Doorway

The massive red sandstone entrance to the 17^th century mission church at Quarai is showered with a swarm of stars from a globular cluster 28,000 light years from earth.

M80 (NGC 6093) is one of the densest star clusters known, created about 15 billion years ago. It is held together by mutual gravitational attraction. Every star is older, more developed, and in most cases larger than our own sun. The bright red giants are nearing the end of their life cycle. (PR99-26; Credit NASA, Hubble Heritage Team, STScI, AURA.)

The church doorway, built in the 1600=s by Indian labor, is splayed at a 45 degree angle toward the nave. Wooden doors were made with pegs that fit into the wood lintel. Franciscans directed the building of the settlement in central New Mexico, their congregation in 1641 reported as 658 souls, primarily native converts. (Kubler: Religious Architecture of NM; Museum of NM.)

Click on image to return to Quarai.