[Saundra Duffy]

I love this stuff but don’t understand it. It just makes me love God all the more.

[onedoug]

Even a tiny amount of understanding does that for me too.

Note that it was a little more than halfway out in a spiral galaxy (similar to our own). That means heavier elements (carbon, oxygen, iron...) spread over a few hundred light years. Should a G2 star (like our own) ignite somewhere within this field it's possible that within the next billion years or so life could take hold on a metal enriched planet within it's circumstellar habitable zone and, who knows.... Eventual intelligence?

God, thank you for the awesome universe in which we live.