Books.

I have to admit, for the longest time I wasn't much of a reader.  Of course I liked to read, and I read the books we had to for school, but usually I didn't carve out that much time to read.   Something changed in 9th grade, and I started to read books more.  I also rediscovered the awesomeness that is the Wheaton library book sale and have gotten so many awesome new paperbacks there that I had to rearrange my bookcase to fit them all.   So I've been reading a lot more. 

I've gotten some new favorite authors like H.G. Wells and Diana Wynne  Jones (she wrote Howl's moving castle...which I haven't read yet) I feel like my main problem with trying to find new books is that I never know if I am going to like it or not.  The back of the book descriptions never really do it for me, so I am still kind of hesitant to find/start a few books.  Odd for someone who like to read I suppose.

I will admit that I 100% judge books by their covers.  I hate book jackets because the books without the jackets look older and more unique.  That's also why I like the book sale. The books are old. Well not really old, but a lot of the paperbacks have a couple decades on them. Just recently I bought a hardback copy of 20000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne that was published in 1940. So yeah. Books. Awesome.  I was too lazy to research space so I hope you enjoyed these ramblings instead.

Camp Nanowimo

After recently discovering that the vast majority of my non-school related posts were about nanowrimo, I was a bit hesitant to write another one.  I like writing, but I will say that it's not one of my main interests.  I'm way more into soccer/athletics in general, art, and astronomy. So the idea that I have a ton of writing related blog posts is pretty strange.  Ah well.  I also think its strange to write about writing.  It just doesn't seem like it's always the write thing to do.  Puns...

But anyways.  Since my Nanowrimo was a success, I'm partaking in Camp Nanowrimo during April.  And no, it's not, as I suspected when I first heard about it last year, an actual summer camp.  It's essentially the regular NaNoWriMo, but you get to choose what your goal is and what not.  I'm going for the regular 50k.  For Camp Nanowrimo, you can choose your format too, so it doesn't have to be a novel.  It can be anything, like a movie script.  I'm sticking with a novel, 'cause it's easier. 

My novel for this April will be set in the same world as my November novel, which I'm still editing.   I have the basic premise down, but figuring out certain details, like how far in the future the novel is set, characters, even major yet simple details like my main character's name have proved difficult.   November's novel I knew the name right away.  Well not right away, but essentially early on in writing.   Now that I know I can write 50k in a month, I'm really determined to do it again.  I was planning on saving this novel idea for November, but I've just been itching to write it.  Waiting just a few weeks till April is hard enough.

So yeah. Camp NaNoWriMo, awesomeness.

Nebulous Nebulae

All stars begin in what are known as nebulae, beautiful clouds of space dust that are scattered about the universe.  They are classified into four major groups:

H II regions, which encompass diffuse nebulae, bright nebulae, and reflection nebulae.

HII regions are named HII because they contain vast amounts of ionized hydrogen (I'm to lazy to talk about what that is so go google it or ask Connor).   These form from molecular clouds (also known as stellar nurseries, isn't that just so cute?).  Molecular clouds are actually pretty stable and tend to stick around for awhile, until the universe (quite literally) conspires against them, causing gravitational collapse from shock waves from super novae and fragmentation within the cloud.   By gravitational collapse I mean in specific regions.  This causes the gas to swirl around, creating even more gravity before eventually becoming a swirling mass of hot gas known as a protostar, which eventually becomes an actual star.  The stars formed in HII regions drive away the rest of the gas with radiation pressure.   Only 10% of the gas gets used to make stars.   HII regions last about one or two million  years.

Planetary nebulae

Planetary nebulae form from stars like our sun and those not massive enough to supernova.   When these stars die, instead of perishing in dramatic explosions, they expand slowly outward turning into red giants and eventually become faint clouds of gas and dust known as planetary nebula. Eventually, these nebulae expand further and become invisible, leaving behind only a small white dwarf star.  Planetary nebula are actually really important because they contain heavier elements like nitrogen, carbon and oxygen.   It's elements like these that help make life.

Supernova remnant

These nebulae form after the melodramatic deaths of supermassive stars.   It expands with the shock wave of the explosion. 

Dark nebula

 

These nefarious nebulae are dense clouds of dust that are dark because they block out any light that is behind them. They are all unique, some taking the shape of a horse head, others taking amorphous or serpentine forms.

So anyways, yeah nebulae are pretty cool.  If anyone actually is reading this blog, leave a comment below suggesting a space related topic you'd like to me to do a post on.