Monday, February 14, 2011
The Valentine Star
(3)
Sipping on beer #7 at 1808. Gabrielle Giffords is making amazing progress, according to reports, and mouthing the words of a famous song. I love it! Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. The Wiggles. This is 'the definitive rendition.' The actual Mozart piano series can be found here. Also beautiful. But wait, there's more! Betelgeuse is the 'Valentine Star' (also pronounced, 'Beetlejuice' like in the movie) because it is red, bright, and high in the winter sky on Valentine's Night. The star is huge! It pulsates over a period of about 5 years like a beating heart, varying in size from a low of about 500 times our sun's size to about 900 times. (Did I get that right?) One of these days it will 'blow up' (become a supernova), scattering heavy elements into the local space. Those elements will condense into other suns and planets, perhaps to become, eventually, parts of new living beings like us. (The Iron in our blood was created long ago in one or more supernovas. Thank gravity for that! Also thank the stars.)
Sipping on beer #7 at 1808. Gabrielle Giffords is making amazing progress, according to reports, and mouthing the words of a famous song. I love it! Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. The Wiggles. This is 'the definitive rendition.' The actual Mozart piano series can be found here. Also beautiful. But wait, there's more! Betelgeuse is the 'Valentine Star' (also pronounced, 'Beetlejuice' like in the movie) because it is red, bright, and high in the winter sky on Valentine's Night. The star is huge! It pulsates over a period of about 5 years like a beating heart, varying in size from a low of about 500 times our sun's size to about 900 times. (Did I get that right?) One of these days it will 'blow up' (become a supernova), scattering heavy elements into the local space. Those elements will condense into other suns and planets, perhaps to become, eventually, parts of new living beings like us. (The Iron in our blood was created long ago in one or more supernovas. Thank gravity for that! Also thank the stars.)
