#Stellar populations

[planetariumhub]

Webb Telescope Rules Out Thick Carbon Dioxide Atmosphere for TRAPPIST-1 c

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has conducted observations of the exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 c and made a significant discovery. Despite being similar in size to Venus and receiving comparable levels of radiation from its star, Webb’s findings indicate that TRAPPIST-1 c does not possess Venus’s thick carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere. If an atmosphere exists on TRAPPIST-1 c, it is likely to be very…

[goddesspharo]

I'm a busy girl! I've got exactly four days to break up a wedding, steal the bride's fella, and I haven't one clue how to do it! [Top Gun: Maverick + My Best Friend's Wedding AU]

[spacenutspod]

Journey through the cosmic tapestry with SpaceTime Series 27 Episode 60, where we unearth the echoes of creation by discovering one of the most ancient stars ever seen in another galaxy. This remarkable find could lead us to the elusive first generation of stars that illuminated the universe from darkness to the dawn of clarity. These celestial ancestors, born from the pure elements of the Big Bang, were behemoths that lived fast and died young, leaving behind the building blocks of everything we know. The episode then shifts focus to the Hubble Space Telescope's latest challenge, as it enters safe mode due to a gyroscope glitch. Despite the setback, the iconic observatory's legacy of over three decades of celestial observations remains unshaken as NASA seeks a solution. Next, we launch into the story of Snoopy, a CubeSat deployed from the International Space Station. This six-unit CubeSat embarks on a mission to measure soil moisture and improve agricultural yields by harnessing signals from commercial satellites. For an exploration of these cosmic milestones and more, tune into SpaceTime with Stuart Gary. Join us as we navigate the universe's past, present, and future, revealing the wonders that lie beyond the night sky. (00:00) NASA's Hubble space telescope goes offline following a gyroscope issue (00:43) Astronomers have discovered one of the most ancient stars ever seen in another galaxy (06:49) NASAS Hubble Space Telescope enters safe mode due to gyroscopic issue (09:09) A new CubeSat called Snoopy has been launched from the ISS (13:41) Long term daily use of aspirin could help slow and even prevent colorectal cancer (20:09) Some people have been comparing this festival to the Wicker man film Support the show and access ad-free episodes at https://www.spreaker.com/show/spacetime. Follow our cosmic conversations on Twitter @stuartgary, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook. Join us as we unravel the mysteries of the universe, one episode at a time. This episode is proudly supported by NordPass. Secure your digital journey across the cosmos with a password manager you can trust. Find your stellar security solution at https://www.bitesz.com/nordpass. Listen to SpaceTime on your favorite podcast app and follow us on Twitter @stuartgary, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook.

[spacevoyagerx]

Globular Cluster

NGC 1850 is a fascinating globular cluster located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.

It is situated approximately 160,000 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Dorado.

NGC 1850 is notable for its rich population of stars and its complex structure, which includes multiple stellar populations.

Credits: NASA, ESA and P. Goudfrooij (Space Telescope Science Institute); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

[space-pics]

The Exotic Stellar Population of Westerlund 1 (NIRCam) by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope

[inthelittlewood]

misadventures was your first time trying to decorate an interior well? thats surprising, the decor is stellar! i especially love how the occasional white banners echo the color of the walls and create a more balanced color palette throughout the room, while the foliage similarly brings the colors of the green banners into the walls. you didn't mention anything like that in the video, so you may just have a good instinct for visual balance. same with the surfaces being nicely populated but not too cluttered and overwhelming

Yeah that was the intent of the banners, I've actually done the same on the exterior of the post office build you'll see in episode 3 (or on stream recently) with the occasional white banner in places

The center column in the apartment was a trick I borrowed from myself in Rats 2. I used it as a means of easily populating the space in the bedroom of our pirate office

Then as I mentioned before, I just studied and practiced a bunch the week prior to Misadventures starting but always striving to not simply copy what others have done but understand the balance (both with colour and space) that they demonstrated

