Magazine Posts

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Gravitational lensing by the galaxy cluster MACS0647 -- in which the massive foreground cluster distorts and lenses the light emitted by distant background galaxies along the line of sight — is on vivid display here in this recent multi-color infrared image from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). In particular, the background source MACS0647-JD is seen to be lensed three times by the cluster. When first discovered with the Hubble Space Telescope, MACS0647-JD was observed as an amorphous blob. With Webb though, this single source is revealed to be a pair or small group of galaxies. The colors of the MACS0647-JD objects are different as well -- indicating differences potentially in the age or dust content of these galaxies. These new images provide rare examples of galaxies in an era only a few 100 million years after the Big Bang. Explore Your Universe: Random APOD Generator

Although 72% of the top 300 companies on the Fortune Global 500 list have made some form of voluntary commitment to reduce plastic pollution, few have prioritized reducing their use of virgin plastic, research finds....Read more at Futurity.org

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Why are there oxygen-emitting arcs near the direction of the Andromeda galaxy? No one is sure. The gas arcs, shown in blue, were discovered and first confirmed by amateur astronomers just last year. The two main origin hypotheses for the arcs are that they really are close to Andromeda (M31), or that they are just coincidentally placed gas filaments in our Milky Way galaxy. Adding to the mystery is that arcs were not seen in previous deep images of M31 taken primarily in light emitted by hydrogen, and that other, more distant galaxies have not been generally noted as showing similar oxygen-emitting structures. Dedicated amateurs using commercial telescopes made this discovery because, in part, professional telescopes usually investigate angularly small patches of the night sky, whereas these arcs span several times the angular size of the full moon. Future observations -- both in light emitted by oxygen and by other elements -- are sure to follow.

Photo by Yann SaintyMarcel Drechsler

Wikimedia Commons Photo of the day (1/17/23) - Photo Attribution: Dietmar Rabich / Wikimedia Commons / “Dülmen, Hausdülmen, Zaun einer Wiese -- 2021 -- 5073-7” / CC BY-SA 4.0

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Our Moon doesn't really look like this. Earth's Moon, Luna, doesn't naturally show this rich texture, and its colors are more subtle. But this digital creation is based on reality. The featured image is a composite of multiple images and enhanced to bring up real surface features. The enhancements, for example, show more clearly craters that illustrate the tremendous bombardment our Moon has been through during its 4.6-billion-year history. The dark areas, called maria, have fewer craters and were once seas of molten lava. Additionally, the image colors, although based on the moon's real composition, are changed and exaggerated. Here, a blue hue indicates a region that is iron rich, while orange indicates a slight excess of aluminum. Although the Moon has shown the same side to the Earth for billions of years, modern technology is allowing humanity to learn much more about it -- and how it affects the Earth.

Photo by Darya Kawa Mirza

#sunrise

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

This is the mess that is left when a star explodes. The Crab Nebula, the result of a supernova seen in 1054 AD, is filled with mysterious filaments. The filaments are not only tremendously complex, but appear to have less mass than expelled in the original supernova and a higher speed than expected from a free explosion. The featured image, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, is presented in three colors chosen for scientific interest. The Crab Nebula spans about 10 light-years. In the nebula's very center lies a pulsar: a neutron star as massive as the Sun but with only the size of a small town. The Crab Pulsar rotates about 30 times each second. Discovery + Outreach: Graduate student research position open for APOD

Never fear to write.
Fear inhibits creativity.
Your ability to write
words, unencumbered,
is hindered by shyness
or risk of embarrassment.
To have your words
taken out of context,
can be fearful.
Just write the words,
few or in abundance,
to make yourself heard,
by taking a chance.
You may be surprised
by the response
you receive.

The need to endure,
when reaching a space,
in the annals of time,
attainment of grace.

Stand and reset,
an animal cry,
for resistance
you'll live not die.

Asher Brown Durand (1796 -1886) was an American Engraver and painter of the Hudson River School. His reputation as one of the country's finest engravers was established with his 1823 engraving of John Trumbull's "Declaration of Independence". His bank notes engravings were used as the portraits for America's first postage stamps. His main interest changed to oil painting about 1830 concentrating on landscape painting.
He spent summers sketching in the Catskills, Adirondacks, and the White Mountains of New Hampshire, making hundreds of drawings and oil sketches that were later incorporated into finished academy pieces which helped to define the Hudson River School. He was an advocate for drawing directly from nature with as much realism as possible. Durand wrote, "Let [the artist] scrupulously accept whatever [nature] presents him until he shall, in a degree, have become intimate with her infinity... never let him profane her sacredness by a willful departure from truth."
Biographical source: Wikipedia

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Perihelion for 2023, Earth's closest approach to the Sun, was on January 4 at 16:17 UTC. That was less than 24 hours after this sharp image of the Sun's disk was recorded with telescope and H-alpha filter from Sidney, Australia, planet Earth. An H-alpha filter transmits a characteristic red light from hydrogen atoms. In views of the Sun it emphasizes the Sun's chromosphere, a region just above the solar photosphere or normally visible solar surface. In this H-alpha image of the increasingly active Sun planet-sized sunspot regions are dominated by bright splotches called plages. Dark filaments of plasma snaking across the solar disk transition to bright prominences when seen above the solar limb.

Photo by Barden Ridge Observatory

From out the heavens,
there came a new star.
Use all your courage,
you will go far.