#solar cycle 25

[futurefatum]

NASA NEVER EXPECTED THIS! 23 year high (Tone: 100)

Increased solar activity could lead to geomagnetic storms in early September! Stay updated and be prepared. #SolarStorm #SpaceWeather #NASA

August 31st, 2024 by @StefanBurns NASA NEVER EXPECTED THIS! Sunspots blow past 200 to 23 year high ABOUT THIS VIDEO: The video, titled “NASA NEVER EXPECTED THIS!” hosted by Stefan Burns, discusses recent solar activity and its potential impacts on Earth. Over the past 48 hours, multiple solar storms have been detected, some of which may be Earth-directed. The video highlights a record number…

[neosciencehub]

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory Discovers Massive Sunspot with Potential for Solar Flares

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory Discovers Massive Sunspot with Potential for #SolarFlares. @neosciencehub #NASA #SDO #SunspotDiscovery #SpaceWeather #EarthImpact #SpaceScience #Astronomy #SolarObservation #SolarPhenomena #SolarDynamics #Astrophysics

In a groundbreaking discovery, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has illuminated a colossal sunspot on the surface of the Sun, harboring energy capable of unleashing M-class solar flares. This development comes as the peak of solar cycle 25 approaches, marked by a surge in solar activities such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), solar flares, and storms. The identified sunspot, named…

[thatrandomn3rd]

Somewhat accurate Cybertronian ages and time explained.

I've done a bit of research and found that Cybertronians like up to 65 million years so, that would be the human equivalent to 100 years old here's some others

50 human years = about 32 million Cybertronian years.

25 human years= 16 million Cybertronian years.

About 12 human years= 8 million Cybertronian years.

6 human years= 4 million Cybertronian years

3 human years= 2 million Cybertronian years

About 1 human year= 1,015,625 exactly.

Cybertronians also have these things called 'Vorns' which are equivalent to 83 human years. Here's the rest of the units of time that Cybertronians use:

Decivorn= 8.3 years

Stellar cycle= 7.5 months

Solar cycle= 1 day

Quartex= 1 month (orbital cycal also means one month)

Nanoklik/Nano-cycle= 1 second

Meta-cycle= 13 months

Kilocycle = 1 year

Megacycle= 1000 years (but in the 2005 IDW comics is mean 93 hours)

Lightyear= very long time

Kilk= 1.2 minutes

Groom= 1 hour

Deca-phase= 8 hours

Deca-cycle(IDW)= 3 weeks

Cycle(2019 IDW)= 1 day (shorter than an earth day)

Cycle(2005 IDW)= 1 hour 15 minutes

Cyber-week= a week

Breem= 8.3 minutes

Astrosecond= .498 seconds

Do with this information what you will.

[nasa]

Why Isn’t Every Year the Warmest Year on Record?

This just in: 2022 effectively tied for the fifth warmest year since 1880, when our record starts. Here at NASA, we work with our partners at NOAA to track temperatures across Earth’s entire surface, to keep a global record of how our planet is changing.

Overall, Earth is getting hotter.

The warming comes directly from human activities – specifically, the release of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels. We started burning fossil fuels in earnest during the Industrial Revolution. Activities like driving cars and operating factories continue to release greenhouse gases into our atmosphere, where they trap heat in the atmosphere.

So…if we’re causing Earth to warm, why isn’t every year the hottest year on record?

As 2022 shows, the current global warming isn’t uniform. Every single year isn’t necessarily warmer than every previous year, but it is generally warmer than most of the preceding years. There’s a warming trend.

Earth is a really complex system, with various climate patterns, solar activity, and events like volcanic eruptions that can tip things slightly warmer or cooler.

Climate Patterns

While 2021 and 2022 continued a global trend of warming, they were both a little cooler than 2020, largely because of a natural phenomenon known as La Niña.

La Niña is one third of a climate phenomenon called El Niño Southern Oscillation, also known as ENSO, which can have significant effects around the globe. During La Niña years, ocean temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean cool off slightly. La Niña’s twin, El Niño brings warmer temperatures to the central and eastern Pacific. Neutral years bring ocean temperatures in the region closer to the average.

El Niño and La Niña affect more than ocean temperatures – they can bring changes to rainfall patterns, hurricane frequency, and global average temperature.

We’ve been in a La Niña mode the last three, which has slightly cooled global temperatures. That’s one big reason 2021 and 2022 were cooler than 2020 – which was an El Niño year.

Overall warming is still happening. Current El Niño years are warmer than previous El Niño years, and the same goes for La Niña years. In fact, enough overall warming has occurred that most current La Niña years are warmer than most previous El Niño years. This year was the warmest La Niña year on record.

Solar Activity

Our Sun cycles through periods of more and less activity, on a schedule of about every 11 years. Here on Earth, we might receive slightly less energy — heat — from the Sun during quieter periods and slightly more during active periods.

At NASA, we work with NOAA to track the solar cycle. We kicked off a new one – Solar Cycle 25 – after solar minimum in December 2019. Since then, solar activity has been slightly ramping up.

Because we closely track solar activity, we know that over the past several decades, solar activity hasn't been on the rise, while greenhouse gases have. More importantly, the "fingerprints" we see on the climate, including temperature changes in the upper atmosphere, don't fit the what we'd expect from solar-caused warming. Rather they look like what we expect from increased greenhouse warming, verifying a prediction made decades ago by NASA.

Volcanic Eruptions

Throughout history, volcanoes have driven major shifts in Earth’s climate. Large eruptions can release water vapor — a greenhouse gas like carbon dioxide — which traps additional warmth within our atmosphere.

On the flip side, eruptions that loft lots of ash and soot into the atmosphere can temporarily cool the climate slightly, by reflecting some sunlight back into space.

Like solar activity, we can monitor volcanic eruptions and tease out their effect on variations in our global temperature.

At the End of the Day, It’s Us

Our satellites, airborne missions, and measurements from the ground give us a comprehensive picture of what’s happening on Earth every day. We also have computer models that can skillfully recreate Earth’s climate.

By combining the two, we can see what would happen to global temperature if all the changes were caused by natural forces, like volcanic eruptions or ENSO. By looking at the fingerprints each of these climate drivers leave in our models, it’s perfectly clear: The current global warming we’re experiencing is caused by humans.

For more information about climate change, visit climate.nasa.gov.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

[apod]

2024 June 15

Prominences and Filaments on the Active Sun Image Credit & Copyright: Steen Søndergaard

Explanation: This colorized and sharpened image of the Sun is composed of frames recording emission from hydrogen atoms in the solar chromosphere on May 15. Approaching the maximum of solar cycle 25, a multitude of active regions and twisting, snake-like solar filaments are seen to sprawl across the surface of the active Sun. Suspend in the active regions' strong magnetic fields, the filaments of plasma lofted above the Sun's edge appear as bright solar prominences. The large prominences seen near 4 o'clock, and just before 9 o'clock around the solar limb are post flare loops from two powerful X-class solar flares that both occurred on that day. In fact, the 4 o'clock prominence is associated with the monster active region AR 3664 just rotating off the Sun's edge.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240615.html

[calmwaterstarot]

What can we expect from 2024 dear!?? 😌

2024 has a lot going on; there are so many astrological transits happening that have a huge impact on all of us.

January 1, 2024: Mercury went direct after being in retrograde for several weeks. This means communication gets better, legal documents can be signed without issues, and anything related to speech is cleared up.

January 20 - September 1, 2024: Pluto enters Aquarius. This is going to be a wild ride. The last time Pluto was in Aquarius was around the late 1700's, and during that time, the world underwent MASSIVE change. Both the American and French Revolutions occurred, coups happened with governments, royalty was dethroned, battles and wars were fought, the first wave of feminism began, etc. There's so much more than this. You should see the list. I'll include it here--start around 1777 and go through 1798. Pluto represents death, rebirth, and transformation, while Aquarius represents humanity and technology. When you pair these two, you're looking at major transformation socially, politically, economically, and technologically. There's a brief retrograde into Capricorn for one last time during our lifetime, and then Pluto will return to Aquarius for another 20 years. It's interesting to note that the rise and fall of empires throughout history is around 250 years. The cycle for Pluto is 245 years. Coincidence? I think not.

February 16, 2024: A stellium in Aquarius. A stellium occurs when three or more planets are in the same house/sign in an astrological chart. This Aquarius stellium will feature Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Pluto. The last time this occurred was in February, 1962, and was commonly referred to as the "Age of Aquarius." This time period brought about major changes in the fields of technology, science, and aerospace. I'm afraid that during this time, though, there will be a strong focus on AI and its advancement. Pay attention to headlines regarding an upgrade in technology.

March 25, 2024: Lunar eclipse in Libra. Major historical events typically coincide with lunar eclipses, and since this one will be in Libra, I foresee society wishing for balance, harmony, peace, and justice. I believe this will be a time that humanity will call for us to take a deeper look at how we can end strife and get along with each other. Be ready for major calls for wars and upheaval to end (even though it's happening now, this will be on a much larger scale with this eclipse).

April 8, 2024: Solar eclipse in Aries. On the flip side of the lunar eclipse, we have the solar eclipse in Aries. This will be a time where we start anew and are ready to charge down a new path. Mars' energy represents war, destruction, violence, revenge, but also strength. This particular eclipse is warning us about war and destruction on a collective level because it'll be conjunct the North Node (the direction we're all going). I believe we're headed into a total collapse and rebirth when we add in the Pluto in Aquarius energy, but it's something that needs to happen for us to evolve as a civilization.

May 25, 2024: Jupiter in Gemini, which is actually in detriment. This means the energy is weaker in this sign for the planet. Expect changes in telecommunications (voice, data, and video) and social media, since Gemini is ruled by Mercury, the planet of communication.

June 2, 2024: Neptune is anaretic. Anaretic means that a planet has entered the 29th degree, which holds a sense of finality because this planet has transited all 30 degrees (starting at 0). It's ready to move on and cut ties. What does this mean for Neptune? Well, the planet of illusions will lift its veil and a lot of what we've held onto in our beliefs will die out. Some people will still try to hold on (sunk-cost fallacy) because they're stubborn, but the majority of people will release, mourn, and deal with the fallout that's going to be super messy. Imagine the feeling of being betrayed by someone you love. That's what Neptune lifting it's veil is going to feel like for most. Again, collectively, we NEED this energy for healing and spiritual growth.

July 21, 2024: Full Moon in Capricorn. Most of the time, nothing major happens on full moons, but this one is interesting because it falls on an anaretic degree, just like Neptune. Capricorn represents structure, discipline, rigidity, and order (its ruler is Saturn), so we're going to see some upheaval in regards to these issues. The old way of doing things will no longer serve the same purpose. This is the equivalent of saying, "Out with the old, in with the new."

