Magazine Posts

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What role do magnetic fields play in interstellar physics? Analyses of observations by ESA's Planck satellite of emission by small magnetically-aligned dust grains reveal previously unknown magnetic field structures in our Milky Way Galaxy -- as shown by the curvy lines in the featured full-sky image. The dark red shows the plane of the Milky Way, where the concentration of dust is the highest. The huge arches above the plane are likely remnants of past explosive events from our Galaxy's core, conceptually similar to magnetic loop-like structures seen in our Sun's atmosphere. The curvy streamlines align with interstellar filaments of neutral hydrogen gas and provide tantalizing evidence that magnetic fields may supplement gravity in not only in shaping the interstellar medium, but in forming stars. How magnetism affected our Galaxy's evolution will likely remain a topic of research for years to come.

Employees of Apple, Google, and Microsoft have raised millions of dollars for the Black Lives Matter Foundation thinking it's the international racial justice movement seeking to end police brutality. That couldn’t be further from the truth............... Read more

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Welcome to the quadranscentennial year of the Astronomy Picture of the Day. Perhaps a source of consistency for some, APOD is still here. To help celebrate APOD's Silver Anniversary, some of APOD's TVAoTaSMD have recorded a birthday greeting and thanks to APOD's readership in today's featured video. Many have also highlighted a few of their favorite APOD images. In collaboration with NASA through APOD, these and other volunteers help to inform the world, in most major world languages and over most major media platforms, of NASA and humanity's growing knowledge, active exploration, and inspiring visualizations of the amazing astronomical universe in which we live. APOD's founders (still alive!) would also like to offer a sincere thank you -- not only to our TVAoTaSMD -- but to APOD's readership for continued interest, support, and many gracious communications over the years.

The shadows dance;
It is not a romance.
They are creatures
who jump and prance.
Rippling light, in the dark.
A different noise; a Lark?
I think not
was said to me.
Justice for all
and to be free.

Do you ever have thoughts
of things, all asunder,
when you hear the sound
of a clap of thunder?
I do and my mind starts to roam,
away from the troubles now,
away from the trouble at home.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What's rising above the horizon behind those clouds? It's the Sun. Most sunrises don't look like this, though, because most sunrises don't include the Moon. In the early morning of 2013 May 10, however, from Western Australia, the Moon was between the Earth and the rising Sun. At times, it would be hard for the uninformed to understand what was happening. In an annular eclipse, the Moon is too far from the Earth to block the entire Sun, and at most leaves a ring of fire where sunlight pours out around every edge of the Moon. The featured time-lapse video also recorded the eclipse through the high refraction of the Earth's atmosphere just above the horizon, making the unusual rising Sun and Moon appear also flattened. As the video continues on, the Sun continues to rise, and the Sun and Moon begin to separate. This weekend, a new annular solar eclipse will occur, visible from central Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and a narrow band across Asia, with much of Earth's Eastern hemisphere being able to see a partial solar eclipse.

Rain around me.
North and South.
No rain here,
least not now
but soon enough,
rain will abound,
beating at windows;
A rattling sound
of gutters full
and run off too,
as I await
to see you.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What are these humans doing? Dancing. Many humans on Earth exhibit periods of happiness, and one method of displaying happiness is dancing. Happiness and dancing transcend national boundaries and occur in practically every human society. Above, Matt Harding traveled through many nations on Earth, planned on dancing, and filmed the result. The featured video, one in a series of similar videos, is perhaps a dramatic example that humans from all over planet Earth feel a common bond as part of a single species. Happiness is frequently contagious -- few people are able to watch the featured video without smiling. APOD across world languages: Arabic, Catalan, Chinese (Beijing), Chinese (Taiwan), Croatian, Czech, Dutch, Farsi, French, French, German, Hebrew, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Montenegrin, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Slovenian, Spanish and Ukrainian

A whisper came from lips, ice cold.
Help me Father, for I must go,
to search this broad land
for my pot of gold;
To bring forth riches
first found by thee.
The richness of freedom
to pray on my knee.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Clouds are white but the sky is dark in this snapshot of Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. The dramatic daytime sky is partly due to the black and white photo captured with a digital camera at near-infrared wavelengths. Taken at 3:22 p.m. EDT Saturday May 30 the launch was pretty dramatic too as a Falcon 9 rocket lofted a Crew Dragon spacecrat towards low-Earth orbit. Astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley were onboard, the first crew launched from a United States spaceport since the conclusion of the Space Shuttle Program in 2011. A few minutes after launch, the Falcon 9 first stage returned to land on Of Course I Still Love You (that's an autonomous spaceport drone ship ...) patiently waiting off the Florida coast. The two astronauts guided their craft to a successfull docking with the International Space Station’s Harmony module at 10:16 a.m. EDT Sunday May 31.

When does it end and go away?
When will we have a new day?
It will never be the way it was.
Why is that? It is just because.
Stores will be gone; we will too,
For all of the things we used to do,
Are now gone, or will be,
For we need workers for our Economy.
We must pray now! With God at our side,
To heal this Nation's Racial Divide.