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Written by: National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Published: 25 April 2021

In celebration of the 31st anniversary of the launching of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers aimed the renowned observatory at a brilliant "celebrity star," one of the brightest stars seen in our galaxy, surrounded by a glowing halo of gas and dust.

The price for the monster star's opulence is "living on the edge." The star, called AG Carinae, is waging a tug-of-war between gravity and radiation to avoid self-destruction.

The expanding shell of gas and dust that surrounds the star is about five light-years wide, which equals the distance from here to the nearest star beyond the Sun, Proxima Centauri.

The huge structure was created from one or more giant eruptions about 10,000 years ago. The star's outer layers were blown into space – like a boiling teapot popping off its lid. The expelled material amounts to roughly 10 times our Sun's mass.

These outbursts are the typical life of a rare breed of star called a luminous blue variable, a brief convulsive phase in the short life of an ultra-bright, glamorous star that lives fast and dies young. These stars are among the most massive and brightest stars known. They live for only a few million years, compared to the roughly 10-billion-year lifetime of our Sun. AG Carinae is a few million years old and resides 20,000 light-years away inside our Milky Way galaxy.

Luminous blue variables exhibit a dual personality: They appear to spend years in quiescent bliss and then they erupt in a petulant outburst. These behemoths are stars in the extreme, far different from normal stars like our Sun. In fact, AG Carinae is estimated to be up to 70 times more massive than our Sun and shines with the blinding brilliance of one million suns.

"I like studying these kinds of stars because I am fascinated by their instability. They are doing something weird," said Kerstin Weis, a luminous blue variable expert at Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany.

Major outbursts such as the one that produced the nebula occur once or twice during a luminous blue variable's lifetime. A luminous blue variable star only casts off material when it is in danger of self-destruction as a supernova. Because of their massive forms and super-hot temperatures, luminous blue variable stars like AG Carinae are in a constant battle to maintain stability.

It's an arm-wrestling contest between radiation pressure from within the star pushing outward and gravity pressing inward. This cosmic match results in the star expanding and contracting.

The outward pressure occasionally wins the battle, and the star expands to such an immense size that it blows off its outer layers, like a volcano erupting. But this outburst only happens when the star is on the verge of coming apart. After the star ejects the material, it contracts to its normal size, settles back down, and becomes quiescent for a while.

Like many other luminous blue variables, AG Carinae remains unstable. It has experienced lesser outbursts that have not been as powerful as the one that created the present nebula.

Although AG Carinae is quiescent now, as a super-hot star it continues pouring out searing radiation and powerful stellar wind (streams of charged particles). This outflow continues shaping the ancient nebula, sculpting intricate structures as outflowing gas slams into the slower-moving outer nebula.

The wind is traveling at up to 670,000 miles per hour, about 10 times faster than the expanding nebula. Over time, the hot wind catches up with the cooler expelled material, plows into it, and pushes it farther away from the star. This "snowplow" effect has cleared a cavity around the star.

The red material is glowing hydrogen gas laced with nitrogen gas. The diffuse red material at upper left pinpoints where the wind has broken through a tenuous region of material and swept it into space.

The most prominent features, highlighted in blue, are filamentary structures shaped like tadpoles and lopsided bubbles. These structures are dust clumps illuminated by the star's reflected light.

The tadpole-shaped features, most prominent at left and bottom, are denser dust clumps that have been sculpted by the stellar wind. Hubble's sharp vision reveals these delicate-looking structures in great detail.

The image was taken in visible and ultraviolet light. Ultraviolet light offers a slightly clearer view of the filamentary dust structures that extend all the way down toward the star. Hubble is ideally suited for ultraviolet-light observations because this wavelength range can only be viewed from space.

Massive stars, like AG Carinae, are important to astronomers because of their far-reaching effects on their environment. The largest program in Hubble's history – the Ultraviolet Legacy Library of Young Stars as Essential Standards – is studying the ultraviolet light of young stars and the way they shape their surroundings.

Luminous blue variable stars are rare: Less than 50 are known among the galaxies in our local group of neighboring galaxies. These stars spend tens of thousands of years in this phase, a blink of an eye in cosmic time. Many are expected to end their lives in titanic supernova blasts, which enrich the universe with heavier elements beyond iron.

Hubble trivia

– Launched on April 24, 1990, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has made more than 1.5 million observations of about 48,000 celestial objects.
– In its 31-year lifetime, the telescope has racked up more than 181,000 orbits around our planet, totaling over 4.5 billion miles.
– Hubble observations have produced more than 169 terabytes of data, which are available for present and future generations of researchers.
– Astronomers using Hubble data have published more than 18,000 scientific papers, with more than 900 of those papers published in 2020.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy in Washington, D.C.

