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- Written by: ESA/Hubble
In celebration of the 34th anniversary of the launch of the legendary NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope on April 24, astronomers took a snapshot of the Little Dumbbell Nebula (also known as Messier 76, M76, or NGC 650/651) located 3400 light-years away in the northern circumpolar constellation Perseus.
The photogenic nebula is a favorite target of amateur astronomers.
M76 is classified as a planetary nebula, an expanding shell of glowing gases that were ejected from a dying red giant star. The star eventually collapses to an ultra-dense and hot white dwarf.
A planetary nebula is unrelated to planets, but has that name because astronomers in the 1700s using low-power telescopes thought this type of object resembled a planet.
M76 is composed of a ring, seen edge-on as the central bar structure, and two lobes on either opening of the ring. Before the star burned out, it ejected the ring of gas and dust. The ring was probably sculpted by the effects of the star that once had a binary companion star.
This sloughed-off material created a thick disc of dust and gas along the plane of the companion’s orbit. The hypothetical companion star isn’t seen in the Hubble image, and so it could have been later swallowed by the central star. The disc would be forensic evidence for that stellar cannibalism.
The primary star is collapsing to form a white dwarf. It is one of the hottest stellar remnants known, at a scorching 120 000 degrees Celsius, 24 times our Sun’s surface temperature. The sizzling white dwarf can be seen as a pinpoint in the center of the nebula. A star visible in projection beneath it is not part of the nebula.
Pinched off by the disc, two lobes of hot gas are escaping from the top and bottom of the ‘belt’ along the star’s rotation axis that is perpendicular to the disc. They are being propelled by the hurricane-like outflow of material from the dying star, tearing across space at two million miles per hour. That’s fast enough to travel from Earth to the Moon in a little over seven minutes!
This torrential ‘stellar wind’ is plowing into cooler, slower-moving gas that was ejected at an earlier stage in the star’s life, when it was a red giant. Ferocious ultraviolet radiation from the super-hot star is causing the gases to glow. The red colour is from nitrogen, and blue is from oxygen.
Given that our solar system is 4.6 billion years old, the entire nebula is a flash in the pan by cosmological timekeeping. It will vanish in about 15 000 years.
34 years of science and imagery
Since its launch in 1990 Hubble has made 1.6 million observations of over 53 000 astronomical objects. To date, the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland holds 184 terabytes of processed data that are science-ready for use by astronomers around the world to use for research and analysis.
A European mirror of the public data is hosted at ESA's European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC), in the European Hubble Space Telescope (eHST) Science Archive.
Since 1990, 44 000 science papers have been published from Hubble observations. This includes a record 1056 papers published in 2023, of which 409 were led by authors in the ESA Member States. The demand for using Hubble is so high it is currently oversubscribed by a factor of six.
Throughout its past year of science operations, new discoveries made using Hubble include finding water in the atmosphere of the smallest exoplanet to date, spotting a bizarre cosmic explosion far from any host galaxy, following spokes on the rings of Saturn and finding the unexpected home of the most distant and powerful fast radio burst yet seen.
Hubble’s studies of the asteroid Dimorphos, the target of a deliberate NASA spacecraft collision in September 2022 to alter its trajectory, continued with the detection of boulders released by the impact.
Hubble has also continued to provide spectacular images of celestial targets including spiral galaxies, globular clusters and star-forming nebulae. A newly forming star was the source of a cosmic light show. Hubble imagery was also combined with infrared observations from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to create one of the most comprehensive views of the Universe ever, an image of galaxy cluster MACS 0416.
Most of Hubble’s discoveries were not anticipated before launch, such as supermassive black holes, the atmospheres of exoplanets, gravitational lensing by dark matter, the presence of dark energy, and the abundance of planet formation among stars.
Hubble will continue research in those domains, as well as capitalizing on its unique ultraviolet-light capability to examine such things as Solar System phenomena, supernova outbursts, the composition of exoplanet atmospheres, and dynamic emission from galaxies.
And Hubble investigations continue to benefit from its long baseline of observations of Solar System objects, variable stellar phenomena and other exotic astrophysics of the cosmos.
The performance characteristics of the James Webb Space Telescope were designed to be uniquely complementary to Hubble, and not a substitute. Future Hubble research also will take advantage of the opportunity for synergies with Webb, which observes the Universe in infrared light.
Combined together, the complementary wavelength coverage of the two space telescopes expands on groundbreaking research in such areas as protostellar discs, exoplanet composition, unusual supernovae, cores of galaxies and chemistry of the distant Universe.