August 5, 2024 – August 28, 2024: Mercury Retrograde in Virgo and Leo. With Mercury rx in Virgo, this might be a time where you lose or misplace documents, feel irritated, have constant miscommunication, or face scrutiny from the general public. Remember to write down important deadlines and keep everything organized so you don't lose anything. With Mercury rx in Leo, I'm fully expecting some celebrity scandals during this time. Otherwise, it'll be a time of thinking about trying something new or wanting to get out and do something fun.

September 17, 2024: Lunar Eclipse in Pisces. This will happen in the 25th degree (an Aries degree), so anyone with heavy Pisces placements will have creative breakthroughs during this time. We'll see a rise in great music, art, poetry and literature, as well as film and visual arts. This time period might feel very dreamy and whimsical on the art scene.

October 2, 2024: Solar Eclipse in Libra. We had the lunar eclipse in Libra in March, so now, the solar eclipse will bring justice and balance. Anyone with Libra placements in early degrees will feel the need to purge what's not working. Even though most Librans are peaceful, this will be a time of upheaval. Expect people to help the oppressed even more (seeking justice) in a world that needs to be more fair and balanced (Libra energy).

November 19, 2024: Pluto goes direct in Aquarius for twenty years, until March 8, 2043. Buckle up! It's going to be a bumpy-but-necessary ride.

November 25, 2024 – December 15, 2024: Mercury Retrograde in Sagittarius. We all know what happens during Mercury rx, but what happens when it's in Sagittarius? Sagittarius represents higher education and learning, all things foreign and travel-related, religion, and spirituality. Expect religious or spiritual leaders, as well as educational leaders at universities, to have private documents leaked, misinformation stemming from foreign countries and media, as well as travel issues (delays, being rerouted, lots of crowds, etc.). This will not be a good time to travel.

December 6, 2024 – February 24, 2025: Mars Retrograde in Cancer and Leo. This is going to be...interesting. Mars hates being in Cancer; it's in detriment. Why? Cancer represents empathy and compassion, while Mars represents a more masculine energy that strives towards war, violence, and destruction. Cancer wants to provide a resolution to all of the conflict occurring, while Mars isn't having it. Expect masculine energies, especially men, to be more irritated and aggressive during this time. This duo can bring about discussion regarding balancing masculine and feminine energy, which we all have. Because Cancer is represented by the Moon, or the "mother" in astrology, expect some discussions about fertility and reproduction, birth rates (especially the low birth rates of some countries), marriage (or lack thereof), and any social dynamics with males and females. These discussions will carry over into 2025.

2024 is going to be a year that'll go down in history, that's for sure. One silver lining in all of this is that Venus does NOT retrograde this year, so we might see or hear about fewer breakups, and we might see or hear about more people entering into relationships and staying together.

[elminx]

Note: I am updating this^^ OG post from 2021 with updated information about our upcoming eclipse cycle (September-October 2025).

We are fast approaching eclipse season and I am already beginning to see the warnings show up across the witch universe. I assume that people who warn others against doing magic during the lunar and solar eclipses mean well but as a longtime astrologer AND witch, I would like to kindly disagree. Eclipse energy can seem unpredictable but also follows some very specific rules (like all lunar energy). If you know and understand these rules, you can get back to doing your normal lunar magic in no time.

To understand how to work with the lunar energy of eclipses, you simply have to combine a basic knowledge of all lunar magic cycles and some basic astrology about the lunar nodes. Don’t worry – I’ll walk you through it.

To start with, lunar energy is quite simple and well understood in the witchcraft community. The old saying “Wax on/Wane off” can be applied to her. When the moon is waxing (from the point of the new moon through the hours before the full moon), it is well aligned to cast spells where you are bringing something towards you and when the moon is waning (from the point of the full moon to the house before the new moon), it is best to cast magic where you are pushing or removing something away from you. This can be simplified as we make wishes or set intentions for growth and forward motion with the new moon and remove and banish with the full moon.

Now we add in our astrology. All eclipses are just supercharged new or full moons where the lunar event falls into alignment with the lunar nodes. The lunar nodes aren’t objects in the sky, they are imaginary points – actual representations of the places in the sky where the Sun, the Moon, and the Earth could fall into a line with one another. This line is oppositional, in the sense that it has a North Node and a South Node which are always found within opposite signs in the natal horoscope chart.

Eclipses always come in pairs*. A lunar eclipse happens when the Earth passes in between the Sun and the Moon and a solar eclipse happens when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun. This always happens on the full moon and new moon, respectively. Because this happens near the lunar nodes, these cosmic events always include a conjunction between the Moon and either the North Node or the South Node.

This is where the complexity of eclipse magic comes into play.

Again – let’s simplify. The north and south nodes are a set of points that travels around the horoscope wheel. Energetically, they represent the tension point between where we’ve been (the South node) and where we are going (the North Node). In order to understand the energies of an upcoming eclipse, you must combine the energy of the lunar event (wax on for new moon/wax off for full moon) with the energies of whichever of the two nodes the moon will be conjunct at that time.

There are three possible options: new/new, old/old, and new/old.

I want to use the two upcoming eclipses to illustrate my point. On Tuesday, 9/17, we will experience a lunar eclipse (an eclipsed full moon) at 25° Pisces. Right now, our North Node is sitting at 06° Aries, and our South Node at 06° Libra; from this we can see that our lunar eclipse will be (widely) conjunct to the North Node. Therefore, we combine the energy of the full moon (old/waning) with the energy of the North Node (new/where we are going).

Likewise, our solar eclipse (eclipsed new moon) will occur at 10° Libra on Wednesday, 10/2. So we combine a new moon's waxing/new energy with the waning/where we’ve been energy of the South Node.

In both cases, these two lunar events will have both the energy of release and the energy of new beginnings at the same time. This is, I believe, the signature that has led many a witch to call eclipse energy “unpredictable” because if you are not accounting for both the push energy of the new and the pull energy of the old, you could easily get caught in a weird magic sandwich somewhere in the middle. We’re not those people though – we are empowered, well-informed witches!

The best way to harness eclipse energy, then, is to make sure that you have accounted both for the lunar energy and the nodal energy within your spell. See also: banishing an old love to make space for the new, or doing a ritual to remove something that is holding you back from pursuing your current goals. Just makes sure that you are working on both the bringing in and the letting go. You could include double action candles to represent both the push and the pull or have a part of the ritual dedicated to each aspect. That part is all you.

In this way, I believe that eclipses may be the best days of the year to perform big magic workings because, it seems to me, that all great endeavors involve both sides of the energetic coin in some fashion or another.

*occasionally threes **all dates/times in EST

Do you like my work? You can support me over on Kofi by tipping me, purchasing an astrology report, or signing up to be a monthly supporter, including perks like getting energy updates sent to you via email so you don't have to search for them on Tumblr.

[uncontrolledfission]

Prominences and Filaments on the Active Sun, 2024-06-15

This colorized and sharpened image of the Sun is composed of frames recording emission from hydrogen atoms in the solar chromosphere on May 15. Approaching the maximum of solar cycle 25, a multitude of active regions and twisting, snake-like solar filaments are seen to sprawl across the surface of the active Sun. Suspend in the active regions' strong magnetic fields, the filaments of plasma lofted above the Sun's edge appear as bright solar prominences. The large prominences seen near 4 o'clock, and just before 9 o'clock around the solar limb are post flare loops from two powerful X-class solar flares that both occurred on that day. In fact, the 4 o'clock prominence is associated with the monster active region AR 3664 just rotating off the Sun's edge.

Credits: NASA's 'Astronomy Picture Of The Day.'

[dessonges]

Sun Releases 2 of its Strongest Flares yet on May 11, 2024 | 24h time-lapse (AIA 0304 Å) Courtesy of NASA/SDO, AIA, EVE, & HMI science teams.

The Sun emitted two of its strongest solar flares yet from an active sunspot region called AR3664, peaking at 01:23am UTC on May 11, 2024, and 11:44am UTC on May 11, 2024. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the Sun constantly, captured images of the events. Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy. Flares and solar eruptions can impact radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals, and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts. The flares are classified as X5.8 and X1.5-class flares, respectively. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength.

Excerpt from NASA Solar Cycle 25 blog post

[nico-esoterica]

Astro Notes on Current Events:

The Fall of Sean 'Diddy' Combs

From my professional perspective: / cw for mentions of abuse:

Diddy's incarceration and undoing coincides w/ Pluto regressing back into Capricorn and conjoining his Mars and many factors but I had my eye on that transit for months. There's no getting out of this one. Our current and incoming south nodes are conjoining planets in his chart which can be associated with domestic power abuse, control issues, and legal disputes being magnified. The SN is associated w/ the 'karma' you inherit or reap from the past.

On Sep 18th, the partial lunar eclipse in Pisces directly opposes his Pluto. Moon-Pluto oppositions can deal with feminine-coded abuse. It's emotional negligence, gaslighting, and a complete conquering of an emotional reality which starts with caregivers. From a legal and symbolic standpoint, this translates to me as the private subjugation of women. Abuse of wives, live-in partners, domestic servants, and child abuse and trafficking.

Saturn isn't aspecting this but its co-presence adds tension to the landscape. The collective needs justice. Being ruled by Jupiter in Gemini for the time being, this has to do with what was said and what can be factually proven. Witness and survivor accounts are going to play a major role here. Saturn is also conjoined with his natal NN which is in retrograde at the moment. In December it'll be direct. From a prosecution standpoint, this is saying they'll have everything they need to charge him by this date or something even more damning may come to light at that time. Dec 10th.

But it goes deeper than you'd think. Many psychics and astrologers have forecasted potential ties to more powerful players coming to light through this. My guess is that they're going to try to pin it all on him..but as quickly as possible. With Mars transiting through all of Cancer between now and November, this happening in the US's 8H and squaring Diddy's Venus planets may be about uncovering that the trafficking and other criminal activity doesn't only incriminate him but anyone w/ power attached to him. It was never just about Diddy. There's more people involved and they're all at risk. I'd argue that astrologically, his Mars's exaltation was protecting him, especially if he has a night chart. But Pluto bouncing from that Mars to continuing its applying square to his Retrograde Saturn in Taurus spells out that any shadiness he thought he could get away with would inevitably come to light..with an ass beating attached. Pluto's official long term ingress in Aquarius starts on Nov 19th.

On March 14th '25, there'll be a total lunar eclipse conjoining his Pluto. There's potentially going to be more charges made and files/documentation being brought in. But on Sep 21st '25, there's a very interesting partial solar eclipse occurring right on the late Kim Porter's 29-degree Virgo Pluto. I'm just going to call it, but if the rumors are true that he played a part in her death, we're going to definitely find out then. Keep your eyes on Sep 21, 2025.

