EARTH AND ALL STARS
            Stars have a prominent place in winter holiday decorations. Stars suggest different things at different times. The stars of our American flag speak patriotism. Many-pointed starts depict for us the twinkling stars of the night sky sprinkled throughout the universe from the beginning. Jews, Muslims, and Christians link the multitude of stars in the sky to the Old Testament and Abraham. Christians include in the story of the birth of Jesus, the star of Bethlehem. Native peoples told stories about objects they imagined in the fabric of the stars. Mankind has always been fascinated with the stars.
Somehow contemplating the seemingly tiny points of light scattered across the sky gives us a new perspective on where we are in the scheme of things. Our sun is one of the smaller stars. If you could view our sun from the nearest star, our sun would appear as a faint point of twinkling light with its planets, including the earth, not visible to the naked eye. Dr. Suess gave us a glimpse of this perspective when Horton, the elephant, heard a sound coming from a speck of dust and discovered a whole village living on that tiny particle.
            Our sun is part of a discus-shaped collection of 200 billion stars more than 100,000 light years from edge to edge and over 1,000 light years thick. That means that light from one edge of the galaxy would take 100,000 years to reach the other edge. Our Milky Way galaxy is one of about 21 galaxies in a cluster, known as a local group, which is about 3,000,000 light years in diameter. There are many dozens of similar local groups within 50,000,000 light years of us.
            Imagine our sun as one of those twinkling stars and then contemplate the fact that 109 earths would fit side by side across the diameter. In one second the sun gives off more energy than all people have produced during their entire stay on earth. Remarkably the earth orbits the sun at just the right distance to sustain life as we know it.
            Although a very thin layer of atmosphere extends somewhat beyond 560 miles, it is the twelve miles of atmosphere closest to the earth that hold the air and water vapor to determine our weather and climate that support life.  Earth is the place where all of life’s activities are carried out, mostly on the surface, and the place where all the by-products of these activities are deposited.
            Look up tonight. These same stars shined over Abraham and over the Wisemen thousands of years ago. Contemplate the mighty systems at work on our planet that sustain our life here. Consider how you can use our earth’s resources wisely. Reflect, then celebrate, and care.
            Della Moen, Earth Team Volunteer, NRCS/Stephenson Soil and Water
Conservation District, an equal opportunity provider and employer, 12/10/08/ (for publication on 12/20/08 in the Journal-Standard, Freeport, Illinois).
Della can be reached at info@stephensonswcd.org