Ohai! It's been a while since I did one of these most excellent Top Comments diaries, so I figure it is time I hopped back in the game.
Oops. Lest I forget the boilerplate...
We have so many insightful and powerful diaries written here at Daily Kos. Within these passionate, informative and entertaining diaries are many strong voices and an even stronger will to promote progress in this country.
It's these voices, their knowledge and perspective, their personalities and humor, that we seek to share with you every night in Top Comments. Some comments the diarists pick. Other posts are nominated by your fellow Kossacks at topcomments at gmail dot com.
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Long before I even knew there was such a thing as politics, I fell in love with two things - music, and astronomy. I would spend afternoons as a child reading book after book after book about stars, planets, nebulae, galaxies, quasars, black holes, neutron stars, white dwarfs. You know you're having a, ahem, special childhood when you make your own Hertzsprung-Russell diagram by lining up stars by absolute magnitude and spectral classes with data out of a astronomical encyclopedia. It was top heavy with bright stars but I had enough small star data to get the ... oh, never mind. Just check out the Wiki if you are that interested...
Point is, I loved the stars. I was always especially fond of Orion, as it is a very easy constellation to find from anywhere on Earth (it is close to the celestial equator, just south of the plane of the ecliptic where the official eight planets hang out). I could never get a decent telescope.. not after one of my brother's erstwhile friends stole it (grump!) but I did have pair of binoculars. And that makes for some great 'seeing', as the peeps call it.
So there I would be, in a parka, laying back on top of the hood of my mom's 1977 Corolla station wagon, being cold and staring through the binoculars at Betelguese (don't say that three times because it might go supernova soon), Bellatrix (which we now know is closer than people thought it was back when I was a kid), Rigel (very bright and even if you don't believe it has lots of habitable worlds like in Star Trek it probably does have a lot of planets for a reason I will share in a bit)... and of course the belt stars Alnilam, Alnitak and Mintaka.
Crap, I know all these names by heart. That's just sick.
So, this was my rich outer life as a kid. Cosmic in scale. Me, the cold, some cheap Sears binoculars and the Orion Spur of the Perseus Spiral Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy.
Out there is a big stellar nursery, the Orion Nebula, churning out new star after new star. This is the fun part - we still can't quite get the chicken-or-the-egg figured out about planet formation. The inside baseball is that we have a model that explains pretty much everything about star formation up to about 8 solar masses - that covers star system formation as good or better than the proposed extension of the middle class tax rates under ye olde Bush tax plan.
But, dammit, them big-ass supergiant stars need some love, too!
Here's the thing - in theory, a star is gonna light up its fusion core and start pushing gas and dust out and away, which is teh suck because without all that stuff you can't have planets and moons and things that go bump and kill dinosaurs and trilobites and aspiring space-faring civilizations.
According to this most excellent theory, we should not have stars bigger than 8 times bigger than the Sun.
And yet we do. Some of them are quite mighty - about 120 times bigger. Some observations claim to have stars 200 times more massive. Now that's pretty darn huge.
So where we get such biggies from?
The next best supplemental theory is stars get bigger as the biggest chick in the stellar nest starts gobbling up its smaller siblings. Cannibalism... or stellibalism. Can I make up a word like that? It sounds awkward.
A set of observations that supports this idea is the observed frequency of big gas giants (big balls of hydrogen and helium like Jupiter) in very close orbits around other stars. How they get there? The latest Model That Has It All Figured Out assumes that there is a 'snow line' - inside a certain radius from a star, it's too hot for light gases to gather up around a cold nucleus of ice and literally snowball into a big ole gas giant.
By the way, once started, this process will accelerate rapidly until there is no more gas to collect - this is called lane-clearing. It's also fast as hell per the model - perhaps on the order of several tens of thousands of years once the ball gets rolling and attains enough size to out-grab any competing aspiring gas giants (and gobble them up too).
Oh, the point of all this: What planets do, why not stars?
Ergo, stars, in the thick nursery gas, are just drifting about relatively slowly. Sure, they might have been coalescing for as long as a hundred million years if Sun-sized bit if bigger, they might grab other protostars, as they are called in this phase of their gestation, and make themselves larger. Then larger. Then larger.
Oh, there is another implication of this - the same gas that forms stars slowly by gravitational contraction also forms gas giants.
In other words, some (a few, a lot, who knows?)gas giants may be at least as old as the stars that they orbit. Some may be older.
Now there is one catch - protostars generate a lot of infrared radiation in their centers. A LOT. So while you might have simultaneous formation of gas giants, brown dwarfs, and visible stars... the 'snow line' rule still applies.
But there is also a LOT more interplanetary gas to shove through. And gather. This tends to slow planets down, same as with satellites in low Earth orbit. There is drag. (There are also effects of transferring angular momentum that can speed up a planet and send it into wider orbits, but let's table that one for now.)
So, you get lots of big planets spiraling into stars. We see some of these already. Dozens, of cases, really, out of the hundreds of star systems we've identified already as having planets. Worlds and worlds.
Or as the great Carl Sagan once said.. ok he said it more than once .. there may be billions and billions of planets waiting to be explored. And explore them we will.