If it doesn't happen then, it'll be a couple eclipses down the line because the next Cancer/Cap eclipse cycle occurs right where Kim Porter's Moon and Diddy's Lilith fall and it's going to reveal how abusive (and fatal) that Moon-Lilith connection was. That's mother-coded and child-coded too. So, anything involving children, pregnancy, etc, may come to light as well. That'll be happening in 2028. Tbh, I'm calling it because there'll also be a partial eclipse on his Juno that's going to be conjoined with her Mercury as well. Kim Porter's life and the darkness she was forced to keep secret is going to fully (and finally) be told very shortly. That man is about to be destroyed. Tbh, it's giving a memoir she may have wanted to have published.

Her scorned (but vindicated) Lilith has a full lunar eclipse occurring on March 3 '26. This is why I'm thinking that it's not just going to be a single decisive punch of getting her spiritual lick back with one eclipse cycle. Kim Porter was an actual inner-planet Scorpio stellium. It's going to be a rolling and incapacitating series of punches. Or of slow and painful dismemberment, quite honestly. Between now and 2028 and beyond, everyone is going to know just how abysmally awful this man is.

But he won't be alone. Oh, no. With Pluto in Aqua occurring right at the start of everything, it'll be the beginning of the end for the entertainment world in its current state.

[malewife-overlord]

Six Cycles Later -- Part I

OKAY SO. after speaking to literally two people about some oc transformer fic ive been working on, ive decided to post just chapter 1 here, to see if anyone else would like to see the ocs ive been quietly going crazy for in the background. instead of writing actual proper fanfic ive decided to just go off the rails writing a canon elaboration on characters who dont exist. i will now make it everyone elses problem.

tbh im intending to keep writing this for as long as it brings me joy, and im already working on chapter 2. whether this gets attention or not won't change that fact. just kinda posting here to garner some attention/see if anyone else would like to get invested in my silly lil ocs.

this takes place in sorta a g1/idw mixed continuity, im not particularly picky or strict about canon, because really, im just here to have fun and vibe. it will focus on my OCs, not canon characters, though a couple will still be present :> this idea has been one that nagged at me for a bit--isnt it a bit weird that the decepticons just straight up seem to abandon their prior base on earth in g1 following the movie? i wondered for a while what it'd be like if any of them were left behind. so, i've decided to make an oc for it and explore that a little. aaaaaand then i kinda went off the rails (but we'll get there, lol). if none of that is particularly off-putting to you, feel free to proceed! and comments are always appreciated if you enjoy

Summary: Invert is a nobody. One of a million Seekers constructed for a war that would claim their lives, she's survived due to her uselessness. Forged with a defective frame and kept around for a single devastating ability that hurts her to use it, she may as well be a glorified cleaning bot. Months after the other Decepticon's left to assault Autobot City, Invert remains behind on Earth, waiting, on the sunken Victory, maintaining the base and holding out hope that her brethren will eventually return.

But with only silence and an emotionless ship for company, she's started to become increasingly desperate--so much so, that, when an SOS from a ship that should be empty arrives, she just might throw caution to the wind and leave on a mission that could change her life.

Luster was somebody, once. Was. He can't remember any of it. Having disappeared at the start of the war on some ludicrous quest, only now has he awoken on a strange planet called 'Earth'. Accepted back by his Autobot brethren, the void of his past haunts him endlessly, as does a mysterious, insatiable hunger. He's determined to get to the bottom of both--but with the fog they produce only deepening, how long does he have before he's lost eternally?

Chapter 1 --Word Count 7495

Orbital cycle: 6.3. Approximately 182.5 solar cycles since initial launch for attack on Autobot City. Diagnostic report: no structural damage detected. Energon levels: 27%. Energon levels of 50% recommended for full functionality. Defense systems: offline. Offensive systems: offline. Cloaking systems: online. Communications: partially online. Power saving mode recommended at Energon levels of 25%. 

She records the report in her datapad down to the final recommendation, which really was not necessary, considering any proper engineer would have understood that by now, the ship should have entered power saving mode eons ago. If it had been placed in that mode when the other Decepticons had initially left, the current Energon levels would sit comfortably at the recommended 50%, and she would still have the long distance communications beacon up. But that was in the past, where they were supposed to have returned after a few solar cycles. 

It had been dozens now, and Invert was starting to wonder if her brethren were going to return. A far more patient bot like Shockwave would not have felt any doubt up to the first double digit million years–how else had he held down Cybertron for so long? By comparison she was young, having barely lived for over a million. The hundreds of solar cycles that had passed as she was left alone on the Victory were now starting to seep into her processor, bringing with them questions of uncertainty.

The raid was supposed to last barely a few days. They’d brought everyone in the local system with them. The greatest warriors the Decepticon cause had were deployed. With all of them attacking at once, even the heavily fortified Autobot City should have been leveled in under a deca-cycle. 

And yet there was silence. No cries of victory. No chaotic messages on the airways calling for aid. No declaration of retreat. Just silence. 

They couldn’t be defeated. If they’d been defeated they would have retreated back to Victory. If they’d gone back to Cybertron on Astrotrain, then surely Shockwave would have contacted her on earth. He knew her name. He knew he’d sent her there orbital cycles ago. He’d know they’d left her behind to hold down the fort. 

There was, of course, one other option. Silence was begetting of only a few characteristics when it came to the living. The Autobots, surely, wouldn’t. They were too soft-hearted. But if the attack had truly gone so badly, and they’d deigned it necessary–

Total obliteration. Total razing. Total loss. 

She pushed the thoughts swirling in her processor aside and focused back on Victory’s main computer, typing in a few commands. 

“Victory, run an internal scan. How are your habsuits looking?”

A map of Victory’s internal structure appeared on the screen before her. Dozens of rooms were selected and zoomed in on, each of which specifically served as living space. One by one they started as black, then turned white as they were provided the all clear. 

Structure: stable. Living conditions: adjusted. Doors: unlocked. 

“Alright, that’s good…” she muttered to herself, swapping to the cameras on the outside of the ship. They revealed an empty sea around her, dark and creeping with small organics. Their crude forms made her cringe, even in the restricted view she had of them. “Gross…Victory, illuminate your external hull.” 

Victory obeyed, revealing a vast expanse of metal currently covered in the earth version of space barnacles. The white-shelled creatures had opened their filthy maws, extending forth feelers characteristic of some kind of horror show. Invert grimaced and swapped the camera views, checking instead on the door to the airlock. It was immaculately clean unlike the hull, though a few many legged organics crawled across it. 

She checked the back of the ship, its thrusters, its scope, and finally its body. Making a note of each location that needed proper cleaning, Invert tapped the information into her datapad and closed the camera system before issuing another command. “Victory, check the wavelengths for any signs of communication.” 

The screen before her went black, turning to a single unmoving flat line. She stared at it in silence, waiting for a peak, a leap, a blur, a single beat to indicate that anyone was out there. 

Nothing happened. 

Frowning to herself, she tapped a button on the keyboard before her–the one for “broadcast”. 

“Fellow Decepticons,” she said, “if any of you are out there, I am Invert of Cybertron, broadcasting from the Earth base Victory. I am alone here and have been so since the attack on Autobot City. If you are hearing this message, please respond.” 

Her servo left the button and she waited. And waited. And waited. 

And waited. 

And waited. 

And nothing came, as it never did. 

She vented and focused back on her datapad, the frown perched upon her face seemingly eager to make it a permanent home. There was her chore list, plain and simple. It would take her several megacycles to complete: clean the habsuits, clean the storage vault, clean the weapons vault, clean the hallways, feed Victory, scrape away the organics on Victory’s hull, manage the outside of Victory, air another message after seven megacycles, spy on the Autobots if possible.

If possible. The last one was becoming an increasingly harder task to pull off. She was no Soundwave, and Victory’s listening equipment had been down for a while now to preserve power. Furthermore the equipment in Soundwave’s habsuit was either completely foreign or off-limits to her. He may not be here now, but he would return, like the others would, and if he found out she’d been messing with his items, well. She was only a lowly foot soldier, and he was the head of communications of the Decepticon cause. 

She’d be lucky if only her wings were broken off and used to decorate his sparsely covered habsuit. 

Speaking of her wings…she cast a glance down at the inverted things, which pointed towards the ground as opposed to the air. They would do her no favors in navigating the outside of the ship and certainly no aid in reaching the higher spots in the larger habsuits. Her boosters were functional, but the Energon they’d consume to keep her airborne would drain her at twice the levels of a normal Seeker. 

She’d have to use them sparingly if she wanted to continue her present consumption rate of only one Energon cube a day. If she offlined from low power, that was fine; eventually her brethren would return, find her, and bring her back. But without her, no one would feed Victory, who would eventually offline from low power. Victory had to stay online, no matter what. 

Where else would the Decepticons go when they came back, if they didn’t have Victory? 

“I’ll keep you going, girl…” she whispered as she left the control room, reaching a hand out to run along the walls of the ship. Victory, as usual, was silent. It always was. 

Perhaps none of the other Decepticons had shared her sentiment, but Invert had always thought of The Victory (Victory for short) as a fellow ‘con. It was a crashed ship, yes, but it was alive and functional, and it provided them a home within its body. Victory could respond to commands and hold conversations if it so wished; just the majority of the time, it preferred not to. For all she knew Victory was just trapped in permanent stasis lock, and would perhaps free itself one day. 

As such, it was important to take care of Victory, for more purposes than just maintaining a Decepticon earth base. Victory was an ally with much greater might than her. If it fell, everything was lost. 

That was why they’d left her behind when the entire cause had prepared for the assault on Autobot City–it had to be. Someone had to take care of Victory and it was for the better that that someone was her. Perhaps it had been said to her in a less kind way, but the others had had a point when they said that someone who couldn’t contribute properly to a fight would be better off staying behind. 

Okay, they’d said it a lot less kindly. More so, they’d chided her that a flightless Seeker was utterly useless on the field despite whatever “special talent” Shockwave had promised she possessed. And for the battle of Autobot City, they needed soldiers who were functional, powerful, and wouldn’t prove dangerous to their allies as well as their foes. Besides, for swelling their numbers, they had the Insecticon clones. So someone like her, broken, glitched, and more of a liability than anything else, would only be good for ensuring that Victory didn’t somehow miraculously break while they were gone. 

Because really, if Victory was invaded, it wasn’t that big of a deal. The ship was equipped to deal with invasions. Its defensive systems were more than adequate for dispatching invaders both inside and out. Invert was only present within it to mop up the Energon remains of whoever was fool enough to try. 

No one had been–but that could also be attributed to the fact that the Autobots didn’t seem to know where the Decepticon base was. That, or they just didn’t care. Invert preferred the former. Why would it be inconsequential to know where the enemy’s base was, where they were likely to crawl back to and lick their wounds? And surely they were licking their wounds somewhere out there, weren’t they?

So why hadn’t they come back?

