Magazine Posts

What must I do
to keep you
lying safe, beside me?

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Are volcanoes still active on Venus? More volcanoes are known on Venus than Earth, but when Venusian volcanoes last erupted is not directly known. Evidence bolstering very recent volcanism on Venus has recently been uncovered, though, right here on Earth. Lab results showed that images of surface lava would become dim in the infrared in only months in the dense Venusian atmosphere, a dimming not seen in ESA's Venus Express images. Venus Express entered orbit around Venus in 2006 and remained in contact with Earth until 2014. Therefore, the infrared glow (shown in false-color red) recorded by Venus Express for Idunn Mons and featured here on a NASA Magellan image indicates that this volcano erupted very recently -- and is still active today. Understanding the volcanics of Venus might lead to insight about the volcanics on Earth, as well as elsewhere in our Solar System. New: APOD now available in Turkish from Turkey

Across the meadow; a meadow so keen,
a beautiful setting if you know what I mean.
Follow the trail, don't cut through the weed,
and you'll be rewarded, oh yes indeed.
A little sound, could be heard, perhaps a bee,
flying from flower to flower, with great speed.
The Glen was as pristine as you could see,
as I waited patiently; waiting for thee.
A romantic setting, is what I recall,
a precious spot for one and all.

I think of you, my young friend,
wondering if we might have been,
star crossed lovers, in another life,
or if we married and you were my wife?
You left me so sudden, saying
if you need help, just let me know.
It's been two months, plus a few days
and my mind is now in a haze.
Contact me please, I say to you
for at this time I worry about you.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

A good place to see a ring-of-fire eclipse, it seemed, would be from a desert. In a desert, there should be relatively few obscuring clouds and trees. Therefore late last December a group of photographers traveled to the United Arab Emirates and Rub al-Khali, the largest continuous sand desert in world, to capture clear images of an unusual eclipse that would be passing over. A ring-of-fire eclipse is an annular eclipse that occurs when the Moon is far enough away on its elliptical orbit around the Earth so that it appears too small, angularly, to cover the entire Sun. At the maximum of an annular eclipse, the edges of the Sun can be seen all around the edges of the Moon, so that the Moon appears to be a dark spot that covers most -- but not all -- of the Sun. This particular eclipse, they knew, would peak soon after sunrise. After seeking out such a dry and barren place, it turned out that some of the most interesting eclipse images actually included a tree in the foreground, because, in addition to the sand dunes, the tree gave the surreal background a contrasting sense of normalcy, scale, and texture. Explore the Universe: Random APOD Generator

Photo by Maxime Daviron

A single line of Tulips
across the hallowed ground,
lies the remains of our heroes
where they always will be found.

There lies Sgt. Smith;
a marker with his name,
who gave his life for Country
for a World he never knew.
He lies, interred, in the ground
for all, not just a few.

Pray for him and the others
at this most revered site,
for they were all our Brothers,
who died the noble fight.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Cosmic dust clouds and young, energetic stars inhabit this telescopic vista, less than 500 light-years away toward the northern boundary of Corona Australis, the Southern Crown. The dust clouds effectively block light from more distant background stars in the Milky Way. But the striking complex of reflection nebulae cataloged as NGC 6726, 6727, and IC 4812 produce a characteristic blue color as light from the region's young hot stars is reflected by the cosmic dust. The dust also obscures from view stars still in the process of formation. At the left, smaller yellowish nebula NGC 6729 bends around young variable star R Coronae Australis. Just below it, glowing arcs and loops shocked by outflows from embedded newborn stars are identified as Herbig-Haro objects. On the sky this field of view spans about 1 degree. That corresponds to almost 9 light-years at the estimated distance of the nearby star forming region. Video: Best of APOD 2019 for the Night Sky Network

Photo by CHART32 Team

The Raven called, in dead of night,
for me. I know not of thee,
nor of what life is to be.
I pray with vigor and with might,
that those I love will be alright

Photo by Sacha Styles on Unsplash