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Betamori was discovered in the Beta Tolis star cluster after one of Earth’s vessels veered off course attracted by the beautiful triangle clusters surrounding the planet. At first Betamorians welcomed the humans with their kind demeanour, but eventually kept the crew as pets. It is not recommended as a planet to visit unless you mind sleeping on the floor.
Although we rarely stop to think about the origin of the elements of our bodies, we are directly connected to the greater universe. In fact, we are literally made of stardust that was liberated from the interiors of dying stars in gigantic explosions, and then collected to form our Earth as the solar system took shape some 4.5 billion years ago. Until about two decades ago, however, we knew only of our own planetary system so that it was hard to know for certain how planets formed, and what the history of the matter in our bodies was.
Then, in 1995, the first planet to orbit a distant Sun-like star was discovered. In the 20 years since then, thousands of others have been found. Most planets cannot be detected with our present-day technologies, but estimates based on those that we have observed suggest that almost every star in the sky has at least one extrasolar planet (or exoplanet) orbiting it. That means that there are more than 100 billion planetary systems in our Milky Way Galaxy alone! Imagine that: astronomers have gone from knowing of 1 planetary system to some 100 billion, in the same decades in which human genome scientists sequenced the 6 billion base-pairs that lie at the foundation of our bodies. How many of these planetary systems could potentially support life, and would that life use a similar code?
Exoplanets are much too far away to be actually imaged, and they are way too faint to be directly observed next to the bright glow of the stars they orbit. Therefore, the first exoplanet discoveries were made through the gravitational tug on their central star during their orbits. This pull moves the star slightly back and forth. Only relatively heavy, close-in planets can be detected that way, using the repeating Doppler shifts of their central star’s light from red to blue and back. Another way to find planets is to measure how they block the light of their central star if they happen to cross in front of it as seen from Earth. If they are seen to do this twice or more, the temporary dimmings of their star’s light can disclose the planet’s size and distance to its star (basically using the local “year” – the time needed to orbit its star – for these calculations). If both the gravitational tug and the dimming profile can be measured, then even the mass of the planet can be estimated. Size and mass together give an average density from which, in turn, knowledge of the chemical composition of that planet comes within reach.
Star trails, by MLazarevski. CC-BY-ND-2.0 via Flickr.
With the discoveries of so many planets, we have realized that an astonishing diversity exists: hot Jupiter-sized planets that orbit closer to their star than Mercury orbits the Sun, quasi-Earth-sized planets that may have rain showers of molten iron or glass, frozen planets around faintly-glowing red dwarf stars, and possibly some billions of Earth-sized planets at distances from their host stars where liquid water could exist on the surface, possibly supporting life in a form that we might recognize if we saw it.
Guided by these recent observations, mega-computers programmed with the laws of physics give us insight into how these exo-worlds are formed, from their initial dusty disks to the eventual complement of star-orbiting planets. We can image the disks directly by focusing on the faint infrared glow of their gas and dust that is warmed by their proximity to their star. We cannot, however, directly see these far-away planets, at least not yet. But now, for the first time, we can at least see what forming planets do to the gas and dust around them in the process of becoming a mature heavenly body.
A new observatory, called ALMA, working with microwaves that lie even beyond the infrared color range, has been built in the dry Atacama desert in Chili. ALMA was pointed at a young star, hundreds of light years away. Its image of that target star, LH Tauri, not only shows the star itself and the disk around it, but also a series of dark rings that are most likely created as the newly forming planets pull in the gas and dust around them. The image is of stunning quality: it shows details down to a resolution equivalent to the width of a finger seen at a distance of 50 km (30 miles).
At the distance of LH Tauri, even that stunning imaging capability means that we can see structures only if these are larger than about the distance of the Sun out to Jupiter, so there is a long way yet to go before we see anything like the planet directly. But we will observe more of these juvenile planetary systems just past the phase of their birth. And images like that give us a glimpse of what happened in our own planetary system over 4.5 billion years ago, before the planets were fully formed, pulling in the gases and dust that we now live on, and that ultimately made their way to the cycles of our own planet, to constitute all living beings on Earth.
What a stunning revolution: from being part of the only planetary system we knew of, we have been put among billions and billions of neighbors. We remember Galileo Galilei for showing us that the Sun and not the Earth was the center of the solar system. Will our society remember the names of those who proved that billions of planets exist all over the Galaxy?
Headline image credit: Star shower, by c@rljones. CC-BY-NC-2.0 via Flickr.
working on a few ORIGINAL DRAWINGS that will be FOR SALE the first week of 2015...looking forward to the new year and the new opportunities it shall bring! :)
0 Comments on ✨ sunday night superstar! ✨ as of 12/31/2014 10:54:00 AM
The following books will receive starred reviews in the January/February 2015 issue of the Horn Book Magazine. Coming this Wednesday: Fanfare, our choices for the best books of 2014.
Once Upon an Alphabet; written and illustrated by Oliver Jeffers (Philomel)
The Bear Ate Your Sandwich; written and illustrated by Julia Sarcone-Roach (Knopf)
Supertruck; written and illustrated by Stephen Savage (Roaring Brook)
The War That Saved My Life; by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley (Dial)
Tales of Bunjitsu Bunny; written and illustrated by John Himmelman (Holt)
Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future; by A. S. King (Little, Brown)
Star Stuff: Carl Sagan and the Mysteries of the Cosmos; written and illustrated by Stephanie Roth Sisson (Roaring Brook)
~HAPPY 40TH BIRTHDAY TO THE ADORABLE AND ALWAYS FABULOUS, MISS KITTY WHITE....BEST KNOWN OF COURSE AS HELLO KITTY!!!~
hard to believe it's been 40 years since this sweet little character made her debut. i have been a sucker since day one. i love sanrio and their adorable characters...but she reigns supreme!
this painting features tiny chum, her cute little bear companion, as they embrace in what else? a hug, of course. one of hello kitty's favorite things...hugs. also, the 3 apples represent her weight (as she is said to weigh approximately 3 apples and be about 5 apples high and the 4 bows? well they represent 4 decades of sheer fabulousness!)