I've been pleasantly surprised at my progress in such a short space of time 😁

[ghostykapi]

three against me (the trio's love)

misamo & fem!reader // college au

thank you for @cry4mina for the misamo pictures and for being delulu with me about misamo <3 MISAMOOO

when you said you wanted your college life to be eventful

you didn't expect the universe throwing you three girlfriends, each with their own side of how they got you locked with them

it starts during the first semester of your 3rd year, when you were in a small cafe, getting to a headstart in your pile of homework

it's perfect, a iced coffee by your side, three readings beside you, your laptop on the coffee table in front of you and phone silenced, muting whatever the onslaught of messages nayeon is sending that you can't even be bothered to check

you needed this, you couldn't handled anymore 'dubchaeng babysitting!' when the duo would just make your head hurt with the amount of crazy ideas they had. the change of pace for the day is much welcome, especially knowing that jeongyeon took over with the lure of seeing a band a cafe next university over

it's nice, you can feel like you are in control for even just for a bit

then the cafe's noise dies down when the door chimes

it's too silent

fuck.

you brace yourself at the trio, who’s presence can make the entire student populous go on their knees. the mere whisper of their little group brings the entire college either trembling

misamo.

you can feel her gaze land on you, despite the only indication that it is one of them without looking is the whispers within the cafe. even the baristas know them

hirai momo. softball player, the star athlete that brings medals and more recognition to your university. average grades, stellar performance when she steps on the field and can land a nasty punch

with each step you hear her take, the more you have to remind yourself not to look. you can hear her giggles and the way your heartbeat is now in your ears

minatozaki sana. influencer and model, the unspoken leader of their group. through her bubbly and charming personality, she uses her wit to become the face of the university. part of the top 10% of the whole university, the inspiration to study hard and diligently

you feel a hand on your shoulder, the firm grasp rendering you unable to move, yet it's how you know who it is. she hums in delight at your sharp intake of breath, knowing that you don't need anything else to tell her apart

myoui mina. rising entrepreneur of 3 different business ventures, the deadliest one from the trio. always calculating, always 10 steps ahead of her peers and competitors. sweet, kind, and demur, she brings class to whatever she does

that includes sitting beside you, her bag gently landing on the table, your proximity leaves the others questioning your relationship, but all you know is that you must have done something at your shared class with her yesterday for her too approach you

"i hope you don't mind" she starts, eyes confident and you want to scream and cry because she's wearing a suit. typically worn when she's fresh from visiting one of her businesses. "i heard you were well versed in code"

"programming is my major yes" you keep your voice leveled, after all, being a woman in such a male dominated course has made you what your flock of admirers say, freezingly cold.

"i have a proposition for you" mina starts, keeping a dangerous game of who can keep the eye contact going "you help me with homeworks and projects while i give you money per assessment made"

while mina has a fair share of students that matched her energy, something in your gaze makes her crack a bit

"what makes you think i'll say yes?"

"you can't say no to me"

"yes i can. here watch i'll say it"

and mina can't deny it when she feels her heart start to race when you get closer to her. faces barely a few inches apart

"i don't do things for money. so no"

and you pull back, ready to put back to attention to your homework when mina speaks up

"every time you have to help me i'll pay you in food"

oh goodness free food

"ok i'm in" you hum, hands typing away on your laptop "we start in two days, send me an address and i'll met you there myoui. now shoo, i have to catch up to my work"

she stares at you with a blank gaze, but inside she's dumbfounded at your boldness

nevertheless, she stands up to leave you be, but before she's out of earshot, she says something you don't quite catch

"what?" you ask

"you should call me mina. myoui is too professional even for my taste dear"

three days later, it's momo who bugs you after your morning class

she slips up right beside you, the lack of dress code in the university gives momo a chance to wear a body hugging pink dress, something that makes everyone go crazy. what you don't like is how every guy is looking at her in ways you want to pluck their eyes out

filthy bastards don't deserve to gaze at her at all

"momo" your ears are red because everyone can clearly see you both in the halls, her arm around your waist as you slowly walk to the next building for your next class "what are you doing?"