The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the Universe.
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The California Employment Development Department’s latest report on joblessness in California showed a positive pattern.
Lake County’s March jobless rate was 6.6%, down from 7.2% in February and 7.4% in January. The March 2023 rate was slightly better, at 6.3%.
For California as a whole, the EDD reported that the state unemployment rate held steady at 5.3% for a second month. Like Lake County, California had a better jobless rate in March of 2023, at 4.7%.
At the same time, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the nation’s March jobless rate was 3.8%, down from 3.9% in February. The United States has a total unemployment rate of 3.5% in March of 2023.
While Lake County’s jobless rate went down — with 200 fewer people unemployed in March than in February — it showed declines in jobs across nearly every category. Only mining, logging and construction, at 1.2%, and leisure and hospitality, 1.8%, showed growth, while all other categories either declined or stayed flat.
The civilian labor force numbered 29,170 individuals in March, compared to 29,760 in February and 28,880 in March of 2023.
On a statewide level, the EDD said California’s employers added 28,300 nonfarm payroll jobs in March. Despite the mostly weather-related job loss of 6,600 in February — revised down by 3,200 — March continued a job growth trend over the last eight months that totals 205,200 jobs, a monthly average increase of 25,700 jobs.
The EDD said California payroll jobs totaled 17,996,200 in March, up 28,300 from February and up 217,700 from March of last year.
California’s job market expansion is now 47 months long. Since April 2020, California has gained 3,062,700 jobs, or about 65,200 per month on average, the EDD reported.
Seven of California's 11 industry sectors gained jobs in March with private education and health services (+13,600) posting the largest month-over gain for the third month in a row, the EDD said. This was due in part to payroll additions in social assistance, which saw noticeable growth with in-home support service workers.
The state said construction bounced back after a weather-related decrease last month with a gain of 4,600 jobs. The industry is up 33,900 jobs over the year.
Manufacturing dropped 5,300 jobs, experiencing the largest month-over job reduction with losses in sectors including machinery manufacturing and food manufacturing. In Lake County, manufacturing showed no growth in March but was 6.3% up over the year.
The EDD said California’s latest unemployment rate is in line with the 5% average rate over five years leading into the pandemic — during one of the longest economic expansions in state history.
For March, Lake County’s jobless rate earned it a rank of No. 35 out of California’s 58 counties, the same as it had in February.
Lake’s neighboring county jobless rates and ranks were: Colusa, 19.2%, No. 58; Glenn, 7.6%, No. 44; Mendocino, 5.7%, No. 27; Napa and Sonoma counties, tied at 4.2%, No. 8; and Yolo, 5.8%, No. 29.
San Mateo County continues to hold the lowest unemployment rate in California, 3.5%, an improvement over the 3.7% rate reported for February.
In related data that figures into the state’s unemployment rate, there were 446,130 people certifying for Unemployment Insurance benefits during the March 2024 sample week. That compares to 425,760 people in February and 414,119 people in March 2023.
The EDD said a total of 41,000 initial claims for unemployment were processed in the March 2024 sample week, which was a month-over decrease of 260 claims from February and a year-over decrease of 5,792 claims from March 2023.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
On Thursday, Reps. Mike Thompson (CA-04) and Jared Huffman (CA-02) were joined by Realtors, home builders, agriculture leaders, insurance leaders and fire survivors for a press conference at Santa Rosa’s Coffey Park in support of H.R. 7849, The Disaster Resiliency and Coverage Act of 2024, to help address California’s property insurance crisis.
“As insurers increasingly pull out of housing markets, California homeowners and business owners are struggling to find coverage,” said Thompson. “At the same time, the climate crisis is causing natural disasters to intensify, and families are increasingly relying on their insurers to help them rebuild. For example, those same families who relied on insurance to help rebuild their homes following the 2017 Tubbs Fire in Coffey Park are no longer able to get coverage. Were disaster to strike today, many families wouldn’t recover — and that’s unacceptable.
“I introduced the bipartisan ‘Disaster Resiliency and Coverage Act’ in March to help homeowners protect their property before disaster strikes, which is proven to encourage insurers to re-enter at-risk markets. Californians and Americans in disaster-prone regions across the country need both immediate support and a long-term solution to the insurance crisis,” Thompson said.
