Magazine Posts

A marmot perched on a rock structure along a Mt. Rainier trail.

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NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Unlike most entries in Charles Messier's famous catalog of deep sky objects, M24 is not a bright galaxy, star cluster, or nebula. It's a gap in nearby, obscuring interstellar dust clouds that allows a view of the distant stars in the Sagittarius spiral arm of our Milky Way galaxy. When you gaze at the star cloud with binoculars or small telescope you are looking through a window over 300 light-years wide at stars some 10,000 light-years or more from Earth. Sometimes called the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud, M24's luminous stars fill this gorgeous starscape. Covering over 3 degrees or the width of 6 full moons in the constellation Sagittarius, the telescopic field of view includes dark markings B92 and B93 just above center, along with other clouds of dust and glowing nebulae toward the center of the Milky Way.

Photo by Gabriel Rodrigues Santos

Remember those days
under the Firs?
How romantic it was,
with never a hitch,
until we realized
we were covered with pitch.

Dark is the Moss
under the shade tree.
Damp is the ground,
far below thee.
Love is the answer,
long may it be,
every day near you,
is important to me.

For all I see,
for all I know,
there is a hurt,
a long time ago.
A pain is felt,
but does not show,
as it's from a scar,
a long time ago.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Is Earendel the farthest star yet discovered? This scientific possibility started when the Hubble Space Telescope observed a huge cluster of galaxies. The gravitational lens effect of this cluster was seen to magnify and distort a galaxy far in the background. This distorted background galaxy -- so far away it has a redshift of 6.2 -- appears in the featured image as a long red string, while beads on that string are likely to be star clusters.   The galaxy cluster lens creates a line of maximum magnification line where superposed background objects may appear magnified many thousands of times. On the intersection between the galaxy line and the maximum magnification line is one "bead" which shows evidence of originating from a single bright star in the early universe -- now named Earendel. Future investigations may include more imaging by Hubble to see how Earendel's brightness varies, and, quite possibly, by the new James Webb Space Telescope when it becomes operational later this year.  Earendel's great distance exceeds that of any known stable star -- although the star that exploded creating GRB 090423 had a redshift of 8.2.

The breeze felt bitterly cold,
as the tears, dripping
from the corner of my eyes,
began to form ice crystals.
My mustache, already showing
signs of freezing from the
warm moist air I exhaled.
I should have worn goggles
to protect my eyes.

Why doesn't she recognize me
when she first sees me?
We have been married over a
half a century, yet she speaks
not my name but asks a question,
"Are you my husband?"

I believe in myself and what I do,
To live my life by the Golden Rule,
"Do unto others as they do to you.
Respect of others appears to be
A fleeting grace, in the World.I see.

Flee not from me
My trusted friends.
I need you now,
Before my life ends.

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NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

On the upper right, dressed in blue, is the Pleiades. Also known as the Seven Sisters and M45, the Pleiades is one of the brightest and most easily visible open clusters on the sky. The Pleiades contains over 3,000 stars, is about 400 light years away, and only 13 light years across. Surrounding the stars is a spectacular blue reflection nebula made of fine dust. A common legend is that one of the brighter stars faded since the cluster was named. On the lower left, shining in red, is the California Nebula. Named for its shape, the California Nebula is much dimmer and hence harder to see than the Pleiades. Also known as NGC 1499, this mass of red glowing hydrogen gas is about 1,500 light years away. Although about 25 full moons could fit between them, the featured wide angle, deep field image composite has captured them both. A careful inspection of the deep image will also reveal the star forming region IC 348 and the molecular cloud LBN 777 (the Baby Eagle Nebula).

Photo by Neven Krcmarek