst of other woe' than we know,
with beauty and truth exquisitely limned.

The telescopes Hubble, Spitzer, Chandra
for famous scientists have been labeled,
believed of insights, unlike Cassandra,
and their groundbreaking sky-visions fabled.

Astrophysicist winner Nobel Prize,
with given name Chandrasekhar entire,
was the chosen one to immortalize
the space observation amplifier

of x-ray sources considered too faint
for picking up from our planet-based home.
What colorful portraits wavelengths can paint
of marvels displayed on the cosmic dome!

Chandra in Sanskrit means ‘shining' or ‘moon',
which returns us to planet Earth anew,
where Nature for mortal life is in tune,
while human priorities are askew.

Our sapphire world is a speck miniscule
in the universe phantasmagoric,
yet dearer to us than priceless jewel
or a heavenly realm metaphoric,

for here we're creating mankind's memoirs,
beneath a splendorous stippling of stars…