epiminondas writes:

Now how cool is this? You’re looking at a celestial scene that is located about 8,000 light years distance from earth within our own galaxy. But keep looking. See that big star in the lower central area of the big blob of cosmic dust? From one side of that hollowed out “niche” to the other is a distance of TEN light years. That big star in the middle has simply eaten out that hollow space over the eons. The distance between that star and the surrounding cosmic dust is about FIVE light years. That’s a greater distance than that which lies between our sun and its closest neighboring star, Alpha Centauri. Your task, Mr. Phelps, should you choose to accept this assignment, is to wrap your brain around that fact. This message will self-destruct in about a billion years.