Magazine Posts

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Have you ever seen a dragon in the sky? Although real flying dragons don't exist, a huge dragon-shaped aurora developed in the sky over Iceland in 2019. The aurora was caused by a hole in the Sun's corona that expelled charged particles into a solar wind that followed a changing interplanetary magnetic field to Earth's magnetosphere. As some of those particles then struck Earth's atmosphere, they excited atoms which subsequently emitted light: aurora. This iconic display was so enthralling that the photographer's mother ran out to see it and was captured in the foreground. Our active Sun continues to show an unusually high number of prominences, filaments, sunspots, and large active regions as solar maximum approaches in 2025.

Photo by Jingyi Zhang & Wang Zheng

There's no tomorrow,
only today.
Yesterday is a memory,
for you've gone away.

I brought you home,
it was today.
A beautiful Urn,
I know not what to say,

except I hunger for you
and I always will.
I'll love you always,
I am your Jack; you are my Jill.

I just want to be useful, again.
No need for romance,
or a Spring dance.
I just want to be useful, again.

Third trip for a tattoo.
Two tattoos today,
my birthday sign and
a tiger shoulder display.

Met a lovely lady
and we conversed,
about her daughter's book,
all unrehearsed.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

rth's orbit around the Sun is not a circle, it's an ellipse. The point along its elliptical orbit where our fair planet is closest to the Sun is called perihelion. This year, perihelion was on January 2 at 01:00 UTC, with the Earth about 3 million miles closer to the Sun than it was at aphelion (last July 6), the farthest point in its elliptical orbit. Of course, distance from the Sun doesn't determine the seasons, and it doesn't the determine size of Sun halos. Easier to see with the Sun hidden behind a tall tree trunk, this beautiful ice halo forms a 22 degree-wide circle around the Sun, recorded while strolling through the countryside near Heroldstatt, Germany. The Sun halo's 22 degree angular diameter is determined by the six-sided geometry of water ice crystals drifting high in planet Earth's atmosphere.

Photo by Radoslav Zboran

"Kochava, the self-proclaimed industry leader in mobile app data analytics, is locked in a legal battle with the Federal Trade Commission in a case that could lead to big changes in the global data marketplace and in Congress’ approach to artificial intelligence and data privacy"  More at The Conversation ➜

Here I sit, alone,
waiting for someone to show.
Wanting to be active, but
no particular place to go.

So, once again I
head down below
and thought of you,
but had no particular place to go.

She flew, as an Angel,
into the Sun.
I knew at that moment,
she was the one.

Long will I remember,
never to forget,
the moment in time,
when we first met.

Fly away,
flee,
away from the light,
stay here with me.

I can no longer,
ask of you,
what to be,
or what to do.

I miss you,
your beautiful smile,
but no longer will,
see. Not for a while.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Yesterday, the Moon was New. But on January 9, early morning risers around planet Earth were treated to the sight of an old Moon, low in the east as the sky grew bright before dawn. Above the city of Saarburg in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany, this simple snapshot found the waning Moon's sunlit crescent just before sunrise. But also never wandering far from the Sun in Earth's sky, inner planets Venus and Mercury shared the cold morning skyview. In the foreground are the historic city's tower and castle with ruins from the 10th century.

Photo by Michael Luy