Magazine Posts

Flushing my mind
of things,
which the edge
of madness brings.

Must this life,
I know,
be all there is
to show?

I know not,
what to do,
staying in touch
with you.

What light at
Dawns break,
brings me peace,
to take?

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

This tantalizing trio of galaxies sometimes called the Draco Group, is located in the northern constellation of (you guessed it) Draco, the Dragon. From left to right are face-on spiral NGC 5985, elliptical galaxy NGC 5982, and edge-on spiral NGC 5981, all found within this single telescopic field of view that spans a little more than the width of the full moon. While the group is far too small to be a galaxy cluster, and has not been catalogued as a compact galaxy group, the three galaxies all do lie roughly 100 million light-years from planet Earth. Not as well known as other tight groupings of galaxies, the contrast in visual appearance still makes this triplet an attractive subject for astroimagers. On close examination with spectrographs, the bright core of striking spiral NGC 5985 shows prominent emission in specific wavelengths of light, prompting astronomers to classify it as a Seyfert, a type of active galaxy. This impressively deep exposure hints at a faint dim halo along with sharp-edged shells surrounding elliptical NGC 5982, evidence of past galactic mergers. It also reveals many even more distant background galaxies.

Photo by David Vernet , Jean-François Bax , Serge Brunier

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Are asteroids dangerous? Some are, but the likelihood of a dangerous asteroid striking the Earth during any given year is low. Because some past mass extinction events have been linked to asteroid impacts, however, humanity has made it a priority to find and catalog those asteroids that may one day affect life on Earth. Pictured here are the orbits of the over 1,000 known Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs). These documented tumbling boulders of rock and ice are over 140 meters across and will pass within 7.5 million kilometers of Earth -- about 20 times the distance to the Moon. Although none of them will strike the Earth in the next 100 years -- not all PHAs have been discovered, and past 100 years, many orbits become hard to predict. Were an asteroid of this size to impact the Earth, it could raise dangerous tsunamis, for example. To investigate Earth-saving strategies, NASA successfully tested the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission last year. Of course, rocks and ice bits of much smaller size strike the Earth every day, usually pose no danger, and sometimes create memorable fireball and meteor displays. Today is: Asteroid Day

Been planting flowers,
for several days,
cleaning out pots,
enjoying Sunrays.

Low the wind,
through the trees,
mellow is the feeling,
a cooling summer breeze.

Alongside she came,
from out the sea.
A sailing ship,
not meant to be.

Money changed everything,
and a Privateer, she be,
attacking merchant ships,
which had gone to sea.

Riches, were hers,
as she captured money and crew.
An outlaw vessel,
carrying booty too.

One day she was stopped
by a Naval Man a War,
and her pirating days,
now gone for evermore.

When the squirrely cusp,
of what we call life,
becomes entranced
with too much strife.

Our drive strengthens
for another day,
as we glimpse our
desires, go away

I think of you,
can't imagine what
you must be going
through.
Frustrating to me,
for I know not what to do.

What kind of Hell,
must it be, when
you see but cannot process
your thoughts. When you
say, you love me,
is this the last bit of reality,
that remains. Are you
reaching out, asking for
more help?

I want you to be happy,
not likely, under these
circumstances.
I love you, Ellie.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Monitoring 68 pulsars with very large radio telescopes, the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) has uncovered evidence for the gravitational wave (GW) background by carefully measuring slight shifts in the arrival times of pulses. These shifts are correlated between different pulsars in a way that indicates that they are caused by GWs. This GW background is likely due to hundreds of thousands or even millions of supermassive black hole binaries. Teams in Europe, Asia and Australia have also independently reported their results today. Previously, the LIGO and Virgo detectors have detected higher-frequency GWs from the merging of individual pairs of massive orbiting objects, such as stellar-mass black holes. The featured illustration highlights this spacetime-shaking result by depicting two orbiting supermassive black holes and several of the pulsars that would appear to have slight timing shifts. The imprint these GWs make on spacetime itself is illustrated by a distorted grid. Open Science: Browse 3,000+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code Library

Photo by Ingo Stiller on Unsplash