Magazine Posts

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What's that passing in front of the Sun? It looks like a moon, but it can't be Earth's Moon, because it isn't round. It's the Martian moon Phobos. The featured video was taken from the surface of Mars a month ago by the Perseverance rover. Phobos, at 11.5 kilometers across, is 150 times smaller than Luna (our moon) in diameter, but also 50 times closer to its parent planet. In fact, Phobos is so close to Mars that it is expected to break up and crash into Mars within the next 50 million years. In the near term, the low orbit of Phobos results in more rapid solar eclipses than seen from Earth. The featured video is shown in real time -- the transit really took about 40 seconds,as shown. The videographer -- the robotic rover Perseverance (Percy) -- continues to explore Jezero Crater on Mars, searching not only for clues to the watery history of the now dry world, but evidence of ancient microbial life. New Social Mirror: APOD now available on mastodon

"Seventeen-year-old Benjamin Choi put his spare time during the pandemic to good use designing an accessible device that doesn’t require brain surgery"...... Read more

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Most galaxies don't have any rings -- why does this galaxy have two? To begin, the bright band near NGC 1512's center is a nuclear ring, a ring that surrounds the galaxy center and glows brightly with recently formed stars. Most stars and accompanying gas and dust, however, orbit the galactic center in a ring much further out -- here seen near the image edge. This ring is called, counter-intuitively, the inner ring. If you look closely, you will see this the inner ring connects ends of a diffuse central bar that runs horizontally across the galaxy. These ring structures are thought to be caused by NGC 1512's own asymmetries in a drawn-out process called secular evolution. The gravity of these galaxy asymmetries, including the bar of stars, cause gas and dust to fall from the inner ring to the nuclear ring, enhancing this ring's rate of star formation. Some spiral galaxies also have a third ring -- an outer ring that circles the galaxy even further out.

Lazy was I,
intolerant of self.
Longing to leave,
running far away,
but I cannot do
this to her
or myself.
Muster the courage,
sometimes missing
in your soul
and make a new
try at a new goal.

My greatest fear.
My greatest sorrow.
Worrying about if you
will be here tomorrow.

How is life today?
Can love overcome it all?
When those hurtful feelings
have come to call?

Can we still love today,
after broken promises
are back to stay?

Please tell me,
I need to know,
if love will fail
or continue to grow.

#mothersday #mother

I'll love you tomorrow,
as I did yesterday,
for you are my life
and cherish you, I will,
until the dawn breaks
while a new day comes,
bringing a tomorrow
as if we were young.

Long was the Sun
in afternoon heat.
Wet was the grass,
on my bare feet.
No shoes were worn,
when I was young.
We walked everywhere
and we would run,
across fields afar,
not knowing how
lucky we were.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

On certain dates in February, an elusive firefall can be spotted at sunset in Yosemite National Park, when water flows, the weather cooperates and the direction to the setting Sun is just right. Often photographed from vantage points below, at the right moment the park's seasonal Horsetail Fall is isolated in the shadows of the steep walls of El Capitan. Then, still illuminated with rays of reddened sunlight the waterfall briefly takes on a dramatic, fiery appearance. But a Horsetail firefall can be photographed by moonlight too. Even more elusive by moonlight, the firefall effect can also be seen when a bright Moon sets at the right direction along the western horizon. And skies were clear enough for this well-planned imaging of an ephemeral Horsetail firefall, lit by a bright gibbous Moon setting in the early morning hours of April 15.

Photo by Tara Mostofi

"The Western U.S. is in a water crisis, from California to Nebraska.......On the Colorado River, the country’s two largest reservoirs – Lake Powell and Lake Mead – are at their lowest levels in 50 years." Read more

Photo: Public domain - Courtesy of Wikimedia.org

When days of old
are young again,
will be the time,
for "Let's pretend."
Pretend to fine,
your lost youth,
a body supple,
not long of tooth.
No aches or pain,
to mar the joy
of being again
young girl and boy.
So now, wish upon
the tree of love
and pray some more,
to your God above.