Stardust
I’m made of stardust someone said
of carbon, iron, gold and lead;
the stuff of fires that dot the night
and bathe the sky in colored light.
In shadowed place flash and spark,
give birth to starshine in the dark;
embattle night till gloom has fled.
I’m made of stardust Someone said.
This poem written for my daughter, Terry, highlights the true nature of stars, including our sun. The use of telescopes for photographing stars has allowed scientists to classify them by their chemical makeup. That’s what the color of stars is all about. Had it not been for Annie Jump Cannon, who took the time and had the patience to observe and catalogue more than 230,000 stars in the early 1900’s, we wouldn’t be able to smile over the mnemonic Oh Be A Fine Girl Kiss Me!
OBAFGKM refers to the star’s temperature, the O stars being the hottest, while the M stars are relatively cool. Annie had noticed dark lines in the spectrum of each star. Some stars had more dark lines, some fewer. Laboratory experiments employing the burning of various chemical substances produced similar spectral lines. Thus scientists were able to determine the chemistry of the stars that Annie had recorded.
For more on Annie Jump Cannon read:
If you wonder why the Wellesley site, Annie graduated from this all girl’s college.
Another website on Annie is:
For a movie on a modern version of Wellesley in Massachusetts, watch Mona Lisa Smile (2003).
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