In the late 1980s or early ’90s something changed, though. The star started getting hotter… a lot hotter. It went from about 21,000° C in 1980 (much hotter than the Sun’s 5500°) to a face-melting 60,000° by 2002. At the same time it shrank in size — this was determined by carefully measuring spectra taken of its light. Astronomers think that it had what’s called a late thermal pulse, where gas under incredible pressure in a shell around its core underwent furious rates of fusion, heating the star up.
This extra light zapped the gas already blown out by the star, lighting it up, causing it glow literally like a neon sign. That is, electrons in the gas atoms jumped up in energy levels, then emitted light when they dropped back down. That’s when it would’ve first been visible from Earth, making it the youngest planetary nebula ever seen.
8-6-2021 (August 6, 2021) is the Snakiest day of the year and it’s also this year’s CircuitPython Day! The day highlights all things CircuitPython and Python on Hardware. See you there!
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
