A Star Is Born

Stars are the most common object in the night sky. They come in different colors and brightness. Grab a pair of binoculars and the number you can see goes from too many to count to more than you thought possible. It seems as though they've always been there, but where did they come from?

Orion Nebula, a stellar nursery (NASA)

Gas and dust in space pulled together by gravity attract more material. More mass has more gravity, so it continues to attract more material, while also collapsing into itself. As it collapses and becomes more dense, it begins to hear up. At some point, what is now considered a core begins to fuse hydrogen atoms into helium. The pressure of the energy radiating from the new star is enough to keep it from collapsing into itself further.
Not all of the gas and dust gets sucked into the star. It will swirl around the star and conceal into planets and asteroids, like what happened here in our solar system. In other systems, multiple stars may form rather than just one like we got stuck with.

Life cycle of a star (NASA)

If a star is massive enough, it will blow itself apart in a supernova. Gas and dust from the exploding star will fly out into space and the process will begin again. This week's information comes from NASA.

Species of the Month

Spring has officially arrived, and with it, the birds and the bees. March's Species of the Month is a bee, the American bumblebee. This and other bees are just beginning to make appearances in my neck of the woods. Cute and fuzzy, they fly despite the laws of aerodynamics stating otherwise. Lucky for them, they don't use aerodynamics to fly.
  

Scientific name: Bombus Pensylvanicus

Kingdom: Animalia (animals)

Class: Insecta (insects)

Order: Hymenoptera (ants, bees, wasps, sawflies)

Range: Eastern North America from Quebec south to Florida, west to the Rockies

Habitat: open fields

Lifespan: Up to a year

Diet: pollen (favors sunflower, clover, vetch)

Predators: Birds, spiders, other bees, small mammals

Conservation Status: Threatened

Other Information: Bumblebees live in a family colony. A queen emerges from hibernation first and begins searching for a suitable nesting site to lay her eggs. She feeds the larva, which grow into workers that feed the next batch of larva to hatch. In summer, males and queens hatch, then leave the nest to mate. The queens go into hibernation for the winter while the males and workers die. American bumblebees are a later emerging species. They are able to regulate their body temperatures like mammals do. American bumblebees, like other bumbles and bees in general, are declining in number. Several factors are thought to contribute, including habitat loss and pesticides.
This week's information comes from Iowa State University's Bug Guide and the US Forest Service. The pictures are from the State of Montana's Montana Field Guide.

Animal 911

In spite of humanity’s destruction of the environment over the last few centuries, most people believe in helping out in ways that don’t require a drastic lifestyle change. One way that people can feel good about the world is wildlife rescue. Every year thousands of good Samaritans encounter orphaned, sick, or injured animals that they deliver to or are picked up by professional wildlife rehabilitators. The goal of wildlife rehab is to provide medical care to the animal and release it back to the wild.

Orphaned raccoons

Many times, an injury is so severe the animal would be unable to return to the wild. In those instances, the animal usually moves to a wild animal park or some other educational organization where it works as an animal ambassador. Animal ambassadors are a way to connect the public to critters they wouldn’t normally get to encounter, especially up close. They work to raise awareness about the wild world around us and offer a glimpse of how these critters live. Many times they can shed some light on the daily challenges they face, in addition to having to deal with people.

Eastern screech owl working as an animal ambassador

I recently visited a wildlife rehab center. Animals are separated by species, although there may be several, such as raccoons, sharing living quarters. The raccoons are quarantined on arrival to check for rabies. All enclosures are covered to keep birds from escaping, or getting in and eating the patients. On the day of my visit, there were raccoons, a beaver, owls, hawks, vultures, squirrels, crows, baby opossums, and songbirds in treatment. In the past, they have rehabbed deer. There is no animal too great or too small for these people to help.

Great horned owl

Orphaned opossums

Blue jay on the mend