Public Posts

Looking through these three windows on history reminds us that while the tools of civilization evolve, the human story continues to be driven by many of the same hopes, challenges, and ambitions that have shaped every generation. Continue reading

An image of the Immaculate Heart of Mary on a stained-glass window located in a church in St. Peters, Missouri. Today is the feast day of the Immaculate Heart in the Roman Catholic Church.

Nheyob, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

By Jonathan Lampel on Unsplash

Captured with Canon EOS REBEL T4i.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

To see Venus and Jupiter together this month, you won't need binoculars or even a telescope. Just look up after sunset and you'll find them emerging as the sky grows dark near the western horizon. In fact, on June 9 the two brightest planets were in close conjunction, separated on the sky by less than 2 degrees from our perspective. Since (brighter) inner planet Venus orbits the Sun faster than outer planet Jupiter, it catches up with and passes the outer planet along the ecliptic roughly every 13 months. But every three years or so their resulting conjunction can be viewed far enough from the Sun to be easily seen in Earth's twilight skies. On June 9, the two celestial beacon's close "cosmic kiss" was captured here next to the two large standing stones at the cove within a 4,000 year old stone circle at Avebury, UK. Larger than Stonehenge, the Avebury henge and stone circle complex is also recognized as one of the most significant neolithic ceremonial sites on planet Earth.

Photo by Josh Dury

A memorial to victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting in front the Stonewall Inn in New York City. On June 12, 2016, a terrorist shot and killed 49 people and wounded 53 more in a mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, USA.

Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

Anaïs Nin (1903-1977) French-American diarist, essayist, novelist, and writer.

Raoul Croes on Unsplash

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Could the Little Mermaid turn into stardust instead of seafoam? It would seem so in this beautiful nebula. The featured image shows the Mermaid Nebula, also known as the Betta Fish Nebula, which is part of the G296.5+10.0 Supernova Remnant. The blue color visible here originates from doubly ionized oxygen (OIII), while the deep red is emitted by hydrogen gas. Estimated to be located a few thousand light-years away and about 10,000 years old, this nebula was formed when a massive star exploded as a supernova. It left behind a peculiar pulsar, a young radio-quiet neutron star that spins around about twice every second. The bright stars shown in the image are unassociated with the nebula. The pulsar can be detected in the X-rays but it does not have a confirmed detection in the optical (visible light) so far. As a result, the pulsar itself is not visible in this image.

Photo by Data acquisition: Sy Ming Wong; Processing: Guangyan Gao Text: Cecilia Chirenti (NASA GSFC, UMCP, CRESST II)