Public Posts

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What has happened to Comet Lemmon's tail? The answer is blowing in the wind — the wind from the Sun in this case. This continuous outflow of charged particles from the Sun has been quite variable of late, as the Sun emits bursts of energy, CMEs, that push out and deflect charged particles emitted by the comet itself. The result is a blue hued ion tail for Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) that is not only impressively intricate but takes some unusual turns. This long-duration composite image taken from Alfacar, Spain last month captured this inner Solar System ionic tumult. Comet Lemmon is now fading as it heads out away from the Earth and Sun and back into the outer Solar System.

Work shed on the Boshuisweg. Location: Kroondomein Het Loo. (Detail).

Agnes Monkelbaan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC – 43 BC) -  Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the establishment of the Roman Empire. His extensive writings include treatises on rhetoric, philosophy and politics. He is considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists. and served as consul in 63 BC. His influence on the Latin language was immense. It is generally believed that he wrote wrote more than three-quarters of the Latin literature that is known to have existed in his lifetime. 

Basilica, Xavier, Navarre, Spain. The basilica belongs to the ensemble of the Castle of Xavier, built in the 10th century, although the basilica was not built until end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. Of eclectic style, the interior has a unique neogothic nave built with grey stone and white marble. The stained glass is a work of painter Marcelino Santamaría from Burgos. The main altar is an artistic decorative work, carved in stone inlaid with mosaics, bronzes and enamels by the Biais house in Paris. The tabernacle is located on a high relief that represents San Francisco baptizing and preaching.

Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

Delila Hatuel is an Olympic foil fencer. Today is her birthday.

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

Four be the things I am wiser to know:
Idleness, sorrow, a friend, and a foe.
Four be the things I’d been better without:
Love, curiosity, freckles, and doubt.
Three be the things I shall never attain:
Envy, content, and sufficient champagne.
Three be the things I shall have till I die:
Laughter and hope and a sock in the eye.

Dorothy Parker (1893 – 1967) Born Dorothy Rothschild, was an American poet, writer, critic, and satirist with a reputation for sharp wit. Some of her works have been set to music. The Poem "Inventory" was published in 1926 and it is now in the Public domain

View on Val Montanaia (Montanaia Valley), with the Cima Both (2,437 m) on the left and the "Campanile" (2,173 m) in the middle; both are peaks of the Spalti di Toro group, in the Friulian Dolomites Natural Park, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy.

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

Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV (1917 – 1977) was an American poet born into a Boston influential family that could trace its origins back to the Mayflower. His family, past and present, were important subjects in his poetry. Growing up in Boston also informed his poems, which were frequently set in Boston and the New England region. The literary scholar Paula Hayes believes that Lowell mythologized New England, particularly in his early work.