Human Flower Project
Miami, Florida USA
Denver, Colorado USA
Hollywood, California USA
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Delivered across 2,000 Light Years
NASA finds a rafflesia flower in the constellation Lyra.
Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Harvard-Smithsonian CfA
Ever wonder why we associate flowers with mortality?
Using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers found this “flower” in the Ring Nebula, 2,000 light years away.
A nebula is created as a star dies. “The ‘ring’ is a thick cylinder of glowing gas and dust around the doomed star. As the star begins to run out of fuel, its core becomes smaller and hotter, boiling off its outer layers.”
Writers for Space Flight Now see “the delicate petals of a camellia blossom.” We see a rafflesia flower. No matter. This is a star’s funeral. Nobody’s ever quite seen the likes of it before.