M 43 - The "Horse-Head Nebula" - detail mgnf

"...I can never look now at the Milky Way without wondering from which of those banked clouds of stars the Emissaries are coming. If you will pardon so commonplace a simile, we have set off the fire alarm and have nothing to do but wait.
I do not think we will have to wait for long..."

Arthur C. Clarke - "The Sentinel"