42: The Magic Number

According to Douglas Adams (thanks to Deep Thought), the answer to Life, The Universe and Everything is 42.

42 is also the amount of light years away that a giant 'Earth 2.0' planet (designated HD40307) exists in the so called 'Goldilocks Zone' - not too cold, not too hot, just right. It's kind of ironic, when you consider that Adams wrote about Earth being bulldozed to make way for a a galactic space highway. We could have done with knowing about planet HD40307 in Adam's world!

So what's 42 got to do with this image? Well, the far left of this image includes Proxima Centauri, our nearest neighbour in the constellation of centaurus. It's 42 trillion kilometres away...

Oh, and today is my 42nd Birthday. See, I told you 42 was the magic number...

Thanks for all the kind comments and gongs for yesterday's shot of the blood moon and stars and for sending it to the Spotlight. I shot this view of Scorpius just after midnight, as the full moon was obscured by the lunar eclipse.