**MILKY WAY GALAXY – OUR
CELESTIAL HOME
On a clear dark and moonless night,
Spread across from the North-eastern to the
South-eastern horizon of the sky, -
Extending through the Constellations of Peresus,
Cassiopeia and Cepheus, one can see, -
The sprawling Milky Way galaxy!
Ovid described it as the highway of the Gods!
In Greek mythology we read, how goddess Hera
was tricked, -
Into suckling the baby Hercales, son of her
husband Zeus by the beautiful mortal Alcamene!
Learning about this trickery, Hera tore her breast
from the baby’s mouth, -
With her milk spurting across the sky all the way, -
Creating the smear of our Milky Way!
The Milky Way with its long spiral-like arms,
Around its central bulge 10,000 light years thick;
Giving its spiral shape, rotates clockwise in space!
Its arms are named from the constellations which in
in those directions we discern, -
The Perseus, Sagittarius, Centaurus and the Cygnus
Arms!
Our solar system is located in the Orion Spur; -
Lying in the outer arm of the Milky Way Galaxy, -
Studded with some 200 million stars, both young
and old, -
Most of which we cannot see!
In between those spiraling arms lie areas of dark
unknown exotic matters!
And as our solar system gradually orbit towards
those dark areas in space, -
Climatic changes will take place, ushering in perhaps
another Ice Age*, -
Which the Astronomers now speculate!
-Raj Nandy
07 Mar 09
(* This would take some millions of years! Being
interested in Astronomy, I have composed this, -
based on all factual data!)
RAJ NANDY
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/milky-way-galaxy-our-celestial-home/
