Star day

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Neutron Stars

StarDate: 

February 20, 2017

Orion, perhaps the most beautiful of all constellations, stands high in the south as night falls. It’s outlined by a rectangle of four bright stars, with a short diagonal line of three stars at its middle.

Within a few million years, though, all seven of those stars will disappear. Each star will explode, leaving behind a corpse that’s one of the most extreme objects in the universe: a neutron star.

A neutron star forms when a massive star can no longer produce energy in its core. Without radiation to counteract the pull of gravity, the core collapses to the size of a city, even though it’s a couple of times as massive as the Sun. Under that crushing gravitational grip, electrons and protons smash together to form a sea of neutrons, which give these odd stars their names.

The layers of gas around the core fall inward, then rebound, creating a titanic blast known as a supernova.

As the neutron star collapses, it spins much faster, like an ice skater pulling in her arms — up to hundreds of revolutions every second. As it spins, it emits a beam of energy into space. If we happen to line up along that beam, we see the star pulse on and off like a celestial lighthouse, making it a pulsar.

A neutron star may have a crust made of solid iron. But astronomers are still trying to model how neutron stars are put together and how matter deep inside their hearts behaves. A new space telescope will help with that effort. More about that tomorrow.

 

Script by Damond Benningfield

Star day

If you keep intending to learn a few stars and their constellations but never seem to have the time, tonight offers an easy way to check a few off the list. Several prominent stars will surround the Moon, making it easy to find the stars and their home constellations.

As twilight fades, look for two bright stars to the left of the Moon: Pollux and Castor, the twins of Gemini. Pollux is a stellar giant that’s nearing the end of its life, while Castor is a system of at least six stars.

Next, look about the same distance to the right of the Moon for bright orange Betelgeuse, which marks the shoulder of Orion. Betelgeuse is heavier than the Sun, hundreds of times wider, and tens of thousands of times brighter. Before long the star will explode, briefly shining brighter than all the other stars in the galaxy combined.

The same fate awaits most of the other bright stars of Orion, which stretch to the lower right of Betelgeuse. Three stars form a compact line known as Orion’s Belt. Rigel, Orion’s brightest star, is on the opposite side of the belt from Betelgeuse.

Canis Minor, the little dog, stands below the Moon, marked by its single bright star, Procyon. And the brightest star in all the night sky stands to the lower right of Procyon: Sirius, the leading light of Canis Major, the big dog.

That gives you four constellations in a single glance, perhaps jump-starting those plans to learn more of the geography of the night sky.

Script by Damond Benningfield

 

Star day

You are here

Moon in the Middle

StarDate: 

February 7, 2017

If you keep intending to learn a few stars and their constellations but never seem to have the time, tonight offers an easy way to check a few off the list. Several prominent stars will surround the Moon, making it easy to find the stars and their home constellations.

As twilight fades, look for two bright stars to the left of the Moon: Pollux and Castor, the twins of Gemini. Pollux is a stellar giant that’s nearing the end of its life, while Castor is a system of at least six stars.

Next, look about the same distance to the right of the Moon for bright orange Betelgeuse, which marks the shoulder of Orion. Betelgeuse is heavier than the Sun, hundreds of times wider, and tens of thousands of times brighter. Before long the star will explode, briefly shining brighter than all the other stars in the galaxy combined.

The same fate awaits most of the other bright stars of Orion, which stretch to the lower right of Betelgeuse. Three stars form a compact line known as Orion’s Belt. Rigel, Orion’s brightest star, is on the opposite side of the belt from Betelgeuse.

Canis Minor, the little dog, stands below the Moon, marked by its single bright star, Procyon. And the brightest star in all the night sky stands to the lower right of Procyon: Sirius, the leading light of Canis Major, the big dog.

That gives you four constellations in a single glance, perhaps jump-starting those plans to learn more of the geography of the night sky.

 

Script by Damond Benningfield

Song for a lady

Song for a lady

 

Let me go now and write a song for a lady

I write, mind you well

That her kiss

Warm, frisky, moist-mouthed,

Eager, timid and indeed sweet, driven by love’s thirst

 

Far from love

Far from love in the quickest, a blink of an eye

 

But close to love

Close to love, close like my own skin

 

Let me go now and then and write a song for a lady

I write we danced to love songs

We smiled in youth having fun I write

 

Together happy as in ever after

In this moment I dream and do not believe

That I have heard the singing of her heart on my chest in tune beat per beat it never went silent

 

 I write a song for a lady borrowing many imagined expressions, such as, love; love like it will never end

Or maybe I should use: everything with a start has an end, I write a song for a lady

 

SLUMS OF KAMPALA, UGANDA

Slums of Kampala, Uganda

 

Think how you may about these slums, their streets frightening, ghettos pocked by sudden violent spaces, with a smell of hell amidst a bright day.

 

How come, I ask myself…how may it be that I do not remember myself here; I do now…. as a child, walking barefoot perhaps on broken shards of glass, going on open latrines hoes, sewage in the front yard; the way of flies at a festival

 

It is how it is here in Natete, Nakulabye, Bwaise, Kawempe, Kamokya, Kasubi, Kawala, Kikoni, Kibuye, Kansanga, Namuwongo, Kinawataka,

 

Perhaps since my being lacked fullness here; I had to forge a different direction; beyond my birth borders and the evening sun above these ghettos….

 

 

I must have gone far away from here, I must have grown up in the land of concrete spaces; skyscrapers made of diamond and washrooms made of marble, beautiful lawns, properly lit streets and people with smiles as white as snow. But I still remember myself in these slums…as if this morning I remember my mother here, I remember my first steps here!

Slums of Kampala, Uganda

Slums of Kampala, Uganda

 

Think how you may about these slams, their streets frightening, ghettos sounded by sudden violent spaces, with a smell of hell amidst a bright day.

 

How come, I ask myself…how may it be that I do not remember myself here; I do now…. as a child, walking barefoot perhaps on broken glasses, going on open latrines hoes, sewage in the front yard; the way of flies at a festival

 

It is how it is here in Natete, Nakulabye, Bwaise, Kawempe, Kamokya, Kasubi, Kawala, Kikoni, Kibuye, Kansanga, Namuwongo, Kinawataka,

 

Perhaps since my being lacked fullness here; I had to lead a different direction; beyond my birth boarders and the evening sun above these ghettos….

 

 

I must have went far away from here, I must have grown up in the land of concrete spaces; sky scrapper made of glassing and washrooms made of marbles, beautiful lawns, well lit streets and people with smiles as whites as snow. But I still remember myself in these slams…for example I remember my mother here, I remember my first steps here!

I (Jeremy Jjemba) took this picture in one of the slams in Kampala, around 2011

I grow on ...POEMS BY JEREMY JJEMBA

I grow on

 

POEMS BY JEREMY JJEMBA

This picture of me (Jeremy Jjemba) was taken at Kasubi Nursery School, in Kampala, Uganda! By Julie Webb, Canadian missionary ! 

 

Each day, I grow on

Like a traveller in an unknown territory

I grow on

 

Each succeeding morning has something new

But I grow on

Seed to plant

I grow on   

 

It is with difficulty that I grow on

I grow on to reality

 

From a newborn

To a child

To a boy

To a teen

 

I grow on

In the reality of daily bliss and chaos, a cloud of northern lights, some laughing gas, tick, tock, tick, tock, a bomb in time square, red devil sheet rocking bounciness, the gopher, the lettuce, dice rolling black sunshine, jolly pop hanging out with bombita, I grow on to the day I will need kiddie dope