A Nebular Haiku
The elements that compose our bodies and frame our world were conjured in the hearts of stars…
Nebula
We are kin to stars.
Phoenix. Rising from their ash.
Our dust feeds new stars.
Stars die. Medium-sized stars like our sun go gently, slowly, gracefully, shedding successive layers, glowing kimonos of ionized gas. The stellar wind from the carbon corpse of the dying star blow the layers of the kimono outwards and form a spectacular memorial called a planetary nebula (like the Cats Eye Nebula above). Approximately a tenth of the star’s mass blows away in the planetary nebula.
Massive stars more than eight times larger than our sun live bright but brief. Often, they die in a supernova explosion that can light up a galaxy and can be seen during the day if close enough to Earth. The remnants of supernovae are spectacular splashes of gas and dust like the Crab Nebula. Depending on the mass of the star and other factors, the remnant left after a supernova can be a neutron star or a black hole.
