Explanation:
Only a few stars can be
found within ten light-years of our lonely Sun,
situated near an outer spiral arm of the
Milky Way galaxy.
But if
the Sun were found within
one of our galaxy's star clusters,
thousands of stars might occupy a similar space.
What would the night sky
look like in such a densely packed stellar neighborhood?
When Roger Hopkins took this picture at the
Montezuma
National Wildlife Refuge
in the Finger Lakes region of western New York, USA, he was
struck by this same notion.
Appropriately, he had photographed a flock of starlings against the
backdrop of a serene sunset.
He then manipulated the image so that the black
bird silhouettes were changed to white.
The final
picture dramatically suggests the
tantalizing spectacle of approaching night in crowded
skies above a
cluster star world.
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