So, back to my quip about Rigel, a big blue supergiant star. Gas giants can form mighty fast. A big star is going to have a LOT of gas hanging around it .. then shove it away quickly once its nuclear core lights up.
That clearing process can take several million years... but it only takes a few tens of thousands to form gas giant worlds... and some of these may be hanging around already even before the big blue star in question lit up for the first time.
We just don't know.
But a lot of suspicions and speculations and interesting data are already on the table, and more is on the way.
I'm just painting a picture of wonder here.
But .. I almost forgot. The music.
You see, last year I started playing with the Reason computer program to make sounds. But past one song in particular (a 9/11 one) I never did much with it... until August.
Odd, what gets a creative streak going... but it is not odd what topic I set to music first.
The stars.
And here they are, in order of production:
Deneb is a fascinating star. It's a type A supergiant, which is a rare find. It's about 20 times more massive and 200 times larger in diameter than the Sun. Going with ye olde standard Boltzmann black body equation you would not want to get too close to it. How close is too close? Try, oh... hold on I got a spreadsheet for this...if you were within 574 million kilometers, you'd be nice and toasty at about 2200 degrees Kelvin. That's about... oh... just shy of 3500 degrees Fahrenheit. To get to a level of insolation comparable to what the Earth and Moon receive you'd have to go out to about, oh, 20 billion kilometers, well over 130 times farther from Deneb than Earth is from the Sun. Any worlds Deneb had would be gas giants; due to the incredible radiation most would be very hot, far hotter than Mercury. They might resemble very large comets, complete with vast tails of gas, even the ones at considerable distance from the star. Oh, you'd have moons and actual comets too... but none would get very close to the star itself - but keep in mind this is a young, young star system - 25 million years, tops.
Deneb is also in interesting surroundings. The Cygnus Dark Cloud, or Cygnus Rift, is a vast, vast cloud of dark gas that is part of a complex several hundred light years thick in places and stretching out thousands of light years. On its edges are many interesting star clusters, supernova remnants and nebulae, such as the North America Nebula which is not (we think) terribly far from Deneb itself. The "NA", for short, is plenty big in the Terran sky - about the size of the Moon. I once saw it through binoculars on a clear night - a hazy patch - but did not really know what I was seeing until much later. From Deneb it would be about the size of both your hands held at arm's length. You'd not be missing it..and there would be plenty of other nebulae to see.
What you would not see from Deneb is the Sun.. nor many of the bright stars in our sky such as Sirius and Vega (of it's only 26 light years away fame) - which are bright only because they are close as celestial things go. Deneb is a long way off - closer to 1500 light years away. You wouldn't want to lose your hyperspace bus pass if you went out there on a Friday night. It's a long walk home.
Well, since I was on such a Deneb kick, I used another spreadsheet to generate sky images from a series of stars en route to that fine location in the general direction of Cygnus. These are shown in the song above.
As for what's with the song? This one is the collection of themes that I am writing song after song from. What's with the title? Well... redemption is very much on my mind lately. Personal.. professional..political. Not just me but all of us. As a community, a party, a country, a civilization and a species.
We've a lot to answer for, each and all of us. So, I am very focused on questions like - can we make it back to a good place? Can we even get to a good place, if we have not been in one for a long time? Can we aspire to make things right, if we have caused bad things to be? Perpetuated them, not only with quiet assent but active allegiance?
In short - our rather unsettling brethren. Can they be redeemed, to remember that their own professed faith expects more of them than they seemingly show us? Are we fit to sit in judgment ourselves?
Mostly though I am focused on how we fall...and how we get back up..and how this process of recovery is undertaken, and how it is begun.
I'd like to think it is possible to recover, that there is time, that there is hope. Some cleave to a doctrine of despair, and not always our friends 'over there'. I think it's human to mope. It's just not good to keep doing it and encourage others to follow suit. There's no percentage in it.
Ah, the Pleiades! The lovely ladies of the heavens! This is a cluster about 440 light years away. In order of brightness they are Alcyone, Calaeno, Taygete, Maia, Electra, Merope and Asterope. In mythology they were the daughters of Atlas and half-sisters of the Hyades (who hang out in actual space about 150 light years away; both clusters are in the constellation Taurus).
Each of the daughters of myth has an interesting story. They were all considered the hotness, which attracted attention mortal and divine. And yes, Zeus had a go at a few of them. He was teh suck like that.
Merope, by the way, is the name of Tom Riddle's mother. She was rather infatuated by the idea of immortality...the Greek mythological Merope had a hubby named Sisyphus would wanted immortality too. He wound up pushing a boulder up a hill for all eternity.
There are other stories for each, sometimes you have to look sideways at characters associated with them. Which got me all pensive... and that led to the last song here...
The story of Astrida is something non-astronomical. It's related to the landmine crisis in Angola. While mines in Cambodia and Afghanistan get lots of press, it's pretty damn bad in Angola as well.. perhaps five million mines left over from the civil wars of the past.. perhaps as many as twenty million.