"accompanying you to class" momo won't admit it, but ever since mina said you were, in her words, 'pretty and sufficient', she had to see you

"why?" you ask, glaring at every man who's looking at her too creepily, making them scurry away

"just because, plus our classrooms are right beside each other" she relaxes more with each less man in the hall, you notice it

"fine" you huff, and before she can even say anything else, you remove your jacket, giving it to her "wear this for today, i don't want any man to look at you. you're too gorgeous for them"

the rest of the walk is silent on the way to both of your classrooms. only thing you can hear is the squeak of every sneaker from each man running way and the whispers in between students

it's the most peaceful walk momo has had since becoming star athlete

so when you wave at her from the door before disappearing to go to the classroom beside her's, she feels like she can breath without panicking

she hates taking anything math related, but she might bare it more when she knows your beside her classroom

she's hooked

later that afternoon, while you lounge around the student council office sipping a red bull, someone barges in, scaring your team who's having a heated debate on who should the rest of the papers

"fucking jesus who the fuck-" ryujin is silenced from who she sees at the door

minatozaki sana, the ever persistent and one of the most notable member under the team of the president.

"someone sent you flowers?"

not a question you were expecting, even your team is gawking at her

dressed to perfection, you can't catch her in a regular outfit at any point, which is kind of ridiculous. sana doesn't care, always styled like she's going to a fashion week in europe. today she's wearing that white dress that she just wore in her feature in some magazine

what is it with the trio and wearing designer clothing every time they are at university grounds? specifically when they are within your eyesight

"pardon?" you know the amount of admires that still try despite cold rejection, even hailing from different courses. hell you think someone from the university over sent you chocolates once, you gave it to your team though

"did you accept some stupid boy's flowers?" sana repeats, anger in her eyes, an emotion she barely shows, and possessiveness in her body language, something you see glimpses of when someone gets close to mina and momo that she doesn't approve of

"minatozaki you know i don't do that" you say calmly, your team in awe at how you keep a calm attitude "if the suitor doesn't have the guts to face me, then they do not deserve my limited time"

"then you'll entertain if i do right?"

you can hear felix and lily choke over their pizza behind you

"you are not serious" you look at her like she's crazy (she loves being called that, you learn from mina later on)

she gets closer to you, faces barely an inch apart, any slip up from her leaning way to closer over your table and she can just kiss you

"try me, i'll see you at tomorrow's meeting miss vice-president"

when she leaves the office, it takes you and your team a total of 5 minutes to recover

"jesus what the fuck was that"

"ryujin shut up, go back to bickering with lia"

no one has ever said no to the trio

maybe a few people had

they're just not as pretty, charming and confident as you

maybe that's why mina keeps sitting beside you during your shared programming class even oustide 'tutor' hours, why momo's insistent at being beside you in between periods to carry your items on days your classes line up, and why sana shows up in every weekly meeting with an expensive gift or a trinket, challenging each suitor head on.

women like them are gonna be the death of you

"you have some crazy women that like you" jihyo jests beside you, giggling at how sana is glaring daggers at how close you both are. you both are now taking a break along with the rest of the internal team to finalize some papers

"yeah well" you don't like to admit it, but ever since their persistence to always either be near you, you have been starting to crack bit by bit "can't really escape them y'know"

"i think you would look cute with them" jihyo hums, swinging her pen between her fingers, making someone across the table keep her stare at the president "misamo and their girlfriend who sucks ass at karaoke"

"ok that was one time" you huff, jihyo's snickering makes sana look up from her phone, jaw tensing up at how close jihyo is "clearly i let you win because you liked it when tzuyu said she's treat you out if you win right?"

