In This Video, Take A Flight Through Millions Of Galaxies Mapped Using Coordinate Data From DESI.

“learning is never done without error, and defeat,"

Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) taken by Auvo Korpi on January 27 2023.

During the formation of the sun, there was a protoplanetary disk (cloud of debris and gas) that orbited around it. The farthest parts of this disk were far from the heat emitted, and cooled down. The cold material clumped with frozen gasses and water, creating icy rocks.

These rocks orbit far away from the sun in huge elliptical orbits, in the Kuiper belt and Oort cloud. At one point, the icy rocks get closer to the sun. The ice is heated and releases dust, known as the comet’s trail.

Comet ZTF was first discovered in March 2022, but came closest to Earth in a long time in January of 2023. At first, the comet was believed to be an asteroid, but when it got closer to the sun, it was observed to have its signature green glow.

The green comes from the diatomic carbon, which is part of the comet’s atmosphere. As it got closer to the sun, the molecules became excited and radiate green light. This is also why the green color doesn’t extend to the tail, instead it is happening in the comet’s nucleus.

I remember going out with my telescope around this time to view the comet. At that point I think it was just above the Taurus constellation, and I had a lot of trouble angling the lens to point that high up.

I don’t remember being able to see the tail, but just with the naked eye, I could see the comet’s light. I can’t believe it’s already been two years since then. Time really flies.

physics feels so inaccessible.

like what do you mean the only information on this topic is a power point presentation from ten years ago with only half of the information on it?

or you tell me there's three ways to download the software i need for the calculations, but only one of the ways actually works and you don't even tell me how to do it!!!

never mind the sheer amount of prerequisites. i never struggled with math too much, but i also never took the opportunity to skip a level in math. when i was starting out, you can't do anything without trig. so then i went and learned trig on my own, but then i needed matrices. so i went and i learned matrices and vectors on my own, but now i need calculus. and holy shit is there a lot of stuff within calculus.

half the important papers are hidden behind paywalls and the diagrams are so confusing they take me forever to figure out. maybe i'm just inexperienced, but isn't the whole point of diagrams for the information to be more accessible?????

i might be wrong since i'm young and inexperienced, but it seems as if there's this tone of exclusivity in physics. why is it so hard to find mentors, and when i do, they have such trouble believing in me? i might be young, but i can still understand and help with something. why would you ignore all my emails and just tell me to take the easy way out? i'm in it for the long run.

I know this is a long read but I believe this might help if you’re going through a burnout.

Last week I was so drained I couldn’t do anything. Let alone studying 11 hours a day as I planned, some days I couldn’t even pick up my pen and solve just one question.

Each day I said to myself “It will be better tomorrow. I will wake up and finish the things I need to do.” but every day proved to be worse than the other. My tutor was out of the city for a conference so I was on my own and needed to finish everything before he arrived. (I am a person who scolds herself if I don’t finish my tasks on time, even if sometimes my teachers don’t care, I do.) But I couldn’t finish most of them. Today is literally my last chance. I had to wake up at 5am and rarely take any breaks if I wanted to complete everything.

But I couldn’t. I woke up at 9, and just getting out of bed took all my energy. I went into the living room and fell asleep on the couch. For three hours, no matter how many times my mum tried to annoy me into waking up, I laid there without even once uttering a word.

And by my 1682597th dream, I had an epiphany.

This is my journey. This is me, working towards my own dream. People around me obviously care and feel for me, that’s why they worry when I fall behind. But if they had to give in the energy I give in each day, they couldn’t do it.

Because I wake up every day to my goals. Every morning I choose to keep going. Every second I am choosing to not give up on my dreams of becoming a successful person. I could easily change my mind any minute, choose another major, and I wouldn’t have to study as hard.

But I am not.

For 454 straight days, I woke up with this dream and there wasn’t a single day I didn’t want it. Not a single day where I said “Oh you know what, fuck it. I don’t want this.”

I had my days where I cried, screamed, even hit myself. I had my days where I was so exhausted that I kept looking at other majors I could get into but I never felt the same connection so I just stood up and kept working.

I am the one who might lose what I want, not others. I am the only one who is putting in the effort to make it happen because nobody else’s effort could make it possible for me.

So if I say “I did not have the energy for this.” they have to believe me.

If I am honestly EXHAUSTED, to a point where I don’t want to see my favorite pencil, it’s okay for me to fall behind a few weeks.

Now I will just get up. Once again. And do what I can. No rush, I have 145 days to go, and it’s better to actually learn the material than to have to come back to it later.

Keep trying. Even if it’s reading one sentence a day. Your dreams are yours for a reason.

Pretty winter sunset but I’m stuck inside 🌅 Just cleaned my room though so I don’t mind that much.

3rd picture is my desk— should I put something on the wall? I don’t want to drill anything in.

Today was pretty frustrating for a variety of reasons, so I didn’t think I would get much done today but then I hopped on to Tumblr and saw a bunch of people’s study posts so I guess I’m trying this again.

- Study for math test

- Work on research program applications

- Upload a new software onto my computer

Good luck 👍

Ever wonder how stars and planets form? New clues have been found in the protoplanetary system Herbig-Haro 30 by the James Webb Space Telescope, Hubble and the Earth-bound telescope ALMA. The observations show, that large dust grains are more concentrated into a central disk where they can form planets. The featured image from Webb shows many attributes of the HH-30 system. Jets of particles are being expelled vertically, shown in red, while a dark dust-rich disk is seen across the center, blocking the light from the star or stars still forming there. Blue-reflecting dust is seen in an arc above and below the central disk, although why a tail appears on the lower left is currently unknown. Studying how planets form in HH 30 can help astronomers better understand how planets in our own Solar System once formed, including the Earth.

Image Credit & Copyright: James Webb Space Telescope, ESA, NASA & CSA, R. Tazaki et al.

I did it. I fucking did it. It’s over!!!!

Math exam day stats:

Cry count: only 3!

Headache: 3/10 - pretty good, really not a lot

Moodswings: 10/10 - the first exam was awful the second one alright + confused crying laughing

Tired: 9/10 I’m exhausted

- and only like 18 weeks until I can do all that again and have the pleasure of taking my FINAL exam (Abitur) 😃😃

But until then… life is good again

2025. 03. 10 | but the light!

I love the independence of doing a PhD! I thrive when I’m interested in what I’m doing (I am), I’m constantly learning (also), and I am not being micromanaged (I’m not!). I love my supervisor and the faith she’s showing me to get my own shit done.

I love my job.

I love my project.

My boss is so great.

I can’t tell how much of all this enthusiasm is coming from the sun and how much is real but I’m riding it.

spoiler alert: they did not lock in for the month of october

(i'm back lol)

i'm going to lock in for the month of october! so i'm making a list on here of everything i have to do this week and seeing if i can finish it

thermodynamics module

photography composition practice

titration procedure / lab / analysis / presentation

midterm review sheet

immigration research paper

particle motion lab

energy conversion lab

add magnetic field to ising model simulation

finish chapter 2 part 1 of cs textbook

mini-essay of music in great gatsby

practice test for analysis midterm

read chapter 6 of great gatsby

crossing my fingers that this holds me accountable. my procrastination is way out of control...

"Anything that is easy for me must be worthless." — Impostor syndrome in a nutshell