In the final weeks of my Astronomy class, we talked about stars a lot. The stars in the universe are all made up of the same things (Hydrogen and Helium). We, you and I, are also made up of the same things: star stuff. I thought that was cool, although sometimes I’d like to believe I am actually made up of cheese.
The stars that I find particularly interesting are the white dwarfs. They are what’s left of a low mass star after it dies (the Sun will end up as a white dwarf!). White dwarfs, the dead stars. Many of them are members of binary systems, like pairs of stars that orbit each other or a smaller star orbits a bigger one. Some kinds of fusion happen between these stars (I’m no science person -_-). And then I read this part about white dwarfs who used to be in binary systems:
“Left to itself, a single white dwarf will never again shine as brightly as the star it once was.”
Awww. Astronomy can be so poetic sometimes. You can relate this to dating. Sometimes we’re just all dead beings, finding love which makes us binary stars, and then we lose our companions, having no more source of fuel (love?) to go on. We just won’t shine as bright as we did anymore. Okay, that sounds so depressing.
Also, do you know how stars shine so steadily? Balance is key. Now isn’t that another thing to keep in mind.
On a (kind of) similar note, I just started flipping the first few pages of John Green’s “The Fault in Our Stars”. Just kidding, I’m like almost halfway through, and there’s no use denying it- the guy here, Gus, totally won me over. Here are a few quotes I liked from the book so far:
”I love it when you talk medical to me.”
“You put the killing between your teeth, but you don’t give it the power to do its killing.”
“I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.”
“Does he have ugly hands? Sometimes beautiful people have ugly hands.”
I probably only liked the third quote because I have ugly hands. Ahem, ahem. Anyway, you should grab a copy of the book soon. I have yet to experience the climax (and ending) of the story, but I’m already recommending this to everyone. It’s an easy and enjoyable read :)
Friends, remember to learn from the stars.