She pushed the thought away again and threw open one of the few cleaning closets the ship possessed, grabbing all the equipment she’d need to properly clear out all the habsuits. Nowadays it was more dusting than anything else, but she still brought along a mop and bucket, just in case. 

The habsuits would start with Starscream’s, of course, because if she cleaned anyone else’s first and he found out, he’d throw a fit. And a fit from her commander was not something Invert wanted to sit through. He always treated her with more vitriol than any of the other Seekers, no matter how inconsequential her mistakes might be compared to theirs. She had an ounce of resentment towards him for it, countered only by the fact that, no matter how awful Starscream could be, he was deserving of respect for his flight abilities. 

But that was a low bar. Any winged Decepticon could fly circles around her while all she could do was watch and seethe. 

She vented and tapped the passcode to his habsuit’s door into its keypad, the double doors opening to reveal a pristine and lavishly decorated room. Starscream was nothing if not dramatic and narcissistic. All the valuables and self-care items stored in his habsuit spoke lengths to just what he’d do for a decent polish. Cleaning it was always a nightmare, even after all the times she’d done it before. If even one item was an inch out of place, she’d hear about it later. 

A tiny chuckle escaped her at the thought–when was the last time she’d heard Starscream’s voice for any purpose? Be it admonishing her for attempting even once to be a proper Seeker, bossing her around, treating her as his personal slave, or verbally abusing her to let his Megatron-induced anger out, it had been so long she almost found herself forgetting how cruel the insults had been. 

Almost. She entered his habsuit with her cleaning gear and checked everything over–berth, vanity, table, overly expensive one of a kind statue in his image, all the data-pads he pretended didn’t contain failed plans to assassinate their great leader, full length mirror that somehow hadn’t been broken, each and every one of his polishes and maintenance equipment, and of course, the additional weapons he kept on the wall. 

There wasn’t a speck of dust on anything nor any indication of water damage. The berth was made perfectly.. The floor was clean save for her own pedeprints. And the metal of the walls gleamed like it’d been treated with the same care as Starscream himself. 

There was nothing to clean, but she still gave everything a dust off, just to be safe. Giving everything one final look over for rust, Invert confirmed there to be no contamination on any of Starscream’s immensely precious belongings and left his habsuit, locking it behind her.

One down. At least fifty more to go. She vented again and moved to the next.

—-----

Maintenance was finished by the time the Earth’s sun moved high into the sky. Her internal clock read 16:23, a new method of telling time that had been adjusted for her when she’d arrived on Earth. The planet operated on a twenty-four megacycle basis, working around when the sun would orbit to the other side of the planet. The absence of the sun was named “night”, and could occur anywhere from 17:00-21:00, sometimes later. Having spent much of her time on Cybertron, she had been unaccustomed to Earth’s time, and figured it to be useless for the majority of her stay on the planet. 

“Night” had its benefits, though. Its darkness concealed well, and most organics chose to enter recharge when it came on. It was the perfect time to enact plots, schemes, and occasional terrorist attacks on Autobot City. 

The season Earth was presently in was dubbed “summer”. That meant night would not come until 21:00. She had time. After finishing with the habsuits, Invert focused on maintaining Victory. 

At 16:28 she scraped away the organics on the outside of the hull, using her thrusters to properly climb up onto it. Finishing the front at 17:34, she headed to the side, then the back, ending at 18:20. Once back inside, she accessed the Energon vault and took stock before feeding Victory. 

92 cubes left. Victory sufficed on ten per day. Power saving mode was beginning to look tempting now, if not for the risk that it would cease cloaking. And considering how often she had to transmit, the loss would be nothing short of catastrophic. 

More Energon was needed, then. She’d have to ration herself more. She fit eleven cubes in her arms and brought them to Victory’s engine. As they were tossed in she held the one extra up. 

“To another cycle, Victory.” It was brought to her dermas and promptly consumed. 

Victory gave no response, as always. Invert stared at the empty cube in her servos for only a second before turning to take it back to storage. 

At which point Victory’s system suddenly lit up. The screen turned on behind her, displaying a map of the planet and pinging a specific point somewhere in Asia. Invert looked back and raised her brows. 

“SOS signal of Decepticon origin detected,” Victory stated in its monotone voice. “Displaying coordinates on screen. Incoming message. Playing now.”

Before Invert could even brace herself, an unholy buzzing suddenly sounded through the speakers, so shrill and constant that she collapsed to one knee, instinctively slamming her servos over her audials. Gritting her dentae she opened her hub and turned her audials all the way down, which made the buzzing just tolerable enough for her to reach Victory’s main computer and slam her fist on the OFF button. 

The sound stopped so suddenly it left her processor ringing. She blinked several times, then knocked a fist against the side of her helm, shaking it a few times to properly orient herself. 

Victory had gone silent again, but continued to display the ping and its coordinates. Invert looked up at them, transcribing them in her memory. What kind of distress signal had that been? Victory’s audio systems must be going, perhaps from too much time spent under the Earth’s water. An SOS signal usually captured the sound of blaster fire, of desperate voices crying for help, of bitter regret as whatever ‘con was on the other end laid aside his pride to admit he needed back-up. 

That thought made her uneasy. Buzzing. Why have an SOS signal that was nothing but buzzing? 

“Victory…” she paused, winced, and told herself that it wasn’t going to hurt as badly the second time. “Play the SOS signal again. At a decreased volume!” 

It complied, the loud, painful buzzing sounding over the speakers once more. Invert increased her audials this time, even though the sound made her want to rip them out of her helm. Listening closely, she focused on differentiating corrupted audio from what might be beneath, be it voices, blaster fire, or the sound of fleeing pedesteps. 

But the clip ended without any differentiating sounds. She found that odd, and replayed it in her processor again and again, trying to filter through it. Nothing. Just buzzing.

“Victory, run a diagnostic on your audio systems,” she ordered. The screen changed as Victory did just that, then returned several cycles later with a clear report: nothing was wrong. 

The Energon she’d consumed sat uneasily in her tank. Invert grimaced. “Display the coordinates again,” she commanded, though they were already saved to her memory. Seeing them on the screen solidified her doubts. 

Bali. There was a ship in Bali that she knew about, one that had harbored several unsavory occupants of the Decepticon cause. They, too, had disappeared after the attack on Autobot City. 

Insecticons. Members of the cause notorious for how untrustworthy they were. She hadn’t been around for all the cases where they’d proven themselves to be nothing but hassles who only cared for endless consumption, but she’d read reports of actions and abilities. They were a self-contained group and stuck to their own–why would they call for help now, several orbital cycles after their last appearance in Autobot City?

Buzzing. Their entire signal had just been buzzing. She frowned, thinking it over. Their alt modes were based off of filthy organics, and as such, carried some characteristics of the ugly things. Was the buzzing a possible side effect of that? But they could speak, so why wouldn’t they?

Unless they weren’t able to, for some reason? During an SOS signal? 

An SOS signal from a self-contained, proud group, perfectly capable of surviving on their own, that contained an off-putting buzz likely made to avoid speaking.

Just what were they facing out there that would cause such behavior?

“Victory, open a comm to the Insecticon ship,” she said, leaning over the control panel. “Insecticons, this is Invert, speaking to you from the Decepticon base The Victory. Come in Insecticons.”

Silence. 

“Come in Insecticons.”

The ping repeated itself again and again. SOS. SOS. SOS. 

No one was going to answer. Her frown deepened and she stepped away from the control panel. The only Decepticon here was her, the last on Earth, for all she knew. If they weren’t answering, they could be offline for all she knew. Or worse, it could be an Autobot trap, and she’d be playing right into their hands. 

But if it wasn’t, and someone was there on the other side, waiting for help, desperately trying to reach any other Decepticon on this planet…

Even if they were gross Insecticons…

Rescue would fall to her. And though she would be taking a huge risk, with no guarantee for results, with the possibility of capture or permanent offlining…

It was, finally, something to do. Something beyond just maintaining Victory. Something that was a real mission. Something that could get her honor, respect, and maybe even a friend!

Her frown gradually gave way to a grin. Her first real mission. Her first real rescue. Her first chance to make a decision on her own, with no one ordering her what side to choose. 

Oh, she was excited. It didn’t matter that her jet mode struggled to fly and that she’d need to pack away six cubes of additional Energon for the journey and her weapon–she was getting out, and she was going to rescue those Insecticons. 

“Victory, open the weapon’s vault,” she eagerly commanded, taking off down the hall. “And prepare the hangar for take-off.”

—------------------

“I think you’ve had enough, bud.”

He raised tired optics from the glass currently gripped like a lifeline in his servos, the pink Energon within rippling from how his arm shook. Upon the bartender, a shorter mech with a white and yellow paint job, did his gaze land. Whatever was in it seemed enough to cause them to flinch, but they held their ground, clearly experienced in dealing with the far more unruly. 

“Seriously. You’ve had five of those in the past Earth hour. How you’re not horrendously overfueled by now, I dunno, but you’re on your way to an early grave if you keep that up.” They gave him a hard frown, narrowing their optics behind their visor. “I’m not havin’ it on record that someone died at my bar because of my negligence.”

Luster didn’t answer them at first, letting his gaze drift back down to the Energon swirling in the glass he held. How it hadn’t cracked yet spoke to its quality, or perhaps how weak he’d become. Either worked. 

The glass was half-drained. It hadn’t tasted like anything in particular. He never ordered for the flavor, since anything they could provide him would be irrelevant. His glossa didn’t taste like it once must have, even if the memories of what had been felt like they existed just beyond a fog barrier. And besides, no matter how much he drank, his tank never felt full. 

Not anymore. 

He pulled up a report on his tank capacity in his hub–93% capacity. Ignoring the bartender, he brought the glass to his derma and promptly chugged, feeling his frame protest against more. Another tank report came in–100%. If he consumed anymore, he’d have to purge. 

There was still a drop at the bottom. He forced it down despite the warnings and slid the glass forward, looking just past the bartender, never at them. 

“One for the road,” he rasped, venting harshly. “Please.”

“Absolutely not. If you’re not at capacity by this point your sensor’s faulty.” They took the glass with what almost seemed like disgust. “Aren’t you supposed to be here with your guardian, anyways? Where is he?”

Guardian. He coughed at the word, not because he wanted to, but because it reminded him of what his life had become. The motion jarred the Energon inside of him and he felt sick. Swallowing down the urge to purge, Luster moved to shaky pedes, gripping the bar for support. 

“I don’t need him,” he grumbled. “I’m not a Sparkling. I’m not a protoform. I’m…I was someone, before, I don’t need a guardian.” 

The bartender grimaced. “Luster…look, buddy. I didn’t know you before the war. I can’t say I’ve ever heard of your work. I know Magnus says you did somethin’ important before the retreat from Cybertron. But all that’s in the past now, aight? This is Earth, not Cybertron, and we all know whatever it is you were lookin’ for, you…”

They paused as his cold optics finally focused on them, reconsidering their words. 

