"The death of a Star" (Answer to Hot Topic: How Has the News about Michael Jackson's Death Impacted You?)

[Silvana]

Last week, I was 4 hours away from civilization, on top of the Large Binocular Telescope, the biggest optical telescope on earth so far. I was learning about real stars and their lives, seeing constellations like the eagle nebula were they are forming; the beautiful blue and red binary stars of Albireo, and taking spectography picture of dead stars like the Dumbell planetary Nebula.

Planetary Nebulas are, perhaps, some of the most beaituful night sky objects you can observe. You can see how in the middle of a shell of gas and plasma, there is a small dot cold star. (see picture here!: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap060625.html). It actually reminds me of what has just happened with the pop-star that just died: Michael Jackson. He lays there, cold, in the middle of the whole Maelström his death created, all mediums alive and people aware of this passing away.

So, really. When you are in the middle of nature and seeing billions of years into history (for that is the light of stars!), you don't really care, nor realize the importance of the death of this person. It was just an "oh" with some sort of non-sinking sensation of the news. But it is truly amazing once I come back to 'reality', to see on internet and in the news the waves of information. I guess I even find it funny that search engines like Google had trouble with the number of queries for Michael's death, or that Tweeter starts sending 2000 msgs related to Jackson per minute!

I guess this is just a reminder that life is life. I grew up too to Beat It, Billy Jean and all those songs, and still think that Smooth Criminal is one of the best videos ever, and it makes me a bit sad. He was an emblematic and troublesome character of music, and I enjoyed his music. Rest in peace, Michael: you became such a big star that now there is a planetary nebula of mass media and mourners around you.

[Silvana]

AND! Important. Why is Michael Jackson's death more important and causing more mass revolution than the tragedy in my city? (burning of ABC childcare, 48 infants dead).