Starship Asterisk*

Since this photo of the Helix Nebula is understood to be representative of what will become of our sun, perhaps the main function of life is to develop not only a homogenous society, but to discover how to get the heck out of here and go somewhere else before the inevitable happens.

Charlie in NC

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080904.html

I believe that the evolution of man will indeed be to colonise the heavens; but that will be a long long way in the future. That is; if man doesn't destroy himself of this planet first. I think there is a bigger danger of mankind becoming extinct long before ol' Sol runs out of fuel.

This APOD kind of reminds me of a bad case of red eye!

Orin

The Helix Nebula is among my favorite nebulae… I love how our perspective view gives the impression of an intriguing eye looking down on us from outer space. I imagine it as a heavenly painting… perhaps meant to keep an “eye” on us and our extra-terrestrial behavior.

<< Peter Gabriel
"In Your Eyes"

"love I get so lost, sometimes
days pass and this emptiness fills my heart
when I want to run away
I drive off in my car
but whichever way I go
I come back to the place you are

all my instincts, they return
and the grand facade, so soon will burn
without a noise, without my pride
I reach out from the inside

in your eyes
the light the heat
in your eyes
I am complete
in your eyes
I see the doorway to a thousand churches
in your eyes
the resolution of all the fruitless searches
in your eyes
I see the light and the heat
in your eyes
oh, I want to be that complete
I want to touch the light
the heat I see in your eyes...">>

Regarding the 'spokes' in the Helix: Could these be tails from comets in their analog to the Oort cloud? I didn't see a scale on this so I can't judge if that's a reasonable conjecture.

I was thinking that perhaps all the nearby stuff has been boiled away and the outer comets are now getting swept naked by the solar wind. Comments?

According to this apod070803 the distance accross the bright portion of the nebula is appx 3ly and according to this apod080413 the cometary nodules contain enough mass to equal earth but cover the size of several times Pluto's orbit (appx 150au).