Public Posts

Crepuscular rays over parc de Noisiel (park of Noisiel) at sunrise. Taken from above the gardens of Champs-sur-Marne castle, Seine-et-Marne, France.

Benh LIEU SONG (Flickr), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

Balaji Malliswamy on Unsplash

A crocodile hiding silently in the water. Ready to pound on prey. The eye is so sharp. Scary but beautiful at the same time.
Photo taken near Madras Crocodile Bank Trust, Mahabalipuram, India.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What are these strange space globs? Situated in rich star fields and glowing hydrogen gas, these opaque clouds of interstellar dust and gas are so large they might be able to form stars. Their home is known as IC 2944, a bright stellar nursery located about 7,600 light years away toward the constellation of the Centaur (Centaurus). The largest of these dark globules, first spotted by A. D. Thackeray in 1950 using a telescope in South Africa, is likely two separate but overlapping clouds, each more than one light-year wide. Along with other data, the featured Hubble palette image from the El Sauce Observatory in Chile, indicates that Thackeray's globules are fractured and churning as a result of intense ultraviolet radiation from young, hot stars already energizing and heating the bright emission nebula. These and similar dark globules known to be associated with other star forming regions may ultimately be dissipated by their hostile environment -- like cosmic lumps of butter in a hot frying pan. Interstellar Jigsaw: Astronomy Puzzle of the Day

Photo by John Hayes

Hyacinth macaw couple with a Pink Ipê tree in the background in Mato Grosso, Brazil.

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

Ansel Adams (1902 - 1984) American photographer and environmentalist. 

    Immortality 

Do not stand
By my grave, and weep.
I am not there,
I do not sleep,
I am the thousand winds that blow
I am the diamond glints in snow
I am the sunlight on ripened grain,
I am the gentle, autumn rain.
As you awake with morning’s hush,
I am the swift, up-flinging rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight,
I am the day transcending night.
Do not stand
By my grave, and cry—
I am not there,
I did not die.

Poem by Clare Harner, (Published in "The Gypsy", December 1934 - page 16). The poem is often attributed to anonymous or incorrect sources. Harner, wrote the verses in late 1934, attempting to cope with her grief, after the unexpected death of her brother.by presenting death, not as an ending but a transformation.

Memorial Day honors all service members who lost their lives while in service to the United States, during peace and war. It is a time to reflect on those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. Memorial Day Historical Timeline

Ivan Jevtic on Unsplash

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What's that passing in front of the Sun? It looks like a moon, but it can't be Earth's Moon, because it isn't round. It's the Martian moon Phobos. The featured video was taken from the surface of Mars in 2022 by the Perseverance rover. Phobos, at 11.5 kilometers across, is 150 times smaller than Luna (our moon) in diameter, but also 50 times closer to its parent planet. In fact, Phobos is so close to Mars that it is expected to break up and crash into Mars within the next 50 million years. In the near term, the low orbit of Phobos results in more rapid solar eclipses than seen from Earth. The featured video is shown in real time -- the transit really took about 40 seconds, as shown. The videographer -- the robotic rover Perseverance (Percy) -- continues to explore Jezero Crater on Mars, searching not only for clues to the watery history of the now dry world, but evidence of ancient microbial life.

Watch NASA's Astronomy Video of the Day