{this painting kind of reminds me of candy (must be the confection of colors i chose)....and that always makes me happy! :)}
PRINTS AND OTHER SWEET TREATS ARE AVAILABLE THROUGH THE SHOP LINKS FOUND HERE:
{a piece of my painting in progress...to be released on november 1st in honor of a special character who is turning the big 4-0. *hint*-she's a girl dressed in a cat costume. not quite sure i get that, but i love her anyway. ;)}
0 Comments on apples, stars...and cake as of 10/23/2014 11:15:00 AM
When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer by Walt Whitman
When I heard the learn’d astronomer, When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me, When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them, When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room, How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself, In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
We are learning about the Solar System in science, and while the facts about the planets are intriguing, it's the students' questions and wonderings that are the most compelling. (How I wish we could have had a sleepover at school this week so that we all could have watched the lunar eclipse together!) They are grappling (and rightly so) with the sheer vastness of our galaxy...and the universe, and with the ways scientists can know distances between or temperatures on the sun and the planets. We watched this video of a hexagonal hurricane on Saturn and they were fascinated by the way the scientists replicated the storm in the lab. The idea that scientists build models to explain and understand the world is new to them.
I need to write about our Genius Hour at some point. What I'm aiming for, but not achieving (YET) is for the work they do each Friday afternoon to come from their own curiosity and desire to explore. I'm beginning to understand, at the ground level, the data that shows that school dampens a child's natural curiosity. What I'm hoping to see, over the course of this year, is that it can be reignited, with time and scaffolding.
I'm hoping for students who would rather slip out of my classroom and look up "in perfect silence at the stars."
{new painting in the works AND it contains one of my favorite characters ever!:)}
oh, and the nightmare before christmas painting is done and waiting to be posted. trying to wait til at least the last week in september to post it, as it's more of a halloween piece. can't wait to share it!
until then, here's a peek at the full sketch, entitled "moonstruck"...featuring sally and her beloved black cat. (yes, i drew AND painted a cat. those who really know me what a feat that was..."feat" being the understatement of the year. let's just say i'm more of a dog person...)
so, now the back story for this painting (because isn't there always one.)...
well, i knew i wanted something different...something to represent the new style i seem to have evolved into with the start of 2014. i also knew i didn't want an easel in the image, knowing of course that this would be the new front page of the website.
so...i had to include my stuffed elephant, maggie into the design because she is my partner is creative crime, after all. couple that with the fact that i am an insomniac and do my best work after midnight (don't all of us artists?!) and the fact that i'm obsessed with chris martin and the coldplay song "yellow" ("look at the stars, look how they shine for you....i drew a line, i drew a line for you and all the things you do, and it was all yellow") well, there it is.
a little coldplay, a little insomnia, a little nicole and a little maggie, of course...and so "moonlight mavens" was born. from my head to the sketchbook to the finished painting.
just a glimpse at the new *face* of the enchanted easel. this business is my proverbial *baby*. I've built it all by myself and have done most of the legwork after not one, not two, but THREE cervical spine surgeries in the last four years. 'cause that's just how i roll. ;)
I've had the painting done for over a week but i'm doing my best to re-build a new website hosted by squarespace...which, by the way, i HIGHLY recommend. i didn't think such wonderful and cooperative corporations existed anymore. they are fantastic. it's just a matter of getting acquainted with the new site and how it works as well as adding watermarks and shrinking images for the web....mundane stuff like that. let's just say, i would rather be painting. but then again, what else is new?!
hoping to be done by the end of this coming week. if not sooner....*fingers crossed on that one* ;)
0 Comments on a peek at some teamwork... as of 7/11/2014 6:55:00 PM
speaking of...i thought i'd be kind enough to include Coldplay's A Sky Full Of Stars video below....just because i'm nice like that. ;)
and while i'm on the subject of my beloved Chris Martin, my FAVORITE Coldplay song turned 14 yesterday (gosh, i really feel old right now....). best. song. ever.
{i know, i'm a little obsessed. but....it inspires paintings....like the i'm currently working on. :)}
{a peek at my next painting entitled "moonlight mavens". it will also double as my new homepage image on my website. always trying to re-invent myself....}
{and it kind of was inspired by favorite Coldplay song. kind of...;)}
my piece entitled "the rainbow connection"...paying homage to one of my favorite dolls from the 80s...little miss rainbow brite and her beloved pony, starlight.
By: Patrick Girouard,
on 4/26/2015
By: ARIS,
on 4/17/2015
By: Michelina Ouellette,
on 2/24/2015
By: nicole,
on 2/2/2015
By: Alex Guyver,
on 1/5/2015
By: Roger Sutton,
on 12/1/2014
By: Mary Lee,
on 10/10/2014
The following books will receive starred reviews in the January/February 2015 issue of the Horn Book Magazine. Coming this Wednesday: Fanfare, our choices for the best books of 2014.