“...We all know you had some tragedy while you were out there. Real sad. No one here wouldn’t feel bad for you. But you can’t keep drinkin’ yourself to death over it. And I know you’re a grown ‘bot, but considerin’ the memory problems and all…well…course we all think you could use a guardian.”

A low rumble escaped from somewhere deep within him. Tank capacity at 99%. He needed more Energon. 

“One more for the road,” he asked again. “Please. I’ll pay you double for it.” 

Their frown tightened. “I’m calling Uptick.”

“No.” It came out harsher and faster than he intended, sounding like the warning growl of a tiger. His optics widened and he closed them, the gentle lighting of the bar suddenly too much. “Please. No. Don’t call him.”

They had their hand to their helm as they grimaced at him. Luster growled and turned away, almost falling over as he did. His balance equilibrator was off courtesy of overfueling, and focusing on what was normally a clear beeline for the door was difficult. One pede in front of the other. One pede in front of the other. 

“Luster! You’re not goin’ out alone?” The bartender called after him. He ignored them, turning down his audials to focus on walking. 

Spilling out of the bar, he stumbled for the nearest wall and rested a hand against it, leaning on it for dear life. His head was spinning. Standing was becoming increasingly difficult. 

Tank capacity at 98%. 

It wouldn’t stay there long. He needed to be back in his habsuit before that happened. Which way to his habsuit? He focused on his internal map, pulling it up in his hub and searching the coordinates. A small box lit up on Metroplex’s form, his tracking systems illustrating a path for him to take milliseconds later. 

It was late. Autobots didn’t sleep, not really, but it was likely that, due to the time of the planet, he wouldn’t run into anyone. Luster vented again, feeling warm Energon slip out from between his lips as he did so, and began the journey back to the place he was temporarily calling ‘home’. 

The path his systems had picked took him through some of Metroplex’s tighter corridors. On Cybertron, back before he had launched on the fateful mission that took his memory from him, he would have once felt nervous. Now he felt nothing, nothing besides urgency, urgency that did not originate from fear of being attacked or robbed. 

No, it was urgency that sprouted from the deepest recesses of himself, telling him to hide for his self-preservation, for if he did not, the symptoms would soon manifest, and in his present state, he didn’t know if he could take them. 

He made it about halfway before his proximity sensor went off. With his audials turned so low, he realized he hadn’t picked up the voice of whoever was calling to him, and they’d approached, their presence now close enough to seemingly reach out and touch him. 

He turned his helm, uncaring, for whoever it was could not be worse than–

Him. 

Uptick was following within grabbing distance of him, his dermas moving as he ranted on about something Luster was glad he couldn’t hear. He paused in his movement and Uptick did the same, though he didn’t once stop talking. Of course he didn’t.

Slowly, Luster turned his audials back on, just enough to make out the slew of Uptick’s commentary like the gentle, cooing sound of a cyber pigeon. 

“--and furthermore you are in direct violation of your curfew, which states you aren’t to be out beyond the Earth hour of 21:00; it is presently 01:20 and here you are wandering the passages of Metroplex like a lost turbofox!” He put both hands on his hips, glaring Luster down. “This is your second warning. You know what happens if I have to issue a third.”

He shuttered his optics and stared blankly just beyond Uptick. “You lock me up in the clinic until I’m completely fixed or I don’t function anymore?” 

“What?” He sounded incredulous. “No! I’m not here to–do you consider this some kind of torture? Luster, I’m trying to help you!” 

“Then can you leave me alone?” He grumbled, turning away and continuing on his predetermined path. “I’ll be fine…I just need to go back…”

Back to where? The habsuit? The ship? The planet of fog in his memories? Back, back. Always back. 

“You need to stop drinking,” Uptick scolded, grabbing his shoulder and bringing him to a halt. “And stop these late night wanderings. Everyone’s concerned for you because of them.”

He let his shoulders slump. 

“That’s a lie and you know it. The only ones who still care about me are the medics who want to poke my processor. Now can I please go back home?”

The buzz was starting to fade. He didn’t get that nice warmth from Energon overfueling for long anymore. Balance was restoring. And worst of all, the reports were coming in. 

Tank capacity at 95%. Fuel proficiency at 20%. Uptake at %$^&&*^# levels. Seek alternate methods of refueling. 

Uptick let out a long sigh. “Let me walk you back. There’s no point in you getting lost and scaring others again.”

He didn’t fight the offer. There was no point in it. Once Uptick was convinced of doing something, he wouldn’t stop until it was done–especially if that task regarded protecting someone else. 

So he trudged along, the ‘bot slated as his “guardian” trailing just behind him. “Guardian”. “Caretaker” was more like it. Uptick followed him everywhere, kept an eye on how much Energon he was consuming, tracked his recharge cycles, kept a close eye on just what activities he engaged with on a daily basis, and probably had a tracker installed beneath his aft to keep him from ever having an ounce of privacy. 

Of course he did, though, after that night with the other ‘bots. He knew what he had been doing and why he had been doing it. He just didn’t know why he’d stopped.

The Autobots he’d frightened were significantly less green than he was. That wouldn’t keep them safe. They’d returned to their habsuit to begin a cycle of “enjoying one another’s company”. That was why he’d picked them. Two for one. It would have made the whole situation easier on them all.

Except it hadn’t been easier on anyone, especially him. They’d both become creeped out when, upon discovering him in their personal quarters, staring at their recharge slabs with optics more devoid than a moon, he’d purged his dinner and collapsed, whining like a sick turbofox. 

That was when Uptick had been assigned as his caretaker. There wasn’t anything wrong with Uptick, by any means, and he didn’t hate him. He was, like all Enforcers, large and imposing, and tended to play by the rules too much. His paint was cheerful colors of blue, green, and white, meant to match with the new planet he was eager to call home. And his personality was surprisingly forgiving–for being the sucker stuck with the mental patient, he had quite a tolerance for nonsense.

No, Luster despised Uptick’s company for an entire other reason. One that didn’t have to do with how closely he watched him, how constantly he reminded him to attend his appointments, or how constantly he changed his curfews and rules.

It had to do with his sparkbeat. With how close he insisted on staying, Luster could hear the damnable thing’s constant pulsing despite the layers of glass and metal and wires separating them. It was loud and full of vibrant life. 

He could feel the solvent building in his mouth. 

Tank capacity at 93%. 

—-------------------------------

The habsuit allotted to him was at the very end of Metroplex’s furthest row. It was close to the wall, away from any streets or alleys. The original request put in regarding a space for him had placed him near the clinic, where other Cybertronians would be passing by. His vehement rejection of the idea had only been approved after the arguing had made him purge. 

Uptick brought him right to the sliding door, inputting the code to open it on its keypad. The metal let out a quiet shff as it slid open, revealing the small space within. He turned, giving Luster a look. 

“Your visit tomorrow is at 09:20, Earth hours. I’ve already sent you the data package. You seem to have ignored the first four.” There was a hint of annoyance in his voice as he raised a servo to his helm. “I’ll send you another. Be there on time, please, so I don’t have to come here and convince you, alright?”

“Convince”. Luster almost scoffed at the word. The heaviness that came with overfueling had left him by now. With its cloud gone, he found himself choking on bitterness again. 

Instead, he vented, giving a tiny nod. 

“Alright.” Stepping past Uptick, he paused in the threshold of his habsuit when a hand suddenly landed back on his shoulder. 

“Luster. You know these visits are for your health, right? No one here wants to hurt you. We don’t see you as a processor to be poked.” 

“I know.” He didn’t turn around. The lights in his habsuit, motion activated, had turned on, illuminating the sparse few belongings within it. 

“I mean it.” His grip tightened ever so slightly, then released. “We want to help you. All of us.” 

“I know,” he repeated. “Now please leave me alone.” 

Uptick said nothing as the door slid closed, sealing him, and the outside world, away. Luster stepped fully into his habsuit and paused, gaze fixed on the berth. 

It was a recharge slab, standard issue. They’d tried to pull a better one for him due to his circumstances–the medic’s had posited that he may have recharging terrors. They’d been right, of course, but he knew it wasn’t the fault of the slab, so he’d let it lie. They didn’t need to know about the terrors that plagued him, for they were meaningless, and besides, if they knew, they’d want to keep a closer eye on him. 

Who cared about terrors that only consisted of strange humming noises, anyways?

Besides, a closer eye was the exact opposite of what he needed on him. If they watched him more closely, they’d take him away from the bar. They’d take him away from his quiet habsuit. They’d take him away from his place at the edge of their world and draw him right into the middle. 

And if they did that, he had no idea how long he could ensure their safety. 

He stepped over to the slab, observing his reflection in it. They’d taken away the mirror after he’d shown distress staring into it. Something about his frame just didn’t feel right, and the more he looked at it, the more out of place he felt. 

His paint was blue, a gaudy blue, one with a sheen to it that made him literally shine. One of the medics had stated his color was particularly reminiscent of a bird known as the “peacock” on earth. He’d never met the thing, but from the way they’d snickered, he assumed it was excessive. 

On his chassis were diamonds, which, according to the doctors, had been placed there, willingly, by him. He couldn’t imagine why he would have ever reasoned to do such a thing. The stones weakened the integrity of his armor, and furthermore, they drew attention. Cut into varying shapes, they were arranged into delicate patterns that continued on his faceplate, where several more had been embedded just below his optics. Had been. When they found him, all that were left were the indentations of what had been. They now felt like ugly scars. 

The gemstones were gaudy enough, but worse, in his opinion, were his drills. Their blades rested comfortably on his arms, with the largest sitting on his back as a heavy extension. His treads were on his legs, which, combined with the weight of the drill, made even lifting the damnable things a chore. According to the medics he hadn’t even been a miner back in the day, but a scientist of sorts, so why he was so equipped for drilling, he couldn’t even say. 

All of this shaped up to make his frame bulky and uncomfortable. His steps were heavy. His pieces tended to bump into things. And his excessive decorations drew gazes and snickers alike from other mechs. 

He hated the face that looked back at him. The optics were green, a gaudy green, because apparently, he’d once been obsessed with fashion, and made himself a different pair of colored optics for every day of the week. The others were lost, but the green he’d been wearing when he disappeared weren’t. 

His faceplate was a pale gray, like most mechs tended to be. Pale, with those intricate, delicate etchings, designed to make him look ‘beautiful’. His helm had a sharp point in the middle, reaching about halfway down, and of course, in the middle of it was another gemstone. This one, however, was cracked. 

A cracked gemstone accompanied by diamond shaped holes that had once held something supposedly precious. That was all he saw when he looked at himself. 

He tore his optics away from the visage and sat on the berth, keeping his pedes on the floor as he turned to look at his habsuit. It had a desk, a window, a few datapads, and a small storage shelf. That was all. 