I could go on. I may write a diary on this in time but if you want to really stare the ugliness of unconcern in the fast, read up on landmines in the Third World - but don't look too long. It will break your heart.
There are others.
Oh, if you are interested in downloads for your ipods and other fine music playing devices I got a linky for that need to...
you can haz downloadz
And now for the Top Comments!!!
The most excellent brillig has hooked me up with the comment section of tonight's diary. So all cred and props to her. Thanks!
Comments so far:
From Cedwyn:
So true it hurts, by congenitalefty.
From bubbanomics:
renzo capetti has a way with words.
From aoeu:
Does Meteor Blades get Top Banhammering Comment?
From indycam:
Meteor Blades has an excellent suggestion re: meta.
From sardonyx:
In Colorado is the Shiznit's Knock it off diary, TarheelDem has an excellent comment about the current election that everyone should read. So go read it!
SNFinVA reminds us of the words of George Washington.
In meepdog's diary on Bill Richardson's creation of a New Mexico Wild Horse Sanctuary, ferallike reminds us that wild horses have been around for ages, and do minimal, if any, ecological damage, despite what cattle ranchers allege.
Since NWTerriD can't nominate this comment on the Ohio gubernatorial election by ahumbleopinion because she's stuck with a problematic internet connection today, it's being nominated by unexpected proxy instead. Or something.
And Now for the TOP MOJO
Top Mojo (compliments of brillig too) excluding search-identifiable tip jars, first diary comments, Cheers and Jeers, various pooties, and Mojo Friday:
Top 30 Comments excluding tip jars, first comments and stuff
1) If they're doing this in Wisconsin by Califlander — 347
2) Let's see.... happened in Ohio 6 years ago by NYFM — 177
3) Yes, but she IS a Repubwiccan! by elwior — 176
4) thank you, Kelley by exmearden — 156
5) WOW! scary opinions by a Supreme Court Justice by Kitty — 141
6) We also need to make sure Dem's get elected by JL — 116
7) Can't she just wave a wand and make it go away? by nailbender — 116
8) I had a similar thought by democracy inaction — 115
9) justices can be impeached by Cedwyn — 105
10) True. And other times. THe Republican party LOVES by Fiona West — 92
11) Over 55, and give this informational diary.... by LamontCranston — 89
12) Sorry, that was a wiccanist comment. by nailbender — 86
13) People Like Newt Should Be the Target by JekyllnHyde — 82
14) Scalia is way out by docb — 80
15) Some wanted God mentioned in Constitution by mollyd — 79
16) Yup. My IT job left for India in 2009 by CitizenOfEarth — 73
17) Hah! How did you know? by exmearden — 72
18) The irony is by democracy inaction — 72
19) pew pew pew by BFSkinner — 71
20) The DSCC and Coons would do well... by SJerseyIndy — 70
21) More ways to help by LaughingPlanet — 69
22) Funny how the Constitution completely omits by Apost8 — 67
23) I just emailed you some cheetos and a really by navajo — 66
24) Wow. When I ran for our local school board, by blue jersey mom — 65
25) Thankfully this looks to be where the DSCC... by Jonze — 64
26) This is the ONLY way GOPERS can win by Noamjunior — 63
27) two words: by bubbanomics — 62
28) I'll recommend "Obama's base" also need to by marabout40 — 61
29) this... by ridemybike — 60
30) Some of President Obama's So-Called Supporters by JekyllnHyde — 60
Top 30 Comments with no exclusions, aka the Tip Jar & Pooties list
1) Tip Jar by xofferson — 686
2) Tip Jar by TrahmalG — 529
3) Tip Jar by Steven D — 412
4) If they're doing this in Wisconsin by Califlander — 348
5) Tips for good voter turn-out by Colorado is the Shiznit — 343
6) Tip Jar by grannyhelen — 289
7) Tip Jar by TomP — 213
8) Tip Jar by bobswern — 188
9) Thank you for helping by LaughingPlanet — 187
10) Let's see.... happened in Ohio 6 years ago by NYFM — 178
11) Yes, but she IS a Repubwiccan! by elwior — 176
12) thank you, Kelley by exmearden — 156
13) Tip Jar by jpmassar — 151
14) Tip Jar by meepdog — 149
15) because, y teh frak not..... by bubbanomics — 147
16) WOW! scary opinions by a Supreme Court Justice by Kitty — 141
17) Tip Jar by War on Error — 125
18) Tip Jar by Vyan — 123
19) Can't she just wave a wand and make it go away? by nailbender — 116
20) We also need to make sure Dem's get elected by JL — 116
21) I had a similar thought by democracy inaction — 115
22) justices can be impeached by Cedwyn — 105
23) Thank you for reading this. by blue jersey mom — 101
24) Be AGGRESSIVE by xxdr zombiexx — 99
25) Tip Jar by shrike — 94
26) True. And other times. THe Republican party LOVES by Fiona West — 93
27) Over 55, and give this informational diary.... by LamontCranston — 89
28) Sorry, that was a wiccanist comment. by nailbender — 86
29) Tip Jar by Amber6541 — 85
30) People Like Newt Should Be the Target by JekyllnHyde — 83