Summer Solstice, 2009

“…our Earth is taking part in a fantastic cosmic ballet. First, it pulls us through space at a speed of nearly twenty miles per second during its annual journey around the Sun. The Sun then drags the Earth with it during its voyage through the Milky Way at a speed of 140 miles per second. The Milky Way is falling in turn at approximately fifty-five miles per second toward Andromeda…The Local Group that contains our galaxy and Andromeda is falling at about 365 miles per second toward the Virgo cluster of galaxies, which is in turn moving toward a large complex of galaxies called the Great Attractor. Aristotle’s static, immutable Heaven is dead and gone. Everything is changing and nothing is permanent. There can be no doubt that impermanence is all around us.”
– Trinh Xuan Thuan, Professor of Astronomy, from The Quantum and the Lotus