Yeah, Mercury Did Kinda Kick Newton In The Balls, Didn’t It?

Goregous :O

In the Life of a Star Chapter 11, Additional Topics, I’ve been thinking about putting in a section on solar flares and prominences. Maybe if I have enough room, I do love this photo.

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Dramatic solar activity was going on last night and I was able to create a gif of this solar prominence! 🌞🌞🌞

Solar prominences are different from solar flares since solar prominences are mostly pulled in by the Sun’s gravity, creating a majestic loop like shape! 🤩 🤩🤩

Taken by me (Michelle Park) using the Slooh Canary Five telescope on July 2nd, 2020. 

I mean, that is true. Atoms would really like communism (aside from Noble gases, of course).

Fluorine be like SHARING IS CARING

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Hydrogen bond vibes

That’s epic :o

Kennedy Space Center reopens on May 28th and I begged my parents to go but they don’t want to xD

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The first West Coast SpaceX launch captured by photographer Dylan Schwartz.

Antimatter if you mattered then you would cancel out xD

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Anitimatter matters!

Oo

I haven’t done a lot of research on comets. Maybe one day I’ll do an article on one, in the future. They sound so cool xD

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Comet Halley vs Comet SWAN via NASA https://ift.tt/2y0UdFr

The pre-dawn hours of May 3rd were moonless as grains of cosmic dust streaked through southern skies above Reunion Island. Swept up as planet Earth plowed through dusty debris streams left behind periodic Comet 1/P Halley, the annual meteor shower is known as the Eta Aquarids. This inspired exposure captures a bright aquarid meteor flashing left to right over a sea of clouds. The meteor streak points back to the shower’s radiant in the constellation Aquarius, well above the eastern horizon and off the top of the frame. Known for speed Eta Aquarid meteors move fast, entering the atmosphere at about 66 kilometers per second, visible at altitudes of 100 kilometers or so. Then about 6 light-minutes from Earth, the pale greenish coma and long tail of Comet C/2020 F8 SWAN were not to be left out of the celestial scene, posing above the volcanic peaks left of center. Now in the northern sky’s morning twilight near the eastern horizon Comet SWAN has not become as bright as anticipated though. This first time comet made its closest approach to planet Earth only two days ago and reaches perihelion on May 27.

(Published May 14, 2020)

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.

Albert Einstein

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For a star to be born, there is one thing that must happen: a gaseous nebula must collapse. So collapse. Crumble. This is not your destruction. This is your birth.

Zoe Skylar

(via the-wolf-and-moon)

Everything that is created comes from destruction, that’d just how our universe works.

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INTRODUCTION TO THE LIFE OF A STAR

The yellow dwarf of our Sun is around 4.5 billion years old (NASA).

   This is nothing compared to other stars, the oldest we know of was created 13.2 billion years ago (DISCOVERY OF THE 1523-0901).  Shortly before that, it is theorized the universe was a dense ball of super hot subatomic particles, until it wasn't. 

     For some reason, possibly the amounts of pressure or even the mysterious dark energy, the universe exploded into what it is today, forming crucial atoms and molecules, and continues to expand. These molecules formed clumps and clouds of gas, which eventually collapsed by gravity and created the very first stars. 

    Stars, particularly our Sun, are very important to life and affect the void of space to a great magnitude. They can tell us so much about the early universe, form elements from their deaths, and even create black holes. But how did this come to be?

     By definition, they are "huge celestial bodies made mostly of hydrogen and helium that produce light and heat from the churning nuclear forges inside their cores." (National Geographic) And there are TONS of them. There are stars everywhere we look. In fact, Astrophysicists aren't even sure how many stars there actually ARE in the universe (Space)! That's because they're not sure if the universe is infinite - in which the number of stars would also be infinite. Even so, we may not be able to detect them all, even if the number is finite.

     But they're so much more than a definition or a number. Stars aren't just objects: they're histories. Stars have a life, they are born, fuel themselves on nuclear fusion, and when they can no longer -  there are many ways their deaths can go (in brutal, yet tantalizing ways). They form solar systems, galaxies, galaxy clusters, and might just be the life-blood of the universe. Their light acts as beacons to scientists. Stars are so crucial to us, their deaths through Supernovas form most of the elements on the Periodic Table of the Elements.

    As the brilliant cosmologist, Carl Sagan, once said: "The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of star-stuff."

    And if we're made of this stuff, shouldn't we at least try to understand what it actually does?

Next - Chapter 2: Classification

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Lookin’ Good!

I’ve been wanting to be an Astronaut for Halloween but sadly I live in Florida and the heat might suffocate me in a full suit! Perhaps a nice NASA shirt and hat and maybe a fake ID badge and I can go as a scientist :D

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Artemis Generation Spacesuit Event : Amy Ross, a spacesuit engineer at Johnson Space Center, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, watch as Kristine Davis and Dustin Gohmert wear prototype spacesuits. (via NASA)

Wow, that’s gorgeous :o

That’s gotta be one of the most beautiful nebulae I’ve laid eyes on! And, it looks like a heart too!

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IC 1805: The Heart Nebula : What energizes the Heart Nebula? First, the large emission nebula dubbed IC 1805 looks, in whole, like a human heart. The nebula glows brightly in red light emitted by its most prominent element: hydrogen. The red glow and the larger shape are all powered by a small group of stars near the nebula’s center. In the center of the Heart Nebula are young stars from the open star cluster Melotte 15 that are eroding away several picturesque dust pillars with their energetic light and winds. The open cluster of stars contains a few bright stars nearly 50 times the mass of our Sun, many dim stars only a fraction of the mass of our Sun, and an absent microquasar that was expelled millions of years ago. The Heart Nebula is located about 7,500 light years away toward the constellation of Cassiopeia. Coincidentally, a small meteor was captured in the foreground during imaging and is visible above the dust pillars. At the top right is the companion Fishhead Nebula. via NASA