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Written by: Lake County News reports

Published: 24 April 2021

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Community members honored the high school seniors of Konocti Unified School District with streetlight banners again this year, thanks in large part to the efforts of parent Rachelle Sapeta.

Last spring, Sapeta wondered how she could make her daughter’s high school graduation special during a global pandemic, when traditional graduation ceremonies were not permitted.

Her idea? To hang banners featuring portraits of high school seniors from the lamp posts along the roads most commonly traveled near Konocti Unified’s four high schools: Lower Lake, Konocti Education Center, Lewis School and Carle.

With community and parent support, the project was fully funded in less than two weeks.

This year, Sapeta’s son is graduating from Lower Lake High School, and given the popularity of last year’s project, Sapeta decided to organize the banners again.

This week, the banners returned to Main Street in Lower Lake, and to Lakeshore Drive and Olympic Drive in Clearlake to highlight this year’s seniors.

“It’s been so fun to hear from community members who share that they take the long way home just to see the banners, or to witness students posing under their photos in their caps and gowns,” she said.

Sapeta thought last year would be the only year she would do something like this, but the pandemic lasted longer than anyone expected.

Although students just returned to in-person school part-time, COVID-19 will likely prevent traditional graduation ceremonies once again. This project felt like a way to celebrate these hard-working students.

Sapeta credits Konocti Unified Superintendent Dr. Becky Salato for letting her run with the idea, Lower Lake High School secretary Sherry Hoeckendorf for her help coordinating the project, the Lake County Fire Protection District for rallying together and putting up the banners in just two nights, and the parents and organizations that made it possible through funding and other support.

Salato said, “Our goal is to help our students build both academic skills and the coping skills that enable them to thrive, and we believe the best way to do so is through personal connection. This has been a hard year for many, and we are so grateful to the community members who united around our students to remind them that they are loved and their accomplishments did not go unnoticed.”

The banners will be up until the week after graduation when students will be invited to take their banners home with them.

Last year, the banner project cost $10,000. This year, because much of the hardware could be reused, the total cost was slightly less, but still a significant investment.

Project funders include Sober Grad, Action Sanitary, First American Title, Chernoh Excavating, Clearlake Police Association, Clearlake Oaks Glenhaven Business Association, Rotary Club of Clearlake and Case Excavating, as well as community members and families.

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Written by: Lake County News reports

Published: 24 April 2021

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The number of Lake County residents who have been vaccinated is increasing while changes are ahead in how vaccinations will be conducted locally, Lake County’s Public Health officer reported.

“Very soon, 50 percent of the adult population in Lake County will have received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine, and everyone 16 and older is now eligible,” Dr. Gary Pace said on Friday.

Pace said Lake County is already starting to see some positive changes. That includes the county moving into the orange tier on the state’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy. Gov. Gavin Newsom expects the state will move past the blueprint altogether on June 15.

COVID-19 cases in Lake County are down to 5.7 per 100,000, test positivity is at 3.4 percent, there are few COVID hospitalizations and no reported deaths for several weeks, Pace said.

“We appear to be moving into a new phase of the pandemic – we still need to be careful and wear masks, but we can begin moving back to the routines of a more normal life, especially once vaccinated,” Pace said.

Because the situation has stabilized in Lake County, Pace said Public Health will stop its regular written COVID-19 update and instead issue public information when there are significant changes to announce.

Pace said changes in COVID-19 vaccine delivery are on the horizon.

“We will soon shift the way Lake County residents get vaccinated. The large drive-thru sites will be discontinued in the coming weeks, but vaccine will still be available at Sutter and Adventist’s clinics, for example, and some pharmacies,” Pace said.

Information on all options currently available in Lake County is available here.

Starting the week of May 3, OptumServe’s sites in Lakeport and Lower Lake will be open Monday through Friday.

– Lakeport, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Silveira Community Center, 500 N. Main St.: Vaccine, Mondays and Fridays; testing, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
– Lower Lake, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Lower Lake Town Hall, 16195 Main St.: Vaccine, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays; testing, Mondays and Tuesdays.

Appointments can be accessed at https://MyTurn.ca.gov. People can return to locations where they received their first dose as long as they remain open, or get the second dose at another site. Both are scheduled on MyTurn.

Pace also noted that, over the past few weeks, national reports of rare problems with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine led to a pause in the use of this vaccine, with further scientific reviews expected later this week.

“Regional reports of people getting infected even after vaccination have also emerged,” Pace said.