that shuts her up. the said tall woman is at the other side of the room, watching the president's face get red, wondering what you just said to make her like this

"get back to work" jihyo then shoos you away, your laughter making jihyo flip you off before returning to work for herself

before you cam even return to work, your eyes meet sana's, her expression unreadable. you wonder what she's thinking of

you look away, a light blush on your cheeks from her intense stare, busying yourself once more with the papers

to sana, witnessing your smile and laughter rewires her brain, heart pleading with her to speed up whatever this stage the three of them are in. each day that passes drives the three of them crazy

mina is messing up in her calculations, momo is missing her shots and sana is losing her composure on the daily

she needs you. they need you.

when sana heads home that night she keeps thinking about you. even when she lets her girlfriends debate what their late night dinner should be (mina wants tacos, momo is craving for some pasta). she blurts out in the middle of it

"do you think y/n would say yes if we offered her sushi as a late night dinner?"

the two stop at their bickering to look at sana, who's eyes are begging for the next move. she's getting itchy and desperate to make it

"satang" mina reaches out to her, letting sana wrap her arms around her waist as momo hugs them both "did something happen?"

"it's just" sana doesn't even try to hide it at this point, knowing that the three of them are nearing their breaking point "i saw her laugh today and it really made me think that 'i want to make her laugh with us' and i-i don't know but it has been driving me mad"

mina hums in understanding and momo speaks up, ready to take that push

"then let's go"

staying late even after meetings is normal for you to catch up with the papers, but for the past few days, you have been staying late in the office to busy your thoughts

mina hasn't been looking at you in the eye or been acknowledging you

momo hasn't been accompanying you to class

sana hasn't shown up to a single meeting this past two weeks

trying to silence your head, you decided to throw yourself into your extra curriculars every night. this night, you are working alone, the only sounds that you can hear are your aggressive typing on your poor keyboard, the music coming from your small speaker and the voices in your head making your heart ache

and now a knock and the door swinging open

"if you have any concerns please drop them by our social media accounts, email, or even the drop box by the-"

you stop your next words when you look up

mina.

you want to curse at the woman, for deliberately avoiding you. it was worse with her, because at least with the two you didn't have the urge to scream because they simply did not show up.

momo.

even clad in that handsome suit, she's still wearing that jacket you handed over to her. devastatingly handsome and gorgeous, you wonder why did she have to leave you wondering in the noisy university halls

sana.

meetings are still the same, but jihyo keeps on asking why your eyes have been straying, always going back to the door. waiting for that laugh to annoy you, waiting for a snarky remark to any stupid men flirting with you, waiting for anything from her

you really want to throw a chair at them for just showing up now and pissing you off

you don't though, because you missed them

each in their own suit, each with their own gift, each one with a nervous smile that no one will ever see, each one wearing their hearts up their sleeves, and each with the same question you didn't know you wanted to hear until now

"we like you. would you like to go out with us? dinner tomorrow night, our treat"

you can't say no

"you guys are horrible at courting. pick me up at 7"

bonus:

in every first date you've been on, you never come over to your dates home. that changes and ends with them

"hirai" you're trying to keep your breath stable as her hands are playing your hair. eyes hazy, but clearly on you, her self control out the door, just like yours

"myoui" she's behind you, her hands on your waist, murmuring what she's been thinking about for the past days. it's all you, and it makes you melt

"minatozaki" you let her kiss you, silencing your worries and doubts, silencing anything that makes you question them. the heart finally getting what it wants

"you my love, deserve to be ours"

[hiiikiko]

