Space Gas

Space Gas

The sun, in its endless swimming around the Galaxy, was now passing through a wisp of interstellar water gas, a wisp mighty enough to span light years. Human astronomers had not seen this coming. The water bubble was first found to sail within Mars’ orbit in fact at its nearest to Earth, it came to within less than a quarter of the closest approach of Mars and Earth. It was the vanguard of a mighty bubble blown in the water gas by an ancient supernova explosion, and at its heart was a region where stars were being built.

The new sky was spectacular, full of incredibly nice stars seen through billions of bright water lenses.

Space Gas. Artwork by Elena

We all know that the first few hundred asteroids the astronomers discovered had orbited in their orderly belt between Mars and Jupiter, comfortably far from Earth. These space rocks had been a curiosity, nothing but a theoretical challenge to students of the origins of the solar system. Later, more asteroids were found that actually crossed the orbit of Earth, making them candidates for eventual collision with the planet.

(Extract from The Rain, the famous SF novel by Elena and George)