They’d offered to bring him some of his surviving “collection”, whatever that meant. He’d declined.

The ceiling lights dimmed as he tried to lay down on his back, found it impossible, and instead did so on his side. He’d never get used to the damnable drill on his back, he just knew it. It wasn’t supposed to be there. It hadn’t been there before. Why did he have a drill on his back? He couldn’t ever remember a time where he did. 

But that was the problem with remembering. He couldn’t remember much of anything. 

It had been only three Earth “months” (solar cycles?) ago that he had landed on the planet, in an unmarked spaceship that had been dated back to the middle of the war. The bots who had discovered him found his frame locked in a stasis pod, almost offline from how little power he’d had left. Taking him back to Autobot city, an emergency transfer of Energon and a strong shock to his processor had brought him back online. 

And that was when the trouble had begun. He’d awoken in a room he didn’t recognize, in a time he didn’t know, in a place he’d never been before. He still remembered coming online. For so long it had been just darkness, darkness and the very hum of the universe, the electrical pulses that dictated the existence of life, making up the entirety of his world. When he’d come online, that hum had ebbed, becoming less than background noise. 

It had felt like being cut off from a lifeline. His optics had onlined, and he had been greeted with the sight of one of the Autobot medics, First Aid. There was celebration to be had as he had groaned and tried to sit up, confused, delirious, and wondering just how he’d gotten to this strange place. They’d insisted he stay down until his energon reserves were replenished. 

But even when his tank hit its safe capacity, a feeling that should have left him satiated and energized, he hadn’t had the strength to properly move. He’d known in that very instant, as the question arose as to why, that something was wrong with him. 

Another electrical shock had returned the ability to properly move to him. They released him from the medical bay after he’d demonstrated he could walk–right into the hands of their Enforcers. For according to their records, he was not to be alone, and the question of just what had happened on his mission was hanging heavier than a spaceship in orbit. 

The issue of his memory had arisen almost immediately. They’d asked him his name. They’d asked him why he had been alone. They’d asked him what had happened. 

He couldn’t remember any of it. 

“His processor seems to have been damaged, sir.” He remembered one of them saying, looking over the scan that had been provided from the medical bay. “They’ve found evidence that a code was written to delete some memories, but even more than that…” The datapad had been handed over, and the interrogator sucked in air through his denta. “How is he even still functional, with scrambling that bad?”

It looked like his processor had been ripped out, smashed, and placed back into his helm. He had no recollection of any of it. 

“Do you remember why you left?”

“Do you remember the name of your ship?”

“Do you remember the research you’d been engaging with when you’d decided to leave?”

“Do you remember what you found?”

“Do you remember Solace?”

“Do you remember what happened to him?”

“What happened to Solace?”

Who’s Solace?

The interview had ended shortly after. 

He vented, watching the lights in the ceiling turn down. Uptick’s data package pushed at the edge of his internal hub. He accepted it because he had no other choice. 

Solace. The name haunted him like a specter. Solace. Who was Solace? Solace had been someone he’d been very close with, apparently. Solace had been someone so important to him that he’d left Cybertron with him, in search of something mysterious to help the Autobot war effort. They’d been joined at the hip all their lives, apparently, 

And he couldn’t remember a single thing about the mech. But why?

He shuttered his optics and tried to think back to the day he’d left Cybertron. It had been sometime in the middle of the war, apparently. He’d made some big decision and gotten a ship somehow. He was going to prove something, or save them all, or change the tide of the war. Something heroic, or whatever. They’d said he had once been outgoing. 

He tried to picture himself standing on Cybertron (did he even remember Cybertron?), chassis puffed out, engine revving, the diamonds on his faceplate and chest glittering. A huge smile was on his face. He stood before the ship he’d arrived on, except instead of its decrepit state, it was a fully functioning spaceship, fresh off the factory line, without a single chip on the paint. 

Before him was a crowd of Autobots. They were cheering his name. Optimus Prime himself was there to see him off. 

He looks them over and grins widely, holding his arms out. Yes, he was going to save them all. He was going to travel far away, find something, and help end the war. He would be so full of hope, nothing could dampen his spirits. 

And there, beside him, would be Solace. Solace, his best friend, his one in a billion, his greatest ally. 

But when he looks beside him, there is no Solace. 

There was only fog, and blank space, and when he looked back, the planet of Cybertron was empty, a barren wasteland of gray. The sky was dark velvet blue. Stars glittered like diamonds overhead. 

There were stars in his chassis. He blinked once, twice. The planet was empty, and he was full of stars, and he was alone. 

And here, alone, in the emptiness of space, he floated, watching all of existence fall away and turn into the hum of electromagnetic pulses indicating life. Life that he could not see or touch. Life he could only listen to as he lay dreaming, drifting through the universe alone. 

In his cradle of stars, dead $^%#%&*^&8 waits dreaming. 

Not alone, really. He had not been alone while he was dreaming. He had heard something else in the hum.

He replayed the sound again, the hum he was so familiar with. It was millions of years worth of noise, stored within his processor because he had nothing else to comprehend for all of it. 217 gigabytes of nothing but humming. His processor ran through all of it in mere minutes, then ran through it again. 

There was something beneath all of the noise, something explicitly subtle. He opened his internal hub and pulled up a spectrograph. The noise was replayed again. 

The waves showed up as nothing in particular for a long time. Then, slowly, they began to form a curve. One by one, each contributed a single line, through millions of years, until finally, he reached himself now, still intuned, just barely, to the electromagnetic pulses of life. 

The image looking back at him was in the shape of a crescent. It was the very shape which he saw in his charge terrors, the one which, ever present, hung in the background, watching him like a cybercat would a mouse. 

His spark felt cold. He closed the spectrograph and opened his optics, staring at the gentle light of Earth’s moon shining in through the window. His internal clock beeped a warning to him–five hours until he was designated to be at the clinic. A pop-up recommending he enter recharge appeared. He moved to close it.

Tank capacity at 68%. Fuel uptake at &%#$^*(&%$$%&&%$%^^^&* Seek alternate fuel source. Seek alternate fuel source. Seek alternate fuel source. 

Dozens more appeared at the death of the one. He pushed the notifications away. 

Seek alternate fuel source.

They came back, one after the other. His frame felt like it had been starved of Energon for years. 

Seek alternate fuel source. 

He forced his optics to shutter, letting the notifications drown out the fear he felt. 

Seek alternate fuel source.

It was going to be a long recharge.

[talonabraxas]

Our Spiritual Sun, Sirius The nature of our galaxy and especially its magnetic field gives off streams of energy from stars traveling in specific directions, either up or down the galactic arm in which they are embedded. Stars are polarized to other stars, either negative and positive, some receiving energy, some sending out energy, all of which travels on the path of the magnetic field lines.

Recent findings reveal we are "downstream" from the Sirius star constalation in the part of the galactic arm that our solar system resides in. God is the bringer of life (energy) and light, and Sirius fits the description perfectly as an erergy provider.

Sirius has 7 planets. The Binary star system Sirius. The prosession of the two suns "our sun and serius" is every 24,000 years. Paleo Helium is at 12,000 years. The days of Noah was 24,000 years ago during at the last star crossing. There are different names for the procession. The Golden Age and Yuga Cycle "Catya Yuga".

It's a place where time ends and begins again. It's the birthplace of all mythos. The Dog star is directly associated with Isis "The mother goddess". The trinity Herself, Osiris, and Horus. Even the dung beetle is in perfect alignment with our sun and the sirius star "Let's make the dung beetle our master navagator".

Sirius is located in Canis Major. The star gives off a beautiful blue haze and has been revered by almost all civilizations. The sun behind the sun or the black hole sun is Sirius. The true source of cohesion within our sun is thru the core star. Sirius is said to keep the spiritual world alive.

The Grand Illusion is that the spiritual light rays from our sun are being amplified from Sirius "like burning a board with a magnifing glass". "Is not God in the height of heaven? and behold the height of the stars, how high they are! Job 22:12".

Sirius "A Triple Star System" is the Source and the Center of our Galaxy. It is the Nucleus, or White Fire Core, of our "Cosmic Egg". The God Star Sirius is a Focus of the Great Central Sun in our sector of the Galaxy.

The Sun behind the Sun is the Spiritual Cause behind the physical effect we see as our own Physical Sun and all other stars and star systems, seen or unseen, including the Great Central Sun.

The Sun behind the Sun is perceived as the Cosmic Christ. The word by whom the Formless was endowed with form and Spiritual Worlds were draped with physicality. Sirius A, outshining our sun 10 to 25 times over with only the mass of two suns. art:Talon Abraxas

[ms-m-astrologer]

Transiting Sun enters Aries

Wednesday, March 20 - Friday, April 19, 2024

Aries the Ram*:

• Fire (identity - enthusiastic, energetic, creative, passionate, assertive, freedom-living)

• Yang (levity - outgoing, expressive, logical, left-brained)

• Cardinal (initiating action - generating, acting, directing)

• Personal (focused on personal wants and needs)

• "I am"

• Ruler - Mars; exalted - Sun

• Color: fire engine red, true red (neither warm nor cool)

(* Gleaned almost completely from the book Astrology for Yourself by Bloch and George; the color is my own theory/belief.)

This looks to be a time of many potential new beginnings. Some of us may be overwhelmed by possibilities; we could benefit from some “alone time” to hash things out for ourselves. Independence, creativity, and courage are the bywords.

Give a day or two on either side of the following aspect dates:

Thursday, March 21 - Sun/Aries sextile Pluto/Aquarius, 1°41’. Individualism is the goal. We want to break away from being a sheep in the flock, and we have some good ideas about how to do that.

Monday, March 25 - Full Moon/Lunar Eclipse, 5°07’ Libra. Look at the house in your birth chart which holds 5°07’ Libra - there are some issues to resolve around dependency, “going along to get along,” vanity, manipulation, shallowness, all the Libra pitfalls.

Thursday, March 28 - Sun/Aries trine Pallas Athene/Sagittarius, 8°35’. Can be very political. We have a lot of self-confidence, creativity, and optimism. Direct it well, and don’t fall into arrogance. We’ve all heard of “sore losers” - work on not being a “sore winner.”

Thursday, April 4 - Sun/Aries conjunct North Node/Aries, opposite South Node/Libra, 15°50’. Feeling like we’re on the right track, in harmony with The Cosmos. We’re in charge of our own lives.

Saturday, April 6 - Sun/Aries square Ceres/Capricorn, 17°26’. Family trouble. Conflict between doing our own thing versus what our kinfolk expect of us. We need a positive sense of self-worth.

Monday, April 8:

New Moon/Solar Eclipse, 19°24’ Aries

Sun/Aries conjunct Chiron/Aries, 19°24’

An eclipse that’s exactly conjunct Chiron. Hoo boy. Something new coming into our lives, involving teaching and healing the self. This eclipse is part of Saros Series 8 North, which bring brilliant intuitive flashes but also pull us away from what’s currently going on.