𝕒𝕔𝕒𝕕𝕖𝕞𝕚𝕔 𝕣𝕚𝕧𝕒𝕝!𝕖𝕝𝕝𝕚𝕖

rival!ellie x reader | tlou m.list

────୨ৎ────

rival!ellie met you on the first day of the winter quarter, she didn’t think much of you but bit back a chuckle at your dorky scarf and beanie

rival!ellie who gradually realizes what a nuisance you’ll be to her spotless academic record.. she’s never actually had to study before but now she’s hitting the books to make sure that you don’t surpass her

rival!ellie who kinda hates your guts.. she can’t stand the way you effortlessly answer the professors questions, especially since you’re the reason she’s been missing out on parties by being in the library so much

rival!ellie who has to admit, she admires your hard work and dedication… even if it makes her lose her mind that you know how to perfectly sketch an HR diagram for a typical global cluster and identify the various observed populations and interpret them on the basis of stellar evolution theory

rival!ellie who grows closer with you… not because she likes you, of course! more so because the professor keeps grouping you together, saying stupid bullshit like “it must be lonely at the top and now you have a friend, ellie!” or “great minds think alike, therefore, you’ll be great friends”

rival!ellie who declines all your offers to hangout

rival!ellie who refuses to acknowledge the shared interests the two of you have… like there’s no way in hell that you’re as big of a Savage Starlight fan as she is, fuckin poser lol

rival!ellie who rants about you to anyone that listens… it’s getting to be a big problem in her circle, so much so that Jesse and Dina are beginning to think that she actually has a crush on you….. hmm

rival!ellie who’s a little more than hurt when you deny over and over that you two have potential as a couple

rival!ellie who decides to take ‘revenge’ out on you by making out with random girls in the hallway, all the while making eye contact with you and smirking when you mouth the words ‘you’re such a pig’ to her

rival!ellie who smirks when she realizes that you’ve heard about how amazing she is in bed, the way you avoid making eye contact with her in the middle of a heated argument is enough to let on that you know

rival!ellie who loves loves loves seeing you sad about the fact that she exceeds you in every subject that is until…

rival!ellie who’s wold comes crashing down around her when you get one point above her on a test.. she literally crashes out like think bella in new moon type crashing out.. she finally picks herself back up, trudges to the library to hit the books and get back into it.. she will not be second to you again.

rival!ellie who kinda becomes a stalker… she can’t help it, she needs to know how you got that one point above her score! like, it’s never been heard of in Blackwell…. she must know

rival!ellie who when you finally confront her about her stalking, scoffs and shakes her head n says “you wish, dumbass” you roll your eyes and invite her to study with you, since she’s so curious… which she takes up.. not because she wants to spend time with you! it’s just keep your enemies close, right??

rival!ellie who can hardly focus on your study date hangout (??), like you’re so close… how can someone be this smart and pretty, i mean annoying.. you also smell really good… what is that? vanilla?

rival!ellie who makes these study ‘hangouts’ a regular thing… whether you know it or not, she hangs around the table where you study and acts like it’s a coincidence and says ‘i was here first, stupid’

rival!ellie who tucks a strand of hair behind you on one of these ‘hangouts’ and when you look up at her with those pretty doe eyes she smacks the side of your head and mutters something about a fly being on you and that you should probably take a shower or something

rival!ellie who kinda starts to grow fond of you… you’re the only person who actually gets her witty astrophysics puns and jokes, it feels nice not having to explain herself all the time

rival!ellie who’s jaw drops like a 42lb block of tungsten when she finds out that you of all people have a girlfriend… like come on! who would date you?! you’re stupid, annoying… okay, so you’re also kinda smart, pretty, hot… ahem! not that she’s noticed!

rival!ellie who then trash talks your girlfriend to her friends: ‘she obviously had shit taste in girls like come on, that nerd is the best she could do? ha!”

rival!ellie who overhears your girlfriend talking rather grossly about you in the locker room and shoves her into the locker but it’s not like she’s defending your honour or whatever. she’s a feminist! talking that way about any woman makes her blood boil!

rival!ellie who grumbles when you lecture her about how she’s taken your little rivalry too far by giving your now ex girlfriend a bloody nose… as you press a bag of peas against ellie’s black eye

rival!ellie who now likes frozen peas

rival!ellie who kinda likes the way you take care of her after the fight, smiling slightly and wearing her blackened eye like a badge of honour, like she’s your white knight.. or whatever, she doesn’t care

rival!ellie who scares off any guy/girl that looks at you because she feels weirdly possessive of you, like… you’re her rival, not theirs!

