Yesterday, I posted an image of a newborn star that shoots twin jets out into space. Well, there’s also a three-dimensional sequence to explore the Hubble Space Telescope’s striking view of this Herbig-Haro object HH 24! see the full video here  

The Egg Nebula

Some 3000 light years from the Sun, this preplanetary nebula illustrates the point in a sun-like star’s life where it has shed its outer layers and, for a brief period, illuminates those layers as they inflate through space

He spent his whole career denouncing a bad king and his even more problematic wife. They almost killed him a few times, but he survived, and as mentioned above, never actually died, just ascended into heaven in a fiery chariot. (This is after he basically tells God he’s just too damn tired to prophet anymore.) He brought a child back from the dead through prayer.

He held a prophet-off with the prophets of Baal. Basic challenge: we each put up a sacrifice. The one whose god accepts it with fire wins. He sits back and makes fun of them while they do their stuff…”YELL LOUDER. MAYBE HE’S ASLEEP”. When it’s his turn, he pours water all over his offering, and it goes up in flames from heaven anyway. (My teacher in my Nevi’im class mentioned, in passing, that there’s crude oil in the region.)

In his not-dead-just-semi-retired afterlife, he attends every Seder and bris worldwide. It’s said he will herald the arrival of Moshiach.

He was, and remains, kind of a crank. But he’s always there for the people who need him.

[ELISHA] The rover with the shofar Got so far by preaching woe for The foes o’ Jehovah - and moreover - Started out in a desert With just a cave roof for cover

[MOSHIACH] Then idolatry came, and desecration reigned Our land saw its future drip, dripping down the drain He went with malice to the palace, a message in his brain And he spoke his first refrain, said that God would hold the rain

[AHAB] Well the word got around, they said this kid’s pretty holy Rails against the wicked, cares about the lowly He’s the only one of all of us who dares stand up to Omri And the world’s gonna know your name - what’s your name, man?

[ELIJAH] Eliyahu haNavi My name is Eliyahu haNavi And there’s a million things I haven’t done But just you wait, just you wait…

[WIDOW OF ZAREPHATH] After three years met the Baalites, said let’s have a competition We each provide a sacrifice, we see who gets ignition High on a hill, with their kill, their prayers shrill

[COMPANY] And Elijah got fire but the Baalites got nil

[GOD] They put him under pressure so he fled into the desert Woulda been likely tarred and feathered but I found him, took his measure He started meditating on My most sacred Name He was fasting, he was blasting all his foes with holy flame

[COMPANY] Eliyahu haNavi We are waiting in the wings for you You could never back down, you never learned to take your time Oh Eliyahu haNavi When Eretz Yisrael sings for you Will they know what you overcame? Will they know you rewrote the game? The world will never be the same…

[AHAB] His chariot’s in Heaven now, see if you can spot him Just another righteous soul ascending from the bottom Just another prophet urging penitence on Sodom But me? I fought with him.

[ELISHA] Me? I worked with him.

[MOSHIACH] Me? I wait for him.

[WIDOW OF ZAREPHATH] Me? I saved him.

[GOD] And Me? I’m the power that awed him.

[COMPANY] There’s a million things I haven’t done But just you wait!

[AHAB] What’s your name, man?

[NEWTON] Pardon me, are you Gottfried L? Well?

[LEIBNIZ] That depends. Who’s asking?

[NEWTON] Bloody hell. Well. My name is Isaac Newton. I’m at your service…well…I’ve read some of your stuff…

[LEIBNIZ] I’m getting nervous.

[NEWTON] Hell. There was some math I attempted that may have preempted a theory of yours - but you beat me to the printer, L. It was about the area under a curve -

[LEIBNIZ] You found the integral?

[NEWTON] Yes! I did it before you did, took the limit and computed, you think you’re undisputed, but you aren’t undisputed…so how’d you do it? How’d you publish it so fast?

[LEIBNIZ] God didn’t let the opportunity go past.

[NEWTON] You’re a theologian! Of course! I’m a theologian too! God, I wish there was Armageddon we could face head-on to prove we know more than we let on.

[LEIBNIZ] Can I buy you a drink?

[NEWTON] That would be nice.

[LEIBNIZ] And while we’re talking, let me offer you some free advice: Be less crazy.

[NEWTON] What?

[LEIBNIZ] Think more seriously.

[NEWTON] Huh.

[LEIBNIZ] Don’t waste your life upon weird Biblical conspiracy. You want to use your brain? Those who get too pious go insane.

[DESCARTES, PASCAL, BERKELEY] What time is it?! Showtime!!!

Some days ago I noticed a brilliant bumper sticker, saying “I ♥ topology” where the heart was replaced by a topologically homeomorphic disk (●). Amused by the idea, I tried to work out some related versions for other mathematical subjects. Here they are:

For geometry, the obvious choice was a cardioid:

I’m thinking of changing “Algebra” into “Arithmetic” here:

A connect-the-dots heart for graph theory:

Perhaps fractals aren’t really a mathematical subject on their own, but nevertheless they are too popular:

Too bad a heart shape doesn’t have that many symmetries:

This one is difficult categorizing! It’s related to Frobenius algebras, module and representation theory, topological quantum field theory… Which mathematical subject should it represent?

A knotted heart for knot theory:

I like this one, the Lorenz attractor for chaos theory:

The heart-shaped Bonne projection:

I hope you recognize a Venn diagram here:

Hmmm, statistics, a pie chart?

Finally, this is the one it all started with:

“Mathematics has beauty and romance. It’s not a boring place to be, the mathematical world. It’s an extraordinary place; it’s worth spending time there.” - Marcus du Sautoy