NASA released the following photo and information today.
This image shows the location of Cloud-9, which is 14 million light-years from Earth. […] The dashed circle marks the peak of radio emission, which is where researchers focused their search for stars. […] Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys shows that, in reality, the failed galaxy contains no stars.
I am reminded of what the Winnower asked.
Think about it. Do you mourn the uncreated? Do you grieve for those who were never born in a nation that never developed around an ideology no one ever imagined on a continent that never formed? No!
Yeah huh. My immediate response to reading the page from NASA was a sort of mourning for the unrealized possibilities of vast civilizations on other worlds. Strangers never to be met nor to exist and what a loss that is.