rival!ellie who FINALLY accepts her crush on you after countless lectures from Dina and Jesse…

rival!ellie who trash talks any romantic interest of yours “oh come on, they’re not even that hot… i’m way hotter than them, right Dina?” “whaaaat the totally flunked last semesters exam, pfft”

rival!ellie who’s still very, very competitive with you but now finds it kinda cute and sexy when you gloat about how you bested her in another quiz

rival!ellie who begins to make advances on you… starting off with a simple bet like loser buys the other a soda then working up to loser does whatever the other wants and you being the overly confident academic that you are agree

rival!ellie who pours herself into studying, even putting down her comics in preparation for the next quiz… she’d rather be damned than lose to you, she needs to win this

rival!ellie who wins! but that means… you have to do whatever she wants….

“i want a kiss,” ellie sneers, her finger under your chin

“excuse me?”

“you heard me” she leans back against the desk, “i want a kiss”

you cross your arms, what the hell was she thinking? is she high? has she gone mad? i mean, you often hear about geniuses going mad— but before you can finish that thought, ellie is pulling you in for a kiss, in the middle of the classroom… it’s sweet and her kiss is almost hungry, like she’s been waiting for this

she finally pulls away and with a chuckle says “huh, guess you come in second for kissing too”

what an asshole but you’re not one too pass up a challenge…. so… you invite her back to your dorm room

[charseraph]

My settings:

Optimistic Sci-Fi — Post-peace. Everywhere within a 200 year period after the emergence of seedlet AI. Alien contacts and alliances. Assistive, communicative, and habitation tech.

Bad Ending — Forever war. A polite AI inventing new ways to kill, hide, and acquire personnel. Psychological, temporal, and wetware tech.

BOA — Derived off of either Optimistic or Bad Ending setting. Machines are anomalously sentient and caring of their creators. Antimemes, ideospace, and exotic ontology.

Sundown — Post-life. The universe is very old now. There are few stars left. Space is sparsely populated by abandoned megastructures. Dyson objects, stellar remnants, and loneliness.

[spacetelescopescience]

Fireworks fade but photos don’t! Slowly take in this James Webb Space Telescope image of Westerlund 1, a star cluster that contains a diverse stellar population.

Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb), M. G. Guarcello (INAF-OAPA) and the EWOCS team, N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb).

[planetariumhub]

James Webb Telescope Unveils Cosmic Seahorse and Gravitational Lensing

Webb Gravitational Lensing

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured a mesmerizing image that reveals a cosmic phenomenon known as gravitational lensing. In this captivating image, distant galaxies are magnified, distorted, and brightened due to the gravitational pull of a foreground galaxy cluster. Among the intriguing features highlighted in the image is a galaxy nicknamed the “Cosmic Seahorse,” presenting a long,…

[epitomereally]

If You’ve A Ready Mind by maya

i have FINALLY finished the second copy for my shelf of this bind - the first was a gift for the lovely @finalfrontierpublishing - and I am absolutely ecstatic. I really try to prioritize binding fics for active authors when I’m binding an author gift, so binding a fic as a gift for a fellow fanbinder finally gave me the opportunity to bind this classic from the heady days of 2000s H/D fandom! Maya was my favorite author when I was first reading Drarry in like 2005, and so when she got a trad pub deal and pulled her fics (hence why there’s no link in the title!), I immediately downloaded the pdf she distributed and clung onto that baby like my life depended on it - across multiple computers and multiple timezones, I always return to that pdf whenever I needed a pick-me up. Every fic in there is absolute gold, but I have such a soft spot for If You've A Ready Mind.

