EarthSky News explains Genesis

How did the universe become transparent? NASA’s Webb space telescope has found that in the early opaque universe, galaxies were surrounded by huge, clear bubbles, as depicted in this artist’s illustration. The bubbles gradually merged together over about a hundred million years, with the entire universe becoming clear and transparent as a result. Image via NASA/ ESA/ CSA/ Joyce Kang (STScI).

EarthSky News explains Genesis

In the beginning,
after the Big Bang,
stars in clusters
formed invisible
to one another through
dense hydrogen gas.
Space was opaque.
And darkness was upon
the face of the deep.

Starshine slowly ionized
the gas, turning it clear.
First one, then many
glimmers could be seen.

Bubbles of transparency
merged to encompass
whole galaxies until
a whole galaxy was
small as a pea inside 
a hot-air balloon
by comparison.

Later (a hundred million
years later) the bubbles
had all merged –the whole
universe transparent
to the light. Fiat lux.

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2 Responses to EarthSky News explains Genesis

  1. edward low says:

    Happy Birthday
    ——

    counting the days

    waiting to get
    in the car and
    drive to

    finding landscapes
    to capture in photos

    to remember where

    we have been
    and perhaps

    where
    we are going

  2. Paula Koval says:

    Do I detect a haiku?

    Thank you for the condensed Genesis.

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