The Cosmic Buffet
I am back with a blog post after what seems like an eternity! This impromptu post is inspired by a beautiful photograph that I came across while reading about the astounding findings of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Before I explain further about the photograph itself, I will take a moment to touch upon this weird wellness routine of mine which spawned my interest in the JWST photographs. Putting it another way, JWST plays a ‘starring’ role in this daily reflective exercise that I have figured out for myself. The routine itself is ridiculously simple: (1) Before going to bed at night, spend a few minutes pondering over an image of outer space clicked by JWST, and (2) Wake up in the morning and repeat the step before starting your day. This mindless routine is actually an act of mindfulness. In the humdrum of everyday life, we often lose perspective of things beyond the ones which require our immediate attention. We venture further down the rabbit hole, lose temper, and bargain away our peace of mind for peanuts. In the mayhem, we forget to see things which are not in our immediate vicinity. How many of us routinely stop to gaze at the stars at night? For many of us, the city lights don’t allow any real stargazing either. Yet, even if the cities were to go completely dark, most of us would be pressed for time to do that. I know this because I have been there. There was a time in my childhood and teenage years when I wouldn’t miss a single evening of sunset and stargazing. And yet, a few weeks ago, I realized that I haven’t looked at the stars in a long time. That’s when I decided to start and end my day by looking at the photos of stars and galaxies twinkling down at JWST. It is not the same as looking up at the sky and feeling yourself touched by starlight, but the routine ensures that I make time to go out at night and enjoy the starry sky.
Coming back to the photograph, I chanced upon it while checking out JWST’s ‘Picture of the Month’ (POTM). (1) Aptly titled ‘A Visual Feast of Galaxies’, it was literally a feast of galaxies of all shapes, sizes and distances. Enjoy the feast below!
Fig 1: The Cosmic Buffet- Galaxies of all shapes and sizes (Photo courtesy: James Webb Space Telescope, ESA)
Look at the picture closely. You might notice a few ‘twinkling’ stars, with diffraction spikes around them. These are stars from our home galaxy, the Milky Way. Everything else, and I mean every single point of light, bright or faint or barely there, is a galaxy. There is a cluster of galaxies glowing with white-gold light at the center of the photo. The light from this galaxy group has travelled for 6.5 billion years before reaching the JWST, which means that we are seeing the galaxy as it appeared when the universe was half its present age (the universe is estimated to the 13.8 billion years old). The galaxy group might look quite different today, but we will have to wait another 6.5 billion years for its present-day photograph to reach us!
Look at the picture closely again. You will see many smooth elliptical galaxies and a few spiral ones, with the outer arms splaying away from the center. The nearer ones appear in shades of white and blue, while the farther ones are redder. In fact, the more distant a galaxy is, the redder it appears.
You might also see a few galaxies which look like they have been stretched or elongated. These are, in fact, interacting or merging galaxies. Cosmic collisions of this sort never fail to astound me. Haven’t we always thought of stars and galaxies as bloodless, lifeless forms, with us being the only ‘living’ things in the entire universe? And yet, here they are, two galaxies fighting over their territories and each other’s assets! (Weird that it should remind me of powerful people fighting for more power, or little children bickering over toys)
When I pause for a moment to ponder over cosmic collisions, what does that do to a mortal being like me? It shows me that nothing about my day has any sense of permanency to it. No matter how bad my day was, the sun will rise again, and a new day will arrive. The sense of impermanence is liberating, and the realization that my life on this planet will barely register in the grand scheme of thing is liberty itself. It gifts me the freedom to cast aside all pretensions, fears and inhibitions, and live life fully, like a soul possessed. For I know that it is only the light we spread that lives on after our show has ended; the twinkling stars told me that.
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