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Mattie Stepanek (1990 - 2004) was an american poet who during his short life published seven best selling books of poetry and peace essays. Mattie Stepanek died at age 13. He became known as a peace advocate and motivational speaker. 

Mattie Stepanek Peace Foundation

rigel on Unsplash

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What do you see in this crystal ball? The featured image shows NGC 1514, known as the Crystal Ball Nebula, observed by the Gemini North telescope on Maunakea, in Hawai'i. NGC 1514 is 1,500 light-years away and was discovered by William Herschel in 1790. This planetary nebula is formed when a star becomes a red giant and ejects its outer gas layers. The ejected shell of gas is heated up by the core of the star to temperatures hotter than the surface of our Sun: that makes the gas shine, creating beautiful images like this one. The slightly asymmetrical shape of the Crystal Ball Nebula reveals a secret: the bright star in the center has a companion. As the two stars orbit each other with a period of about nine years, they shape the gas around them. In about 10,000 - 25,000 years the nebula will be dissipated by their stellar winds.

Female Jaguar in Mato Grosso, Brazil.

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

By Andrés Sanz on Unsplash

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What is a pair of headphones doing in the sky? Today’s image features the Headphone Nebula, also known as PK 164 +31.1 or Jones-Emberson 1. This planetary nebula, the remnant of a dying Sun-like star, faintly occupies an angular region of the Lynx constellation about 1/5th the diameter of the full moon. The red and blue-ish green colors trace hydrogen and oxygen atoms, respectively, that have been excited and ionized by the nebula's central white dwarf. The headphone shape, where two lobes of hydrogen puncture the inner region of oxygen, adds this object to a long list of oddly shaped nebulae. The morphology of such strange nebulae hint at the presence of a stellar or planetary companion, which can stir the material flowing out from the dying star. You can listen to Hubble and JWST sonifications of planetary nebulae through your very own headphones!

Photo by Bernard Miller Text: Keighley Rockcliffe (NASA GSFC, UMBC CSST, CRESST II)

Great Pond and Turkish Bath pavilion, Catherine Park, Pushkin town, Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Игорь Гордеев, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

"I went out for a morning walk and stumbled upon this lovely scene in the neighborhood. Issaquah, WA"

Dave Hoefler on Unsplash

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

The upper galaxy might be more photogenic, but the lower galaxy is more unusual. The galaxy up top is NGC 3660, a spiral galaxy similar to our own Milky Way galaxy in that it has several bright blue spiral arms and a central bar of stars, dust, and gas. Captured by chance in the featured deep and colorful image, surprisingly, is SN 2026cff, a supernova found just to the right of the central bar. Farther in the distance is the bottom galaxy, known informally as Burçin’s galaxy, but formally cataloged as LEDA 1000714. The center of this galaxy appears to be an old elliptical galaxy, but it is strangely surrounded by not one but two rings of stars. What created Burçin's galaxy is a mystery and remains a continuing topic of research, but it likely involves the accretion of one or more smaller galaxies.

Photo by Adam Block, El Sauce Obs.

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.