Tale Of A Troubled Galaxy Poem by Harley White
Tale Of A Troubled Galaxy
Life oftentimes can be fast and furious,
as dramatized in this cosmic sight
which piqued the wonder of gazers curious,
seeking to grasp the star system's plight.
Albeit as jellyfish galaxy known
that spiral within Norma Cluster
like a puffed dandelion by breezes blown
is spreading its seeds in the bluster
while streaking through hot seething gases in space,
being ‘ram pressure' stripped as it zooms,
at a stunningly swift precipitant pace,
trailing tendrilous filament plumes.
In the pull of the Great Attractor it's caught,
an ‘anomalous' gravity force
that is puzzling astronomers who have sought
its perplexing mysterious source.
The astounding strength it exerts staggers one's
imagination, tugging us all
with the power of a million billion Suns.
Will worlds assemble in the long haul?
But let us not stray from the matter at hand,
the stelliferous runaway state
of the violent land on that spiral's strand
far-removed from our nebulous fate.
An abundance of massive stars in its wake
have emerged in the galaxy's path;
thus amidst the destruction these furies make
there's a stellar rebirth aftermath...
Life whizzes by, so it seems, when we're nearing
the time we must turn this earthly page.
Then we might tremble as death is appearing
to usher us from the pageant's stage.
For when all histrionics and revels end
and our cause and effect takes its sum,
who can say if we journey beyond that bend
or what nature of dreams may still come?
Seen among the foreground of stars in the Milky Way, a distant galaxy called ESO 137-001 is streaking through a cluster of galaxies in the constellation of Norma at an astonishing 4.5 million miles per hour. As ESO 137 speeds through the cluster, it rams into the rather thin gas which makes up the intercluster medium. The pressure of this collision strips away gas from ESO 137. The image above is an HST optical image combined with a Chandra X-ray Observatory X-ray image (in blue) . ESO 137 leaves a wake of X-ray emitting gas as it speeds through the cluster. Nearer the galaxy, tendrils of the galaxy's interstellar medium are stripped out of ESO 137. Some of this material will feed the intergalactic medium of the Norma Cluster with new gas enriched in heavy elements, helping to further the chemical evolution of the Universe.
The galaxy is zooming toward the upper right of this image, in between other galaxies in the Norma cluster located over 200 million light-years away. The road is harsh: intergalactic gas in the Norma cluster is sparse, but so hot at 180 million degrees Fahrenheit that it glows in X-rays.
The spiral plows through the seething intra-cluster gas so rapidly - at nearly 4.5 million miles per hour — that much of its own gas is caught and torn away. Astronomers call this 'ram pressure stripping.'
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Additional info ~ 'Mystery of The Great Attractor' ~ 'Unknown Force Pulling Our Milky Way Galaxy Towards It With the Force of a Million Billion Suns'...
Hundreds of hidden nearby galaxies have been studied for the first time, shedding light on a mysterious gravitational anomaly dubbed the Great Attractor, which appears to be drawing the Milky Way and hundreds of thousands of other galaxies towards it with a gravitational force equivalent to a million billion Suns. Despite being just 250 million light years from Earth- very close in astronomical terms- the new galaxies had been hidden from view until now by the Milky Way.
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Image ~ 'ESO 137-001: Life Is Too Fast, Too Furious for This Runaway Galaxy'
Credit: NASA, ESA, CXC
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4/19/2024 6:37:10 AM # 1.0.0.1119
The astounding strength does indeed stagger the imagination and an abundance of stars are also in its path waiting and yet they are not being pulled...that's what's got my interest.....but what truly staggers me is your poetry, the complexities you present is an incredible delight to read, when I was a child and was introduced to astronomy I was taken as if by a spell, your poetry has the same elements to it, it is correct and brilliantly woven into a heavenly tapestry that blows with the cosmic winds, awesome! ! ! Just awesome!
Though it was not the main subject of the poem, I agree that the power and mystery of that “unknown force” known as the “Great Attractor” are fascinating beyond imagination! Indeed there are so many wonders in the cosmos! And in my own way, I am trying to share some of these marvels through poems. I hardly know how to convey how fortunate I feel to have you as a reader! The appreciation you express fills me with delight and encourages me immensely! Again, thank you so much!