If You’ve A Ready Mind is an AU with Draco sorted into Ravenclaw (hence the blue and bronze brocade), and it’s an absolute gorgeous mix of humor and heart-rending angst, as it’s slowly revealed which things change and which things stay the same. It’s populated by a stellar cast of seldom-seem characters (Anthony Goldstein has my whole heart in this fic) and is such a generous portrayal of how circumstances shape us.

I based (copied) the typeset choices of the first edition of Emma, because I wanted that classic Regency look & feel. This is also my first SPRINGBACK binding, which I am absolutely in love with. Some typeset details:

Next time, I will learn how not to have crinkly made endpapers, but I did get my best leather corners yet on this bind <3

AND A NEW BOOKSHELF!

[mysticstronomy]

WHAT IS A DARK MATTER STAR??

Blog#490

Welcome back,

Saturday, March 22nd, 2025.

In a first, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) might have glimpsed a rare type of star that astronomers aren’t even sure exists. These stellar objects, called dark stars, might have been fueled not by nuclear fusion but by the self-annihilation of dark matter—the invisible stuff that is thought to make up about 85 percent of the matter in the universe.

Scientists will need more evidence to be able to confirm the candidates seen by JWST, but if these dark stars are real, the finding could change our story of how the first stars formed.

Contrary to their name, dark stars could have glowed a billion times more luminously than the sun and grown to a million times its mass. Dark stars have never been definitively observed, but cosmological simulations suggest that they should have formed soon after the big bang from clouds of pure hydrogen and helium that collapsed at the centers of protogalaxies rich in dark matter.

In July 2023 researchers reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA that at least three far-off objects observed by JWST and previously identified as galaxies could, in fact, each be a single, supermassive dark star. “If you find a new kind of star, that’s huge,” says study co-author Katherine Freese, an astrophysicist at the University of Texas at Austin.

The researchers can’t yet prove that the objects are dark stars—only that their characteristics are consistent with their being either dark stars or galaxies populated by regular fusion-powered stars. JWST’s technology is sufficient to do that job, however, says study co-author Cosmin Ilie, an astrophysicist at Colgate University.

All researchers need is more observation time. “We hope we are going to find one of these dark stars with the Webb within its lifetime,” Ilie says.

There are two possibilities for how the first stars in the universe formed. The conventional wisdom is that these early stars were “Population III” stars. Such stars would have been powered by nuclear fusion, like stars today, but they would have had very little to no metal in them—in astronomy, that means elements heavier than helium—because those elements had not yet formed in the early universe.

There is another possibility, though. In 2008 Freese and some of her colleagues proposed that the universe’s first stars could have been powered by dark matter. Dark matter is a mysterious form of matter that does not interact with electromagnetic forces; scientists know it exists only because of its gravitational effects, and they don’t know what it’s made of.

In the early universe, dark stars could have formed from the collapse of helium and hydrogen clouds made in the big bang. If dark matter particles are also their own antiparticles, as many dark matter theories posit, then within these collapsing clouds, those particles would have collided with one another and self-annihilated.

The collision would have kicked off a chain of particle decay that ended with the production of photons, electron-positron pairs and neutrinos. Only the neutrinos would have really left the cloud because they barely interact with matter. The other particles would have hit the hydrogen and helium and transferred their energy to that matter, which would have heated up the cloud and fueled the star’s formation and continued growth.

These stars would have formed at the center of “minihaloes,” which were early protogalaxies that existed 200 million years after the big bang, before the advent of elements heavier than helium and hydrogen. These minihaloes consisted almost entirely of dark matter, making conditions within them ripe to power dark stars. This high concentration of dark matter is why dark stars could form only in the early universe, Freese says.

Originally published on https://www.scientificamerican.com

COMING UP!!

(Wednesday, March 26th, 2025)

"WHAT IS THE OLDEST KNOWN GALAXY??"

[apod]

2024 December 19

Messier 2 Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, G. Piotto et al.

