Magazine Posts

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

It was noticed hundreds of years ago by stargazers who could not understand its unusual shape. It looked like a ring on the sky. Except for the rings of Saturn, the Ring Nebula (M57) may be the most famous celestial circle. We now know what it is, and that its iconic shape is due to our lucky perspective. The recent mapping of the expanding nebula's 3-D structure, based in part on this clear Hubble image,indicates that the nebula is a relatively dense, donut-like ring wrapped around the middle of an (American) football-shaped cloud of glowing gas. Our view from planet Earth looks down the long axis of the football, face-on to the ring. Of course, in this well-studied example of a planetary nebula, the glowing material does not come from planets. Instead, the gaseous shroud represents outer layers expelled from the dying, once sun-like star, now a tiny pinprick of light seen at the nebula's center. Intense ultraviolet light from the hot central star ionizes atoms in the gas. The Ring Nebula is about one light-year across and 2,500 light-years away.

The dirt, between
my fingers and toes.
Mud was my thing,
when as a child,
I would run
playing, wild,
like a weed,
growing in your yard.
Cut it down or
let it grow.
How it develops,
you may never know.

For the past several years, my wife Michele and I have had a running debate about how much stuff to hold onto and whether or not to give away (or in some cases, throw away) some of the rarely used excess items lying around the house.
Michele has a long list of what she considers to be totally unnecessary items that are no longer being used, just taking up space, and should be given away. I’m cautiously optimistic to report that as of this writing, I am not one of the items on that list. But I suspect I’m on the bubble........ Read more

Do you not
know me?
Can you call,
me by name?

Someday, in the morning,
when the sky is still grey,
Death will come calling,
taking someone away.

Life is quite short, in this scene,
it isn't forever, we can live here,
for when the road ends,
all memories, will disappear.

If life was fair,
then it's not.
Would you care,
about another's lot?

When love has,
lost its bloom,
will you still be
waiting in another room?

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Distorted galaxy NGC 2442 can be found in the southern constellation of the flying fish, (Piscis) Volans. Located about 50 million light-years away, the galaxy's two spiral arms extending from a pronounced central bar give it a hook-shaped appearance in this deep colorful image, with spiky foreground stars scattered across the telescopic field of view. The image also reveals the distant galaxy's obscuring dust lanes, young blue star clusters and reddish star forming regions surrounding a core of yellowish light from an older population of stars. But the star forming regions seem more concentrated along the drawn-out (upper right) spiral arm. The distorted structure is likely the result of an ancient close encounter with the smaller galaxy seen near the top left of the frame. The two interacting galaxies are separated by about 150,000 light-years at the estimated distance of NGC 2442.

Photo by Nicolas Rolland

Waking from a deep sleep,
clearing cobwebs, from my head,
is what one becomes,
when sleeping like the dead.

I'm lost,
alone,
forgot
your
name.
When,
we meet
again,
will it
be the
same?

A sun, rising slowly,
from the East,
peeking through tree limbs,
as sunrays penetrate,
the cool, shadowed,
corners of the courtyard.
A plum tree, in bloom,
brings color to a landscape,
of bare branches, budded,
but sans, leafs, an early Spring.

A simple verse,
a simple mind.
Do you like it?
You're too kind.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Shrouded in a thick atmosphere, Saturn's largest moon Titan really is hard to see. Small particles suspended in the upper atmosphere cause an almost impenetrable haze, strongly scattering light at visible wavelengths and hiding Titan's surface features from prying eyes. But Titan's surface is better imaged at infrared wavelengths where scattering is weaker and atmospheric absorption is reduced. Arrayed around this visible light image (center) of Titan are some of the clearest global infrared views of the tantalizing moon so far. In false color, the six panels present a consistent processing of 13 years of infrared image data from the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) on board the Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn from 2004 to 2017. They offer a stunning comparison with Cassini's visible light view. NASA's revolutionary rotorcraft mission to Titan is due to launch in 2027.