Magazine Posts

A kindred moment,
as friends depart,
with long goodbyes,
doing their part,

to assure we all,
will meet again,
be it sunshine,
or a falling rain.

Hope to see
you next year,
if God is willing,
and you buy the beer.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Do dragons fight on the altar of the sky? Although it might appear that way, these dragons are illusions made of thin gas and dust. The emission nebula NGC 6188, home to the glowing clouds, is found about 4,000 light years away near the edge of a large molecular cloud, unseen at visible wavelengths, in the southern constellation Ara (the Altar). Massive, young stars of the embedded Ara OB1 association were formed in that region only a few million years ago, sculpting the dark shapes and powering the nebular glow with stellar winds and intense ultraviolet radiation. The recent star formation itself was likely triggered by winds and supernova explosions from previous generations of massive stars, that swept up and compressed the molecular gas. This impressively detailed image spans over 2 degrees (four full Moons), corresponding to over 150 light years at the estimated distance of NGC 6188.

Photo by Carlos Taylor

For a few more Days. Sorry. See you in a few.

Etel Adnan (1925 – 2021) was a Lebanese-American poet, essayist, and visual artist born in Beirut, Lebanon. The daughter of a Greek Christian mother and a Syrian Muslim father. Adnan made visual works in a variety of media, such as oil paintings, films and tapestries, which have been exhibited at galleries across the world. Adnan served as the president of RAWI: Radius of Arab-American Writers Incorporated. She lived in Sausalito and Paris.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Squids on Earth aren't this big. This mysterious squid-like cosmic cloud spans nearly three full moons on planet Earth's sky. Discovered in 2011 by French astro-imager Nicolas Outters, the Squid Nebula's bipolar shape is distinguished here by the telltale blue emission from doubly ionized oxygen atoms. Though apparently surrounded by the reddish hydrogen emission region Sh2-129, the true distance and nature of the Squid Nebula have been difficult to determine. Still, one investigation suggests Ou4 really does lie within Sh2-129 some 2,300 light-years away. Consistent with that scenario, the cosmic squid would represent a spectacular outflow of material driven by a triple system of hot, massive stars, cataloged as HR8119, seen near the center of the nebula. If so, this truly giant squid nebula would physically be over 50 light-years across.

Photo by Alex Linde

T'wasnt all fun and games,
although that seems to be
popular way of thinking.

Write about those things
you love. Enough hateful
rhetoric in this world.

Memories are the building blocks of
recalling the love, you had at the moment
and the feelings you have now.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What happens if a star gets too close to a black hole? The black hole can rip it apart -- but how? It's not the high gravitational attraction itself that's the problem -- it's the difference in gravitational pull across the star that creates the destruction. In the featured animated video illustrating this disintegration, you first see a star approaching the black hole. Increasing in orbital speed, the star's outer atmosphere is ripped away during closest approach. Much of the star's atmosphere disperses into deep space, but some continues to orbit the black hole and forms an accretion disk. The animation then takes you into the accretion disk while looking toward the black hole. Including the strange visual effects of gravitational lensing, you can even see the far side of the disk. Finally, you look along one of the jets being expelled along the spin axis. Theoretical models indicate that these jets not only expel energetic gas, but also create energetic neutrinos -- one of which may have been seen recently on Earth. Almost Hyperspace: Random APOD Generator