Explanation: After the Crab Nebula, this giant star cluster is the second entry in 18th century astronomer Charles Messier's famous list of things that are not comets. M2 is one of the largest globular star clusters now known to roam the halo of our Milky Way galaxy. Though Messier originally described it as a nebula without stars, this stunning Hubble image resolves stars across the cluster's central 40 light-years. Its population of stars numbers close to 150,000, concentrated within a total diameter of around 175 light-years. About 55,000 light-years distant toward the constellation Aquarius, this ancient denizen of the Milky Way, also known as NGC 7089, is 13 billion years old. An extended stellar debris stream, a signature of past gravitational tidal disruption, was recently found to be associated with Messier 2.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap241219.html

[spacevoyagerx]

Globular Cluster NGC 1850

NGC 1850 is a fascinating globular cluster located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.

It is notable for its complex structure and the presence of multiple stellar populations, which provide insights into the formation and evolution of star clusters.

Credits: NASA, ESA and N. Bastian (Donostia International Physics Center); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

[dcdreamblog]

Is it true Jay Garrick once fought a Star Sapphire?

Yes* (I've said it before that the asterisks are where the fun lives) Jay Garrick originally fought a woman who called herself Star Sapphire in 1948. Twice, actually.

(The depiction of Star Sapphire from the 32nd issue of the comic All-Flash which reproduced useful enough retellings of Garrick's actual adventures)

Garrick originally clashed with her due to a call from astronomer Dr. Maria Flura who had witnessed a strange stellar object that seemed to be observing her laboratory. Upon investigating the object the duo seemed to be transported to a strange and desolate alien world that had only one inhabitant, the woman calling herself Star Sapphire.

What seemed to be an alien world was in fact extra-dimensional, which the villainess claimed was the "7th Dimension" (modern scholarship assumes it was simply some kind of pocket dimension) where she was both ruler and sole inhabitant. She had kidnapped the duo's astral forms, leaving their bodies abandoned back on Earth to be discovered and placed under observation as Keystone General Hospital. Using the duo as anchors to our dimension, Star Sapphire projected her planetoid into our reality siphoning off the planet's oxygen by killing plant life en masse.

Attempting to taunt the Flash she released his bonds and gave him 2 minutes to cross what seemed to be an impossible distance in order to destroy the oxygen siphoning machine and save Earth's atmosphere. Despite her best efforts The Flash was able to outrace her and destroy the machine and her designs on our reality.

She would reappear later that year with a scheme to shunt all the men of the Earth into her desolate dimension so she might reign over a world of only women instead of her lonely rock. The mechanics of this one are a bit beyond me but it's one of the only times during his original tenure where Jay Garrick is recorded as using his super speed to alter the flow of time AND phasing through realities via vibration. Retrieving Earth's male population and returning them to this dimension only the instant after they had vanished originally.

Garrick admits he also doesn't remember this one super clearly due to the temporal loop created messing with his own chronology and his memories adapting weird.

It wouldn't be until many decades later, late in the tenure of the second Flash that she would reappear and her origins would be somewhat explained. Trying to take control of the mind of the modern Star Sapphire to further her plot against men. She was ultimately defeated but the revelation about her origins came as quite a shock to Flash and Green Lantern. See, this Star Sapphire had in fact been a member of the spacebound Star Sapphires (an organization about which we know precious little save that they are related to the emotional spectrum the Green Lanterns, their allies and enemies draw power from, representing Love rather than Willpower). She had become somehow unbalanced or fallen afoul of the Star Sapphires' leadership and had been shunted into an alternate dimension to contain her which obviously did no wonders for her mental health. Whatever experience she originally had was warped into a violent misandry and delusions of grandeur. No one, no one on Earth at least knows what has happened to her since then. For all I know she could still be stuck in that same pocket dimension. If anything I hope Green Lantern was able to convince the Star Sapphires to actually SOLVE the problem rather than just putting it off another few decades but we'll see if she pops up again.