Thursday, April 11 - Sun/Aries conjunct Mercury Rx/Aries, 22°32’. Their “inferior conjunction” is the sort of “reset button” in Sun-Mercury cycles. Something may happen where we don’t have time to think; conversely, we could find ourselves needing to think carefully through some problem.

Sunday, April 14 - Sun/Aries conjunct Eris/Aries, 24°48’. A big boost of courage and standing up for what’s right. Focus more on being a protector, to avoid mishandling or overdoing situations.

[todaysdocument]

This edition of the Marshall Star from 1973, a newsletter of the George C. Marshall Space Center in Huntsville, Alabama, features an article titled “Anita, Job Done, Dies Aboard Skylab.” 

The article goes on to explain that Anita was the back-up spider in the Web Formation Experiment.  The primary spider, Arabella, was still alive at the time of the newsletter. Arabella’s current whereabouts are unknown.

Record Group 255: Records of the National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationSeries: Marshall StarFile Unit: Marshall Star Volume 14

Marshall Star Vol. 14, No. 2 . NASA George C. Marshall Space Flight Center -- Huntsville, Ala. 35812 . September, 1973 Final EVA Saturday Skylab 3 Crew Prepares For Next Week's 'Splash' Skylab's second manned crew, prvoding a bonanza of scientific data to investigators on Earth. has begun preparations for splashdown and recovery scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 25. As they head into the home stretch, Astronauts Alan Bean, Owen Garriott and Jack Lousma are operating ahead of experiment timelines. Flight directors estimate they will exceed 100 percent of their planned activity in all scientific disciplines. The crew is scheduled to conduct its third and final EVA Saturday. Exposed film cannisters will be removed from the Apollo Telescope Mount's instruments for stowage inside the Command and Service Module and return to Earth. For the EVA, the crew is to awaken at 2 a.m. Hatch opening is expected about four hours later. Monday the crew becan changing the rhythm of their sleep-work cycle by arising at 4 a.m. after goint to bed two hours early. This schedule was to be followed Tuesday. Today the crew planned to arise at 2 a.m. after beginning their sleep period at 6 p.m. last night. Purpose of the new sleep-work cycle is to prepare the astronauts for splashdown day when they will be required to arise early for a full day's activity. The crew was given the go- ahead last week for continuation to the end of the 59-day mission. This approval for a fourth incremental extension beyond 28 days followed review of the inflight medical data and the recommendation of the NASA director for life sciences, Dr. Charles A. Berry. The crew's health and spirits are excellent. The body weight of each has been relatively constant (See SKYLAB on Page 4) SOLAR ERUPTION -- A mammoth solar eruption is seen in this photo taken by the White Light Coronagraph about Sklyab. The eruption expanded into space at a speed of about one million miles per hour. When photographed it was approximately 220 times the diameter of Earth. Solar eruptions are a result of the interaction between solar material and magnetic fields around the Sun. Combined Federal Campaign 'Kickoff' Scheduled Monday MSFC's 1974 Combined Federal Campaign gets underway Monday with a "kickoff" in Morris Auditorium. The annual campaign combines the monetary needs of many health, welfare and recreational agencies into one drive. Rober G. Sheppard, executive chairman, stated the drive officially begins with the 10:45 a.m. kickoff and will end November 2. He explained that the 1974 goal is to do as well as in 1973 when MSFC employees contributed $194,712. Monday's kickoff ceremonies will feature and address by Dr. Rocco A. Petrone, director. He will be joined by several distinguished guests, including Mrs. Ruth Ferrari, International Services Agencies; Tom Horton, Jr., National Health Agencies; and Mrs. Jerri McLain, Huntsville/ Madison County United Way. MSFC lab and office directors, campaign mangers and solicitors are expected to attend the opening ceremonies. Music will be provided by the 55th U.S. Army Band. The Rev. Hugh Chambliss, presi- (See 'KICKOFF' on Page 4) 

Anita, Job Done, Dies Aboard Skylab One of Skylab's two "spider astronauts" --who never were intended to be brought back to Earth--has now finished her job in space and is dead. Anita, the backup spider for the Web Formation Experiment, ED52, apparently died sometime over the weekend. The report of Anita's death came from science pilot Owen Garriott early Monday. Although NASA had no plans to bring back the spiders, it was announced several weeks ago that they would be returned if they could be kept alive. Arabella, the prime spider for the experiment, is still doing fine. Garriott explained from the (See ANITA on Page 4)

[pigeontheoneandonly]

Astronomy 101: Stellar Life Cycles

This is the first in a series of posts I plan to make explaining basic astronomy concepts.  I am not a professional astronomer, but I have a B.S. in Astronomy and Astrophysics, experience performing professional astronomical research (primarily photometry), and a lifelong amateur interest in astronomy. I am committed to accuracy in these posts (though some simplification is necessary) and welcome questions/comments.

(Image source)

Nearly every aspect of a star’s evolution is governed by a single characteristic: the star’s mass.  Stellar masses are enormous, and so astronomers find it more convenient to measure them in solar masses (M☉, M being mass, and ☉ being the astronomical symbol for the sun, pronounced “M-sol”). 1 M☉ is equivalent to the sun’s mass; 2 M☉ is twice the sun’s mass; 0.5 M☉ is half the sun’s mass; and so on.  Our sun masses approximately two quintillion kilograms—that’s 30 zeroes!—so it’s easy to see why this convention makes comparisons between stars easier.  

Stars are composed primarily of hydrogen, with non-trivial amounts of helium (ex. our sun is about 74% hydrogen and 25% helium).  They fuse the elements within themselves to produce an outward pressure from radiation that balances the inward pressure imposed by their own gravity (gravity wants to collapse the star; radiation keeps this from happening).  The lowest stellar mass that can sustain a fusion reaction is theorized to be 0.08 M☉.  It’s not physically possible for a star to be smaller than this.  On the other end, the most massive stars range up to 250 M☉. (It should be noted that as the universe ages, stars are getting smaller; it is hypothesized that new stars cannot exceed 150 M☉.)

Stars are born from the gravitational collapse of giant molecular clouds (GMC), which are large, cold, and relatively dense pockets of interstellar gas.  It’s theorized that several mechanisms can trigger GMC collapse, including the shock wave from nearby supernovae, collisions with other clouds, or passing through the spiral arm of a galaxy (which is denser than other areas). These all disrupt the balance within the cloud.  As it collapses, it begins to fragment, forming individual stars.  One GMC will produce numerous protostars.  

The protostar phase lasts a relatively short time, about 500,000 years for stars the size of the sun. During this time, the protostar continues to accrete mass from the surrounding nebula (its own pocket of the GMC).  Gravitational collapse is countered by gas pressure and magnetic pressure rather than by nuclear fusion as the protostar grows.  Eventually, this is not sufficient and the protostar begins to collapse and enters a new phase: it reaches sufficient density to ignite nuclear fusion in its core, and becomes a proper star.

Initial fusion in the core fuses hydrogen into helium.  It may seem counter-intuitive, but the lower a star’s mass, the slower it burns through its fuel and the longer it remains in this phase of its life.  Massive stars are not only much hotter than small stars, but they need to produce more energy to stave off gravitational collapse. This causes them to burn through their supply of hydrogen very quickly.  Very low mass stars born early in our universe have not existed long enough to burn through their hydrogen supplies.  Models predict stars of 0.1 M☉ will take 6-12 TRILLION years to exhaust their hydrogen, and our universe is only 13.8 billion years old.  These stars are barely getting started.  These stars, known as red dwarfs, will never become red giants.  Instead, they will continuously mix their original hydrogen stores with their newly produced helium until the entire star is composed of helium, at which point fusion will shut down.  As they reach the end, they are predicted to become blue dwarfs, and then eventually white dwarfs.  No blue dwarfs presently exist because the universe is still young.

Stars more like our sun, ranging from 0.6 to 8 M☉, have lives more consistent with what many people are taught in high school science classes.  When these stars exhaust the hydrogen in their core, they still contain a large volume of hydrogen in their outer layers.  They enter the subgiant phase, where they fuse hydrogen in a shell surrounding the helium core, and the star begins to expand and cool.  This new helium adds to the volume of the core, the hydrogen-fusing shell moves outwards.  This phase lasts several million to two billion years, again with lower-mass stars spending longer in this phase.  

(You may have read that the sun will get hotter as it ages.  This is true, and it’s due to the fact that as the fraction of hydrogen in the core decreases, the core temperature and rate of fusion increase.  The sun will contract and become hotter as it approaches the subgiant phase.  It’s theorized that this will make the Earth uninhabitable in about one billion years.  However, the effects of plate tectonics and specifically the subduction of water from the oceans and the gradual slowing of tectonic activity is likely to play as large a role if not larger.)

This hydrogen-burning shell supports the star against gravitational collapse until the helium core grows too large.  The core will contract, and the outer layers will further expand and cool as the star becomes a red giant.  In the case of our sun, its radius will expand beyond the orbit of the Earth, in about six billion years.  Shell burning continues at an increasing rate, but the star is no longer in equilibrium, and the core continues to contract even as it increases in mass, until eventually the star begins fusing helium into carbon.  This can happen very suddenly for stars at the lower end of this mass range, or more gradually for more massive stars.  The growth of the star can also temporarily create new habitable zones, primarily for the moons of gas giants, lasting several hundred million years.

Stars in this mass range do not have sufficient mass to fuse carbon, and so when the helium is largely consumed in the core, the core begins to collapse, and this time, only a strange state of matter called electron degeneracy will stop it.  The Pauli Exclusion principle states that no two electrons can occupy identical states, and electron degeneracy occurs when a star has collapsed to the point that all the electrons of the star have been forced to occupy all the lowest-available energy states within the atomic structure of the star. The energy of the gravitational collapse is insufficient to overcome this electron pressure.  White dwarfs are very small and incomprehensibly dense; similar to the mass of the sun, they are similar in size to the Earth.  A teaspoon of white dwarf would weigh about 15 tons. Fusion has ceased, and the star is an inert ball of slowly cooling degenerate matter.

This is the end of the road for stars in this mass range, which is most of the stars that presently exist in the universe.  Very, very slowly, solo white dwarfs will continue to cool.  White dwarfs are predicted to outlast the lifespan of galaxies as structures in our universe.   They may still be extant when enough time has passed for proton decay to become a significant force and ultimately devour the white dwarf.  If proton decay takes significantly longer than predicted or turns out to not exist, the ultimate fate of a white dwarf is to be devoured by a black hole in the very, very, very far future of our universe when other forms of stars have all ceased to exist.  (The black hole era is predicted to begin 10^43 years after the Big Bang, but it’s dependent on a lot of poorly-understood factors.  Safe to say, this is not anything anyone needs to worry about.)