“For many folks in California, it feels like disaster hits just as we’re getting our feet back under ourselves from the last big storm or wildfire. Crisis after crisis like this has led to insurers either fleeing the area or jacking prices up that are unrealistic for the average homeowner,” said Rep. Huffman. “Our bill is a clever way to solve this problem: it incentivizes disaster resiliency, which will in turn bring insurers back to the marketplace. We are not going to let the folks we represent get boxed out of the property insurance they need to make staying in their homes possible.”
“Big ships don’t turn on a dime. The insurance crisis in California is a big ship. Congressman Thompson’s proposed legislation turns it around and points it in the right direction,” said City of Rohnert Park Mayor, Susan Hollingsworth-Adams.
“The Disaster Resiliency and Coverage Act goes beyond merely protecting buildings; it’s designed to secure and bolster the financial resilience of local economies by reducing insurance costs and thereby aiding in the retention of local workforce and protection of small businesses,” said Santa Rosa Councilmember Jeff Okrepkie.
“Our multigenerational wine and agricultural communities have been greatly impacted by the lack of access to affordable insurance. Many who once could afford one or two policies that provided complete coverage for their properties and businesses now face the challenge of needing four or five policies to provide only partial coverage at a 100% to 400% rate increase. The proposed legislation is a fantastic step in addressing this critical issue and supporting our wine and agricultural community as we continue our comprehensive wildfire mitigation work,” said Mike Haney of Sonoma County Vintners.
“Risk reduction will give insurance companies the confidence to supply homeowners insurance again,” said Anne Barbour of United Policy Holders.
“Congressman Thompson’s Disaster Resiliency and Coverage Act will provide meaningful assistance for our local homeowners and housing economy, particularly in our region where over half is designated as a high fire zone. The vast majority of local owners carry a mortgage, nearly 40% are spending over a third of their income on housing and are eager to receive help to fortify their properties. This bill would not only provide needed financing to harden homes and improve community resiliency, but also create a pathway to secure affordable insurance,” said Lisa Badenfort of North Bay Association of Realtors.
“The North Coast Builders Exchange is grateful to Congressman Thompson for this important legislation that will help remove another barrier to getting houses built in the North Coast. We are committed to build all kinds of housing for the community and to ensure a strong economy,” said Lisa Wittke Schaffner of North Coast Builders Exchange.
In March, Rep. Thompson and Rep. Doug LaMalfa (CA-01) introduced the bipartisan Disaster Resiliency and Coverage Act of 2024 (H.R. 7849). Rep. Huffman serves as a co-sponsor.
The legislation provides homeowners in disaster-prone regions with broad incentives to harden their properties against wildfires and other natural hazards to help address the ongoing insurance crisis in California and other states.
By incentivizing homeowners to mitigate disaster risks on their property, the legislation will help bring insurers back into the market and lower rates.
The legislation includes the establishment of a grant program, administered through State governments, through which certain individual households in designated disaster-prone regions are eligible for up to $10,000 for specified hazard mitigation work on their homes.
The legislation also provides a 30% tax credit for these mitigation activities conducted by individuals, farms and businesses. The credit complements the grant program by providing meaningful assistance to larger property owners for whom mitigation activity costs would far exceed $10,000.
In addition, the legislation establishes that payments from state-run disaster resiliency programs and payments from various federal emergency agricultural programs are not considered income for federal tax purposes. It also advises states to direct insurers to consider plan owners’ disaster mitigation efforts when setting premiums.
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- Written by: LAKE COUNTY NEWS REPORTS
The district includes Yuba College and Woodland Community College, the latter of which includes the Lake County Campus in Clearlake.
From 2017 to 2021, Yuba Community College District saw a 24% increase in students completing their associate degrees.
Woodland Community College had a 48% surge in associate degree completions, while Yuba College noted a 16% growth during the same period.
District officials said the latest numbers illustrated “remarkable increases in completion
rates across its colleges,” which it said reflects its commitment to student success.
“Our district and colleges are working hard to serve our students and our communities,” said Dr. Sonja Lolland, the district’s vice chancellor of education and planning. “The work we are doing to improve student support services, streamline processes and improve academic supports is paying off.”
She added that the completion rates significantly exceed the state average.
“These numbers tell a very good story of our faculty and staff’s commitment to our students’ success,” said district Chancellor Dr. Shouan Pan. “Importantly, this increase also indicates our students’ dedication to and belief in themselves. Deciding to attend and remain in college, especially during the pandemic, is not an easy choice. I’m very proud of each student who made the commitment to earn their associate’s and each employee who supported them along the way.”