“Nothing really touches bro, just kind of floats.”
We open on a scene of desolate location, dust being blown about. However you are still able to see for miles and miles of just vastness. The dirt may be red; the color of Earth’s clay, or maybe even a deep maroon. The horizon ends and in the sky you may see another planet off in the distance. You take a step forward onto the unknown land before you. Ready to explore. Where did your mind take you when reading that? Perhaps Mars, by the adjectives that describe what we know of it. Dusty, the color red, another planet. Generally our minds take us to similiar knowledge of an item in order to relate to what is surrounding us. Now let me stretch your mind a little. “Every atom of your DNA is stardust” (Dr. David Hamilton, PhD).
Yes, you, dear reader, are in fact made up of stardust. The atoms of hydrogen gradually pull together, compress and squash together forming helium, through the process of nuclear fusion. While this processing is taking place, all of the energy is compiling and will “ignite” creating heavier elements; i.e. carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, silicon and iron, etc. As time goes on, the star or planet is formed. When planets and stars fuel is depleted they explode causing a supernova, where all of the elements are blasted back into space.
Talking about the formation of planets, stars and well, us, brings my mind to one of the new photos from the James Webb Space Telescope of the Carina Nebula. It captures the beginning stages of hundreds of stars forming. As you look at the image you see many light flares and a deep black/blue in the background. In the foreground your eyes dance and sway with the dust and gas clouds ebbing and flowing. The clouds are almost an orange/red with mutiple layers and even the thinnest transparency all rolled into one.
When pondering about outer space with all that it encapsulates (well, space in fact is not a container but I hope you see where I am going) I try to bring it back into my own life. What can I learn on a deeper level? If I am just made of stardust then perhaps, when I turn into dust again it is just a new beginning to explore.
ONDER
SAMANTHA Y OCIUS PHOTO-TECH
