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Explore major historical events from today or any day on Kudos 365.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What’s happening in the center of spiral galaxy NGC 2566? First, the eight rays that appear to be coming out of the center in the featured infrared image are not real — they are diffraction spikes caused by the mechanical structure of the Webb space telescope itself. The center of NGC 2566 is bright but not considered unusual, which means that it likely contains a supermassive black hole, although currently not very active. At only 76 million light years away, the light we see from NGC 2566 today left when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. The picturesque galaxy is close enough so that Earthly telescopes, including Webb and Hubble, can resolve the turbulent clouds of gas and dust where stars can form and so allows study of stellar evolution. NGC 2566, similar in size to our Milky Way Galaxy, is notable for its bright central bar and its prominent outer spiral arms.

Runners in tunnel. São Martinho do Porto, Portugal.

Alvesgaspar, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

Maya Angelou (1928-2014) American writer, poet, singer, and civil rights activist

Memorial Day honors all service members who lost their lives while in service to the United States, during peace and war. It is a time to reflect on those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.

            Immortality

   Do not stand 
        By my grave, and weep.
   I am not there,
       I do not sleep—
I am the thousand winds that blow
I am the diamond glints in snow
I am the sunlight on ripened grain,
I am the gentle, autumn rain.
As you awake with morning’s hush,
I am the swift, up-flinging rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight,
I am the day transcending night.
    Do not stand
        By my grave, and cry—
     I am not there,
          I did not die.

Poem by Clare Harner, The Gypsy, December 1934 (page 16). The poem is often attributed to anonymous or incorrect sources. Read more about Memorial day:  U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs   -   National Museum of American History

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Jupiter is stranger than we knew. NASA's Juno spacecraft has now completed over 70 swoops past Jupiter as it moves around its highly elliptical orbit. Pictured from 2017, Jupiter is seen from below where, surprisingly, the horizontal bands that cover most of the planet disappear into swirls and complex patterns. A line of white oval clouds is visible nearer to the equator. Impressive results from Juno show that Jupiter's weather phenomena can extend deep below its cloud tops, that Jupiter's center has a core that is unexpectedly large and soft, and that Jupiter's magnetic field varies greatly with location. Although Juno is scheduled to keep orbiting Jupiter further into 2025, at some time the robotic spacecraft will be maneuvered to plunge into the giant planet. Jigsaw Jumble: Astronomy Puzzle of the Day

Photo by NASA, Juno, SwRI, MSSS; Processing & License: Gerald Eichstädt & Seán Doran

The Taras horizon landscape reserve at dawn in Cherkasy Oblast, Ukraine.

Original: Oleksandr Malyon Derivative work: Radomianin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Deimos takes 30 hours and 18 minutes to complete one orbit around the Red Planet. That's a little more than one Martian day or sol which is about 24 hours and 40 minutes long, so Deimos drifts westward across the Martian sky. About 15 kilometers across at its widest, the smallest of Mars' two moons is bright though. In fact Deimos is the brightest celestial object in this Martian skyscape captured before sunrise by Perseverance on March 1, the 1,433rd sol of the Mars rover's mission. The image is a composed of 16 exposures recorded by one of the rover's navigation cameras. The individual exposures were combined into a single image for an enhanced low light view. Regulus and Algeiba, bright stars in the constellation Leo, are also visible in the dark Martian predawn sky.

Nationally, six-in-ten Americans say stricter environmental laws and regulations are worth the cost, while 38% say they cost too many jobs and hurt the economy. More at Pew Research Center ➜