Showing posts with label Formation of the Solar System. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Formation of the Solar System. Show all posts

Friday, January 13, 2012

7. The Moon

As the master smiled and admired his work
The sun burst in and made a new demand.
“Make the gem a double,” she said.
“I want a beautiful pearl to go with my blue marble.”
“It must shine when I look at it.”
“It must hide my face when I want to show off my vibrant crown.”
“It has to be something that everyone will be talking about for ages.”
“Something that will be looked at for millennia.”
“Something they will do anything to get.”
“I want them to reach for my pearl because it’s hard”
“Not because it’s easy.”
“So that when they do reach out to grab it”
“They can stand up and triumphantly say they did it.”
“I’d like a few for the other gems too.”
At the sun’s demands a look of anger crossed the forge master’s face.
He took a Mars and hurled it with all his might.
The Mars flew toward the gem.
The two molten planets collided.
A great splash of hot, liquid metal came forth.
That last hammering made the gem smaller
The molten metals flowed out and slowly clumped together
An even smaller gem was formed.
The forge master smiled at how things turned out.
His gem continued to cool as it hardened.
The larger planet slowly cooled as well.
He made sure to skillfully hammer each piece.
Black patches of rock came back to the surface.
The gem was formed but not complete.
It needed color.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

6.The Early Earth

The sun was pleased by the work of the architect
But something seemed to be missing.
Something unique.
Something no one else had before.
“Form for me a jewel,” the Sun said one day.
“It must outshine the best of my collection.”
“Make it blue,”
“A deep, dark, ocean blue.”
“Make it cool and refreshing.”
“Swirl it around with reds, browns and greens”
“Add a few little patches of white.”
“Make it a piece of art.”
“It will be my prized possession.”
The architect did as he was told.
The new gem grew out of the womb of nebula.
As it did it burned.
The jewel was red and molten in the forge of the Solar System
Continually bombarded by small chunks
Shaping the metal like hammers over fire.
The great forge master smiled at his work.
He showed his white teeth among his long, scraggly, smoke-colored beard.
He held the formless mass over the fire and rhythmically hammered away.
Making the molten ball bigger.
Hot sparks leaped up off the surface
Splashing down once again.
This continued over many millennia.
The forge master perfected his craft.
Hot gasses steamed out.
Slowly, pieces of black land came up
Crusting over the red molten liquid.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

5. The Solar System

A rotating disk of gas and dust
Swirling for millennia
Separating into pieces
Slowly coming together
Pressing themselves
Into smaller and smaller
Chunks of material.
They violently collide with each other
Turning up the heat
Melting together.
The sun ignited.
It peered out from behind her dusty veil into the dark
With its red hot face.
It watched the carnage and violence of the meteors.
As they collided,
Sparks flew out into the emptiness
Then rained down among the
Infant planets.
Slowly things calmed down
Out of many millions of pieces,
Nine remained.
The sun has a new collection of gems.
Dusting them off with stellar winds
She admired them
Tilting them one way
Then the other.
Some were blue.
Others red.
Some were dark.
A few were golden.
To go with the gems, the sun sported a metallic necklace.
She smiled brightly
At the work of the cosmic blacksmith.
Visitors from the neighborhood sometimes grew tails as they passed through.
They weep with joy at the wonderful jewelry the sun has.
New changes will happen in this part of the cosmos.
The great millennia have shown themselves to be good artisans and architects.
We must thank the prime architect,
The cosmic blacksmith,
Mysterious in all his ways.
Without whom the lesser ones wouldn’t have accomplished these things.