Magazine Posts

Grandiose Firs,
reach for the sky.
Stretching limbs
to heavens, up high.

Maple trees, more than 100 years old,
majestic as they aged,
foliage all gold.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

In 60 seconds, this setting Sun will turn green. Actually, the top of the Sun already appears not only green, but wavey -- along with all of its edges. The Sun itself is unchanged -- both effects are caused by looking along hot and cold layers in Earth's atmosphere. The unusual color is known as a green flash and occurs because these atmospheric layers not only shift background images but disperse colors into slightly different directions, like a prism. The featured video was captured earlier this month off the coast of Hawaii, USA. After waiting those 60 seconds, at the video's end, the upper part of the Sun seems to hover alone in space, while turning not only green, but blue. Then suddenly, the Sun appears to shrink to nothing -- only to return tomorrow.

Video by Tengyu Cai

Some other day,
I want to run
and hide.

You can't.
a voice did chide.
I know I can't
nor will I ever,
run away, for
that's not
who I am.

Please, please,
just go away.

It was late,
in early Spring,
as a new love,
I learned to sing.

Sing about all
the joys in life,
being together,
with my lovely wife.

What has happened,
during these long years,
when life has changed,
and now I have many fears.

I can't change
the outcome, laying ahead.
I pray I can, but
what I see, is nothing good.

Anticipation, of what lies ahead,
about the fate I will find.
A slow goodbye, for
the love of mine.

Another year,
Another season,
Another time,
Another reason.

Why must our lives
be so difficult now.
Please tell me, please
I can't fix it. I don't know how.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

This dance is to the death. As these two large galaxies duel, a cosmic bridge of stars, gas, and dust currently stretches over 75,000 light-years and joins them. The bridge itself is strong evidence that these two immense star systems have passed close to each other and experienced violent tides induced by mutual gravity. As further evidence, the face-on spiral galaxy on the right, also known as NGC 3808A, exhibits many young blue star clusters produced in a burst of star formation. The twisted edge-on spiral on the left (NGC 3808B) seems to be wrapped in the material bridging the galaxies and surrounded by a curious polar ring. Together, the system is known as Arp 87. While such interactions are drawn out over billions of years, repeated close passages will ultimately create one merged galaxy. Although this scenario does look unusual, galactic mergers are thought to be common, with Arp 87 representing a stage in this inevitable process. The Arp 87 dancing pair are about 300 million light-years distant toward the constellation of the Lion (Leo). The prominent edge-on spiral galaxy at the far left appears to be a more distant background galaxy and not involved in the on-going merger.

I see you once,
every few days.
You radiate beauty,
like moonbeam rays.

One of the points,
I see about you,
a radiant smile,
a pleasant view.

I speak in words,
hard to understand,
mostly slang words,
in this your new land.

Today is the first day of
the rest of your life's journey,
take little steps as you move
along, try not to be in a hurry.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

There goes another one! Volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io keep erupting. To investigate, NASA's robotic Juno spacecraft has begun a series of visits to this very strange moon. Io is about the size of Earth's moon, but because of gravitational flexing by Jupiter and other moons, Io's interior gets heated and its surface has become covered with volcanoes. The featured image is from last week's flyby, passing within 12,000 kilometers above the dangerously active world. The surface of Io is covered with sulfur and frozen sulfur dioxide, making it appear yellow, orange and brown. As hoped, Juno flew by just as a volcano was erupting -- with its faint plume visible near the top of the featured image. Studying Io's volcanoes and plumes helps humanity better understand how Jupiter's complex system of moons, rings, and auroras interact. Juno is scheduled to make two flybys of Io during the coming months that are almost 10 times closer: one in December and another in February 2024. Help Wanted: Professional-astronomer level guest writers and assistant editors for APOD

Photo shared by Heather Cox Richardson from Letters from an American