More massive stars have a more interesting if shorter life.  They blow through their hydrogen quickly, ranging from 1 billion years to as few as 10,000 years. (You can calculate here.)  As these stars enter their supergiant phase, they lose mass rapidly due to strong stellar winds.  These stars do possess enough mass for more complex fusion reactions, and will gradually develop shells fusing various elements, and finally in the core, ultimately producing iron via fusion.  All elements aside from hydrogen, some helium, and small amounts of lithium and beryllium are created by stellar nuclear fusion.  Iron, however, is special, because it is the lightest element on the periodic table that requires more energy to fuse than it produces through fusion. A star attempting to fuse iron is going into an energy deficit, rather than producing energy through radiation that can stave off gravitational collapse.  A star cannot fuse iron.  

The final days of such stars come on quickly.  The core turns to iron within a few hundred years, so rapidly that there is little change in the outward appearance of the star, which continues shell burning right up to the end.  Eventually, this iron core reaches the effective Chandrasekhar mass, a little larger than the mass of our sun, and the core can no longer support itself.  The core collapses.

It’s easy to say the star then explodes in a supernova, but the truth is more complicated.  A supernova is triggered by the release of gravitational potential energy from the core collapse.  If this is insufficient, instead the core becomes a neutron star or a black hole with very little fanfare.  Some supernovae (pair-instability supernova) do not leave behind any stellar remnant despite originating from supermassive stars.  Other supernovae do not involve supermassive stars, but white dwarfs in binary pairs accreting matter from their stellar companion.

The core collapse takes less than a quarter of a second.  Within a few hours, the shockwave reaches the surface of the star, which will brighten tremendously over the next few months.  At peak, supernovae can outshine their host galaxies.  Perhaps the most famous supernova, SN 1987A, was visible to the naked eye and wasn’t even located in our own galaxy, but in a satellite galaxy.  This shockwave is incredibly high-energy, to the point that it not only ejects outer material from the star, but ignites fusion reactions in that material. Here, we have an excess of energy, and nuclear fusion reactions that require more energy than they create are possible.  This is how all elements heavier than iron are created. 

The core becomes a neutron star or a black hole.  Which depends on a large number of variables, perhaps strangely only two of which are core mass and stellar mass.  A neutron star is similar to a white dwarf, in that it is composed of degenerate matter, but in this case electron degeneracy was not strong enough and it is held up by neutron degeneracy.   In this state, electrons have combined with protons to produce neutrons, leaving behind a highly dense star composed of nuclear matter. While a neutron star is again slightly more massive than our sun, it has a diameter of only about 20 kilometers. A teaspoon of neutron star weights approximately 4 billion tons.  Many neutron stars rotate rapidly, giving off jets of radiation from their poles. These stars are known as pulsars. The fate of neutron stars is similar to that of white dwarfs; they will eventually merge into black holes in the far distant future.  

Other stars become black holes. In this case, even neutron degeneracy cannot stave off gravitational collapse, and the core collapses into a singularity.  A singularity is a poorly-understood object where spacetime curvature becomes infinite. We can study singularities mathematically, but we can’t observe one, because it is hidden behind an event horizon—a boundary surrounding the black hole where gravity is too strong for even light to escape.  And if light can’t escape, we can’t observe anything inside the event horizon.  Our current understand of physics also breaks down here; our theories of gravity aren’t sufficient to fully understand singularities.  We can, however, study event horizons, accretion disks (matter falling into the black hole), and jets of particles and radiation some black holes exhibit.  This has given us a good understanding of the external properties and behavior of black holes, and we detect them based on these characteristics and the effects they have on other objects (ex. an orbiting companion star).  

So if everything eventually becomes part of a black hole, what happens to a black hole?  The answer is they evaporate through a process called Hawking radiation.  Essentially, according to quantum mechanics, space has a quality called vacuum energy that causes virtual particle pairs to continuously pop in and out of existence. The pair consists of one particle and one anti-particle, which annihilate each other and return the energy of their creation to the vacuum.  Therefore, no energy is created or destroyed.  However, every so often, one of these pairs pops into existence with one particle on the outer side of the event horizon, able to escape, and the other trapped inside the event horizon.  The virtual particle that escapes becomes a real particle, and that energy has to come from somewhere.  It takes it from the black hole.  Because mass and energy are functionally equivalent, this drains a tiny amount of mass from the black hole.  (Please note: this is a dramatic oversimplification, but gets the basic idea across.)  On long enough timelines, this will cause even the largest of black holes to evaporate. Unlike just about everything else involving stars, smaller black holes evaporate more quickly than large ones.  

[randomtable]

Random Calendar Builder: Solar Calendars

This is part one of a series on calendars I am planning! See this master post for more calendar content as I post it: https://www.tumblr.com/randomtable/713543620842700800/random-calendar-series-masterpost?source=share

Year length:

(how many days does it take for the planet to revolve around the sun?) The year is 7d100 days long.

Now, divide this year length by 4 to find the length of your planet’s seasons. *If the result is a fraction or decimal: 1/4 or .25 means one season will be one day longer than the others. 1/2 or .5 means two seasons will be one day longer than the others. 3/4 or .75 means three seasons will be one day longer than the fourth. The length of seasons is also the number of days between the solstices and equinoxes.

1d8 Days to Start The Year On: 1. The day after the Winter Solstice, when nights are just beginning to grow longer. The New Year is celebrated as a time of hope, of starting an upward journey after hitting a low point. New Years celebrations might include light-based decorations, songs about light and hope, and making plans for self improvement. 2. A day between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox, which is the anniversary of the dawn of the ruling dynasty who implemented this calendar. (Feel free to select the exact day randomly). The New Year is celebrated as a patriotic event. New Years celebrations might include flying emblems or flags, nationalist and propaganda songs, and speeches or addresses from leaders and politicians. 3. The day of the Spring Equinox, when cold is giving way to warmth, and it is time for planting and for baby animals to be born. The New Year is celebrated as a time of rebirth and new beginnings, and it may be personified as an infant or baby animal. New Years celebrations might include imagery of flowers, eggs, and babies, time spent planting crops or gardens, and songs about joy and rebirth. 4. A day between the Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice, which is the birthday of a deity or other important religious figure. (Feel free to select the exact day randomly) The new year is celebrated as a religious feast day. New Years celebrations might include prayers and songs to the holy figure, feasts in their name, and religious services. 5. The day after the Summer Solstice, when the days are long and hot. The New Year is celebrated as a time of rest, taking a break from hard work and hot sun. New Years celebrations might include observing a day without work, gifts like hats and parasols that protect from the sun, and activities like swimming to cool off or sharing chilled food and drinks. 6. A day between the Summer Solstice and Autumn Equinox, which is the anniversary of the death of a deity or other important religious figure.The New Year is observed as a somber day of religious reflection, where the year that passed may also be treated as a living thing which has died. New Years customs might include fasting or making other sacrifices, lengthy prayers, and wearing veils or other mourning clothes. 7. The day of the Autumn Equinox, when the harvest is in full swing. The New Year is celebrated as a time of bounty and of preparation for the long nights of winter ahead. New Years celebrations might include feasting, songs wishing farewell to the times of plenty and to the sun, and expressing gratitude to the earth, to a deity of fertility, or to farmers for a bountiful harvest. 8. A day between the Autumn Equinox and the Winter Solstice, which is thought to be the anniversary of the creation of the world itself. (Feel free to select the exact day randomly). The New Year is observed as a serious but joyful religious holiday. New Years traditions might include offerings to the god or gods of creation, prayer and song about their power and might, and excursions into the wilderness to behold their creation in its natural state.

Months:

The year is divided into 5d4 months, which may or may not be roughly based on the lunar cycle*.  Divide the year length by the number of months to get the length of the months. It’s likely this number won’t be even. If it isn’t, multiply the fraction/decimal by the number of months to get the number of extra days.

1d4 Things to do with Extra Days 1. Make months unequal: distribute the days among certain months, so that some are a day longer than others. 2. Add these days as extra holidays between months: These days aren’t considered part of a particular month, rather falling between the months and being days of rest or celebration. Try to distribute them equally, if you can. 3. Add these days as a multi-day holiday at the end of the year: this extra time becomes an extended period to prepare for the new year, following the tradition rolled on the previous table. 4. Add these days as a multi-day holiday in the middle of the year: this extra time is a mid-year break, situated between two months near the midway point of the year. You can consult the previous table for what this festival might be for, based on what time of year it occurs, or make up something else.

Weeks:

Your calendar’s weeks are informed by how its months are divided. Here are some options for weeks, noting which types of months they work for.

Perfect Weeks: (Does not work for unequal months.) If there is a number between 5-10 that your month length can be evenly divided by, then this can be the length of your week. For calendars with extra days between months, those extra days are also considered to be between weeks.

Unequal Weeks: (Works for any type of months.) Your months are divided into a number of weeks. In order to make that number whole, some of your weeks are a day longer than others.

One Short Week: (Does not work for calendars with extra days added as a multi-day holiday.) Weeks are 1d4+4 days long. If this number does not divide evenly by how long your year is, the remaining days are treated as a multi-day holiday at the end of the year. (Note that this holiday is still considered part of the last month of the year.)

Earth-like Weeks: (Works for any type of months.) Weeks are 1d4+4 days long and do not change or reset at the end of the year or month. What day of the week the year or the month begins on varies from year to year and month to month. If you have holidays that are between months, the weeks should also skip these holidays.

*Bonus: Lunar Cycles in Solar Calendars (Under the Cut)

If your year does not divide perfectly into the number of months you rolled, then your lunar cycle will not stay aligned with your months. For simplicity’s sake, we’ll assume that your base month is the actual length of a lunar cycle. You can plot these lunar cycles out on your calendar just like we do on Earth, and you’ll see that they quickly become misaligned with the months.

(Warning, math ahead!) The “extra days” you calculated before are called the Epact, the difference in length between the solar and lunar years. You can subtract the Epact from the year length to determine the lunar year length, and use those numbers to determine extra information about the alignments of the solar and lunar calendars: * A purely lunar calendar (with no leap months added to re-align with the solar year) will cycle through the seasons, so over several years what seasons happen in which months will shift. To determine the length of this cycle, divide the solar year length by the Epact. This tells you how many years it takes before the seasons re-align in the lunar calendar. (On Earth, it takes 33 years.) If the result is a whole number, then the lunar and solar calendars will have the same New Years Day if they both began on the same day initially.  (If it isn’t a whole number, how often they line up is a little bit more complicated: it’s equal to the least common multiple of the two different year lengths, divided by the length of the solar year.) * You can also determine how many years it takes before the cycles of the moon line up to the same days of the year again. This is equal to the least common multiple of the solar year length and the lunar cycle length (which is the base month length), divided by the solar year length.