Well, friends, pull up a chair. Halloween's tomorrow, the porch pumpkin is leaning a little to the left, and the folks who run the big space telescopes have handed us the most fitting picture I've seen all month: a black cat, sitting out among the stars.
The European Space Agency shared new images this week from both the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes of a spot astronomers have nicknamed the Cat's Head Nebula. It sits inside the much larger Carina Nebula, a great cloud of gas and dust about 7,500 light-years from here. If you squint the way I squint at my grandkids' drawings, you'll see it: a dark cat sitting with its back to us, head turned to the right, and one glowing eye looking out over its shoulder.
Now here's the part I like. That glowing eye may be a young star, still tucked partly in its blanket of dust. And the cat's whole shape was likely carved over a long, long time by the ultraviolet light and stellar winds of big, hot stars nearby. They wore away the softer gas, and the denser stuff held its ground. The astronomers are careful to say it holds its ground "for now." Someday that cat will drift apart as its stars grow up.
The two telescopes see it differently, too. Hubble looks in visible light, the kind our eyes use, and shows a dark, dusty pillar with a few hints of stars. Webb looks in infrared and sees right through much of that dust, turning up a whole crowd of stars and even faint galaxies way off in the background. Same cat, two ways of looking. I've found that's true of most things worth understanding, including people. Sometimes you need a second look before you see what's really there.
And I'll say this: there's something comforting about a shape that's being worn down by wind and light and still sitting there, calm as you please, keeping one eye open. I know a few old fellas like that. I see one in the mirror most mornings.
I asked the grandkids at supper what a cat's favorite color is. Purr-ple. They groaned, which is how you know it landed.
Here's a practical thought for tomorrow night. If you're walking the little ones around the neighborhood, carry a good light, and leave one burning on the porch so the trick-or-treaters can find the candy and you can find your way home. When I'm out late, I keep the Fenix CL26R PRO rechargeable camping lantern handy. It's bright enough for the sidewalk and steady enough to set on the porch rail while you look up and hunt for your own cat in the stars.
Happy Halloween, y'all. Stay curious.
— Hank