Star birth Gone Wild?

Something you may or may not have been able to deduce about me from reading this blog is that due to my unorthodox upbringing by vaudevillian circus performers (where I had to share sleeping quarters with baby elephants but only ONE of us had to clean the cage each morning) who spent their summers as migrant farm workers picking lima beans, I have a tremendous need for calm, UNDRAMATIC daily life and an abhorrence for manual labor.

Consequently, these past many weeks as the level of anxiety in my solar system has continued to swell despite my best efforts at reducing stress through lame attempts at levity and concocting the equivalent of a pharmacist's tasting menu, I have been at a loss to understand the whys and wherefores. I thought about sitting in a lotus position and chanting a mantra, but knew I'd just obsess about pronouncing it incorrectly which couldn't possibly be productive. And then, today, when I least expected it, the answer was revealed to me.

Et voila--I'm having a cosmic hurricane!

Robert Roy Britt of Space writes, "The impetus for star formation in M82 came from a collision with another galaxy, M81, about 300 million years ago, astronomers say. Collisions were common when the universe was younger and smaller, and are thought to have played an important role in star birth. Here's what happens in a typical collision: Huge amounts of gas are funneled into dense regions faster than the galaxy can get rid of it. The galaxy overheats and explodes into stars."

Stand back people. I'm about to explode.

(And I better not wake up to find it was all a scene out of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory).

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