STARS LIKE DUST

Here's (above) a huge filament that was whiplashed from the sun about a month ago, and which caused all sorts of atmospheric effects on the Earth. This isn't an artist's rendering, it's a photo. Can you believe how vivid this picture is!?

Lately we're getting terrific pictures of the sun. That's because we have satellites circling the sun and photographing it from different vantage points at exactly the same time. When the photos are combined, the effect is three dimensional. It's amazing isn't it? I never thought I would see solar pictures this good in my lifetime.

In the foreground of this star field (above) we see a cluster dominated by blue stars. In the background we see the center of The Milky Way. Can you believe how dense the stars are? There must be millions in this photo alone.

That's partly because stars are a lot closer together in this region of the sky. With so many nose-to-nose stars spewing out radioactivity, and with (I'm guessing) so many dangerous objects like black holes and magnetars, this is by far the most dangerous region of our galaxy. You have to wonder if we'll ever be able to explore this area.



Here's a five or six minute clip from Stephen Hawking's "Everything" show on TV. The subject is Gliese 581D, the closest Earth-like planet we know of...only 20 light years away. If a catastrophe ever threatens life on Earth, this is the planet we'd have to bail to.

On another subject: a few weeks ago my doctor told me to come in for the new vaccine against pnemonia. I did a double take. There's a vaccine for pnemonia!!!!!??????? But that's incredible! So many people die from that...why wasn't this on the front page of the paper? Why weren't the discoverers honored with a ticker tape parade?

But the pnemonia vaccine isn't all. A couple of weeks ago I read that a lab called GlaxoSmithKline in the UK came up with a vaccine against malaria. It's been highly effective (50%) in animal tests, now a few years of human tests are expected to confirm it.  Can you believe that? A cure for malaria!!!!!! Congrats to GSK! Hollywood, are you listening?

I found this account (below) on the net:

Witty told the Guardian he was thrilled for the scientists, who were thought by many of their peers to be attempting the impossible when they started work on a vaccine 25 years ago. "When the team was first shown the data, quite a number of them broke down in tears," he said. "It was the emotion of what they had achieved – the first vaccine against a parasitic form of infection. They were overwhelmed. It says something about the amount of heart that has gone into this project."