Magazine Posts

Ere years before,
in darkest time,
when day was dark
and not sublime.
A time of fear
and abject hate.
A time of now.
Can you relate?

Come here to me.
Come here now.
Tell me your tale
and make your vow,
to treat others seen today
the same as your family.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Do you recognize the constellation of Orion? It may be harder than usual in today's featured image because the camera has zoomed in on the center, and the exposure is long enough to enhance nebulas beyond what the unaided human eye can see. Still, once you become oriented, you can see Orion's three belt stars lined up vertically near the image center, and even locate the familiar Orion Nebula on the upper left. Famous faint features that are also visible include the dark Horsehead Nebula indentation near the image center, and the dusty Flame Nebula just to its right. Part of the Orion-encircling Barnard's Loop can also be found on the far right. The image combines multiple sky-tracking shots of the background in different colors with a single static foreground exposure taken at twilight -- all captured with the same camera and from the same location. The picturesque scene was captured early last year from mountains in San Juan, Argentina.

Photo by Nicolas Tabbush

Stay the course,
all you marching masses,
for cultural change,
moves like Molasses.
Peaceful protests,
for the change we need,
continue marching,
until you succeed.
No matter what
is said in all the chatter,
for all the World
Black Lives Matter.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Why is Venus surrounded by a bright ring? Sometimes called a ring of fire, this rare ring is caused by the Sun's light being visible all around an object. Usually seen around the Moon during an annular solar eclipse, the ring of fire is also visible when either Venus or Mercury cross the face of our Sun. In the featured pictured taken last week, though, Venus did not pass directly in front of the Sun -- the complete atmospheric ring was caused by sunlight defracting around the planet. Venus passed within one degree of the Sun during its inferior conjunction, as it moved from the evening to the morning sky.  The extreme brightness of the nearby Sun made capturing such an image very difficult -- the featured image was only made possible by using a temporary filter to block direct sunlight. The image was captured from Thorton, Leicestershire, UK. The pervasive blue sky glow indicates that the image was actually captured during the day. Follow APOD on: Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, or Twitter

Photo by Pete LawrenceDigital Sky

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

The Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) is one of the best known planetary nebulae in the sky. Its haunting symmetries are seen in the very central region of this stunning false-color picture, processed to reveal the enormous but extremely faint halo of gaseous material, over three light-years across, which surrounds the brighter, familiar planetary nebula. Made with data from the Nordic Optical Telescope in the Canary Islands, the composite picture shows extended emission from the nebula. Planetary nebulae have long been appreciated as a final phase in the life of a Sun-like star. Only much more recently however, have some planetaries been found to have halos like this one, likely formed of material shrugged off during earlier active episodes in the star's evolution. While the planetary nebula phase is thought to last for around 10,000 years, astronomers estimate the age of the outer filamentary portions of this halo to be 50,000 to 90,000 years.

Photo by Isaac Newton GroupNordic Optical Telescope

Genius borders on the
edge of insanity.
I know this to be true,
for I have become
a great fool for you.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Comet PanSTARRs, C/2017 T2, shared this stunning telescopic field of view with galaxies M81 and M82 on May 22/23. Of course, the galaxies were some 12 million light-years distant and the comet about 14 light-minutes away, seen in planet Earth's sky toward the Big Dipper. A new visitor from the Oort Cloud, this Comet PanSTARRs was discovered in 2017 by the PanSTARRs survey telescope when the comet was over 1 light-hour from the Sun, almost as distant as the orbit of Saturn. With a beautiful coma and dust tail, this comet has been a solid northern hemisphere performer for telescope wielding comet watchers this May, following its closest approach to the Sun on May 4. In this deep image from dark California skies the outbound comet even seems to develop a short anti-tail as it leaves the inner Solar System.

Photo by Dan Bartlett

* Should the role of the Police be redefined?  Read: A talk with Alex S. Vitale, author of the 2017 book The End of Policing || by Leah Donnella ~ NPR

* The J1 Visa. A State Department "cultural exchange program" with little oversight that amounts to a privatized guest-worker program — one in which the worker pays to obtain a job. Read: She Paid Thousands for a Visa to Work in the U.S. Then She Got Laid Off. Now, She’s Trapped. || by Bernice Yeung ~ ProPublica

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Still bathed in sunlight the International Space Station (ISS) arced through this Manhattan evening sky on May 30. Moving left to right, its bright trail was captured in this composite image with a series of 5 second long exposures. Stars left short trails and lights were reflected in still waters looking toward the north across the Central Park reservoir. Chasing the ISS in low Earth orbit the Crew Dragon spacecraft dubbed Endeavour also left a trail through that urban night. Seen about 6 hours after its launch the spacecraft's faint trail appears above the ISS, shown in the inset just as the two approached the bank of clouds at the right. Dragon Endeavour docked successfully with the ISS about nineteen hours after reaching orbit.

Photo by Stan Honda