“These concerns are valid, but should not cause people to delay getting vaccinated. By all reports, complications are very rare, the vaccines work against all variants currently circulating in the area, and the number of people getting infected after vaccination is in the expected low range. I am not aware of any Lake County residents testing positive after the two-week period following their final dose,” Pace said.

“As we move into this new phase of the pandemic, please continue to use common sense in protecting yourself and your family,” Pace said. “Vaccination is a game-changer, and as more people are protected, we will be able to resume a more normal lifestyle with less worry. Please do your part, by getting the vaccine as soon as you are able.”


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Actualización de COVID-19: Casi el 50% de los residentes del condado de Lake han recibido una dosis de vacuna

TODOS los residentes del condado de Lake mayores de 16 años ahora son elegibles

Mayores de 18 años visite https://MyTurn.ca.gov/

De 16 a 17 años, http://health.co.lake.ca.us/Coronavirus/Vaccines/Vaccination_Request_Form.htm 

Condado de Lake, CA (23 de abril de 2021) - Muy pronto, el 50% de la población adulta en el condado de Lake habrá recibido al menos una dosis de la vacuna COVID, y todas las personas mayores de 16 años ahora son elegibles. Ya estamos empezando a ver algunos cambios positivos. El condado de Lake se trasladó al nivel de Naranja y el gobernador Newsom espera que superemos el Plan por completo el 15 de junio.

Los casos de COVID-19 se redujeron a 5.7 / 100,000 en el condado de Lake, la positividad de la prueba es del 3.4%, y tenemos pocas hospitalizaciones por COVID y no reportamos muertes durante varias semanas. Parece que nos estamos moviendo hacia una nueva fase de la pandemia; todavía debemos tener cuidado y usar máscaras, pero podemos comenzar a regresar a las rutinas de una vida más normal, especialmente una vez vacunados.

Debido a que la situación se ha estabilizado en el condado de Lake, el lanzamiento de hoy es nuestra última Actualización COVID-19 escrita regular; En el futuro, emitiremos información pública cuando haya cambios significativos que anunciar.

Los cambios en la entrega de la vacuna COVID-19 están en el horizonte

Pronto cambiaremos la forma en que se vacunan los residentes del condado de Lake. Los grandes sitios de Auto-servicio se descontinuarán en las próximas semanas, pero la vacuna seguirá estando disponible en las clínicas de Sutter y Adventist, por ejemplo, y en algunas farmacias.

La información sobre todas las opciones disponibles actualmente en el condado de Lake está disponible aquí: http://health.co.lake.ca.us/Coronavirus/Vaccines.htm .

Los sitios OptumServe en Lakeport y Lower Lake ofrecerán la vacuna COVID-19 a partir de la semana del 3 de mayo

A partir de la semana del 3 de mayo, los sitios de OptumServe en Lakeport y Lower Lake estarán abiertos de lunes a viernes. Aquí está el cronograma de servicios que se ofrecerán:

· Lakeport (10 am-7pm, Silveira Community Center, 500 N. Main St) - Vacunas Lunes y Viernes; Pruebas los martes, miércoles y jueves.

· Lower Lake (de 7 am a 7 pm, Lower Lake Town Hall, 16195 Main St.) - Vacuna los martes, miércoles y viernes; Pruebas los lunes y martes.

Se puede acceder a las citas en https://MyTurn.ca.gov. Las personas pueden regresar a los lugares donde recibieron su primera dosis siempre que permanezcan abiertos, o recibir la segunda dosis en otro lugar. Ambos están programados en MyTurn.

Las vacunas continúan teniendo un sólido historial de seguridad: la pausa de J&J demuestra compromiso con la seguridad

Durante las últimas semanas, los informes nacionales de problemas raros con la vacuna Johnson & Johnson (Janssen) llevaron a una pausa en el uso de esta vacuna, y se esperan más revisiones científicas a finales de esta semana. También han surgido informes regionales de personas infectadas incluso después de la vacunación.

Estas preocupaciones son válidas, pero no deben hacer que las personas demoren en vacunarse. Según todos los informes, las complicaciones son graves, las vacunas funcionan contra todas las variantes que circulan actualmente en el área y la cantidad de personas que se infectan después de la vacunación se encuentra en el rango bajo esperado. No tengo conocimiento de que ningún residente del condado de Lake haya dado positivo después del período de dos semanas después de la dosis final.

A medida que avanzamos hacia esta nueva fase de la pandemia, continúe usando el sentido común para protegerse y proteger a su familia. La vacunación cambia las reglas del juego y, a medida que más personas estén protegidas, podremos retomar un estilo de vida más normal con menos preocupaciones. Por favor, haga su parte y reciba la vacuna tan pronto como pueda.

Gary Pace, MD, MPH