Magazine Posts

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What could shoot out a neutron star like a cannon ball? A supernova. About 10,000 years ago, the supernova that created the nebular remnant CTB 1 not only destroyed a massive star but blasted its newly formed neutron star core -- a pulsar -- out into the Milky Way Galaxy. The pulsar, spinning 8.7 times a second, was discovered using downloadable software Einstein@Home searching through data taken by NASA's orbiting Fermi Gamma-Ray Observatory. Traveling over 1,000 kilometers per second, the pulsar PSR J0002+6216 (J0002 for short) has already left the supernova remnant CTB 1, and is even fast enough to leave our Galaxy. Pictured, the trail of the pulsar is visible extending to the lower left of the supernova remnant. The featured image is a combination of radio images from the VLA and DRAO radio observatories, as well as data archived from NASA's orbiting IRAS infrared observatory. It is well known that supernovas can act as cannons, and even that pulsars can act as cannonb

Contrasting colors of
browns, yellows and reds,
spread through trees
with leaf covered beds.

A special time,
is in the Fall,
when Nature's beauty,
is seen by all.

Cold Winter's blasts,
will soon be aware,
as most tree branches
will only be bare.

Love was the danger,
keeping them apart.
Physical attraction,
the affairs of the heart.

Barren the soul,
wanting to be free,
while life keeps
me searching for thee.

A love, long lost
in this World, ours,
of hedonistic desire
for exotic cars.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Observe the Moon every night and you'll see its visible sunlit portion gradually change. In phases progressing from New Moon to Full Moon to New Moon again, a lunar cycle or lunation is completed in about 29.5 days. Top left to bottom right, this 7x4 matrix of telescopic images captures the range of lunar phases for 28 consecutive nights, from the evening of July 29 to the morning of August 26, following an almost complete lunation. No image was taken 24 hours or so just after and just before New Moon, when the lunar phase is at best a narrow crescent, close to the Sun and really hard to see. Finding mostly clear Mediterranean skies required an occasional road trip to complete this lunar cycle project, imaging in early evening for the first half and late evening and early morning for the second half of the lunation. Since all the images are registered at the same scale you can use this matrix to track the change in the Moon's apparent size during the single lunation. For extra credit, find the lunar phase that occurred closest to perigee. Tonight: International Observe the Moon Night

Photo by Tunc Tezel

Low lay the land,
close to the trees.
Bright is the Sun,
cool is the breeze.
Rich is the scent
of the broad sea.
Long have I wandered
searching for thee.

Early the morning,
hours before dawn,
watching a drama,
trying not to yawn.

I love the way you smile,
when you say hello.
My heart will skip a beat,
for the love you show.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

A planet-wide collaboration resulted in this remarkable array of sunrise photographs taken around the September 2022 equinox. The images were contributed by 24 photographers, one in each of 24 nautical time zones around the world. Unlike more complicated civil time zone boundaries, the 24 nautical time zones are simply 15 degree longitude bands corresponding to 1 hour steps that span the globe. Start at the upper right for the first to experience a sunrise in the nautical time zone corresponding to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) + 12 hours. In that time zone, the photographer was located in Christchurch, New Zealand. Travel to the west by looking down the column and then moving to the column toward the left for later sunrises as the time zone offset in hours from UTC decreases. Or, you can watch a video of September 2022 equinox sunrises around planet Earth.

Photo by Luca Vanzella

Heavy thine heart,
aching to be
fulfiller of dreams,
while waiting for thee.

Long were the stories,
told from me to you.
Short were the nights
when I had nothing to do.