Hope you like my latest painting. Again a bit of a departure from wildlife. I have always been interested in astronomy/cosmology and with the 50th anniversary of the first man on the moon it has made me think about how our fragile earth looks in the vastness of space and how fragile all the life is on our humble "little old piece of rock"!
So what is a regular shooting star?
Well if you don't already know this "shooting stars" we normally see in the night sky are actually tiny meteorites glowing as they enter our atmosphere and start burning up, hence creating that bright sharp beam of light making it possible for us to see.
The name of the only real known shooting star is Mira; pronounced as My-rah, which means "wonderful" in Latin. What makes this star interesting is the fact that it travels at a super-sonic speed of 291000 miles/hour! The physics behind how it managed to get that high speed is possibly due to gravitational boosts from other passing stars over time.
NASA says it has already released enough material to give rise to 3000 Earth-sized and 9 Jupiter sized planets over the last 30,000 years!
In 2007 it was discovered that its tail is a whopping 13 light-years long!
So now ya know.. & so do I!
"Wish Upon a Star’ 60’’x40’’ Oil/Canvas
