Has science come to this?

Hubble sees stars being born

(SPACE.com) -- A new image from the Hubble Space Telescope reveals stars in the process of being born amid a fantastic scene of media hype and a crush of tabloid reporters and paparazzi.

It is unclear how the space telescope, previously renowned for it's glimpses of faraway galaxies and distant celestial bodies, was redirected to the surface of the Earth and, specifically, the Universal backlot in Hollywood, California. Nasa scientists responsible for the scheduling and targeting of the orbiting satellite defended their decision saying that "the study of the life cycle of movie stars, as much as the life cycle of planetoids, black holes and the deep emptiness of space, will provide crucial knowledge of our place in the universe. If we can understand how lowly, unatractive Kansas girls and back country boys make their way to the west coast, rise to fame, glamour and power before crashing and burning and fading from public popularity, we will gain a greater consciousness of what it means to be human. And Star Weekly paid us ten million dollars for the rights."

The pictures are scheduled to appear in next week's issue of that magazine. Editors of the tabloid had no comment.

~A