BAN #316: A shot in the arm, An unfortunate name for new cosmic objects

[The planetary nebula M 2-9, winds from a dying star. Credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Legacy Archive / Judy Schmidt]

Personal Stuff

Yeah, but not too personal

I am very pleased to let y’all know (assuming you don’t follow me on Twitter) that I got my second COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday (the Moderna one). I have to say, it kicked my butt a little; I got it at 3:30 in the afternoon and by 11:00 that night I was getting some muscle aches. Three hours later I woke up with chills and much worse aches, so I took some Tylenol and went back to bed. When I woke up I still felt gross but as I write this (noonish Wednesday) I feel much better.

Like I wrote back in Issue 309, my immune system either just hangs around snoozing lightly or is in full four-alarm-fire beserker attack mode, screaming and running around massacring invading microbes without a care as to the scorched earth they leave behind. So when I get sick I tend to be feeling fine and then literally an hour or two later I want to crawl under the sofa and die. I felt pretty bad for a few hours but now I seem to be on the mend.

[Shot right in the asteroid. Credit: Phil Plait]

This does answer a question I had though. About a year ago I had a few days of feeling bad, and later my wife wondered if I had a mild case of COVID. It seemed unlikely to me, and now I’m pretty sure it was just something in the air that triggered my sinuses. I say that because my first shot took a while to affect me, but the second one hit within hours, presumably because I already had the armament built up to fight off the virus from the first shot. If I had been sick with the virus last year, the first shot would’ve hit me hard. I can’t be sure, but this seems likely, and it’s nice to have an answer I’d bet on.

My point in all this? Get the shot if you can. The best vaccine to get is the one they offer to you, too. Don’t wait, get vaxxed. If you can schedule it so you have a light schedule the next day or two in case you react to it, fine, but just get it. It protects you (if you do wind up getting infected anyway it’ll greatly lessen the impact) and those around you.

[Cases in India are rocketing up, far far higher than they were last summer. Credit: Google]

As I write this India is having a massive (and I do mean massive) resurge of illnesses — meaning we are not rid of this scourge now or any time soon. The more folks who are vaccinated, the fewer places this damn bit of protein-encased RNA has to hide and mutate and make things worse.

I am happy to say my whole house is now fully vaccinated, and in two weeks we’ll be at strength. I’m looking forward to eating at restaurants and seeing movies in theaters again, but we can only do that if everyone plays their part. Do it. Please.

Astro Tidbit

A brief synopsis of some interesting astronomy/science news

You know, I could tell you about how Spitzer Space Telescope saw the Universe in infrared light, and was particularly sensitive to warm gas and dust clouds in the Milky Way where stars are born.

And I could mention how it was involved with a citizen science program to have folks around the world identify interesting objects in the galaxy seen in Spitzer images, and how a bunch of folks noticed small, glowing, round clumps of nebulosity all around the sky, and how — when the infrared light from Spitzer was color-coded to visible colors so we can see them — they appear yellow in images, making them stand out a bit.

[An example (left) of one of these compact objects seen by Spitzer, and a more mature cavity (right) that has formed as the star inside starts to carve a bubble into the material around it. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech]

I can also say they’re small, about a light year across, and young, only about a hundred thousand years old, and that a lot (but not all) of them are likely where massive stars are being born. Eventually, I’d note, those stars will switch on, start blowing a fierce wind that plows up the material around them, and also emit powerful ultraviolet light that eats away at that same material, and so, over time, these compact spheres will become more like bubbles, which are commonly seen around young massive stars.

I’d certainly add that some of these may become Herbig-Haro objects, where twin beams of material are blasted away from the star due to the way the stars form, with a disk around them and magnetic fields winding up that can launch material away at high speeds, similar to how black holes launch jets.

[A lot of these objects were found in Spitzer images, and many (circled) were actually not associated with massive star formation, but lower mass stars being born. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech]

I’d also for sure mention that over 6,000 of these compact objects were found! Because that’s amazing, and scientists can study them to see how these stars are born and what role they play in the formation of clusters of stars.

Oh my, yes, I could go on and on about these interesting objects, but instead just I’ll say that I agree with my friend and colleague Jessie Christiansen, who said the exact same words that were in my head as I winced constantly reading the press release and journal paper for this science result:

Yup. They decided, somehow, to call these objects “yellowballs”.

I have no further comment.

Et alia

You can email me at [email protected] (though replies can take a while), and all my social media outlets are gathered together at about.me. Also, if you don’t already, please subscribe to this newsletter! And feel free to tell a friend or nine, too. Thanks!