Skip to main content

Magazine Posts

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

The star with an orange tint near top center in this dusty telescopic frame is T Tauri, prototype of the class of T Tauri variable stars. Next to it (right) is a yellow cosmic cloud historically known as Hind's Variable Nebula (NGC 1555). About 650 light-years away, at the boundary of the local bubble and the Taurus molecular cloud, both star and nebula are seen to vary significantly in brightness but not necessarily at the same time, adding to the mystery of the intriguing region. T Tauri stars are now generally recognized as young (less than a few million years old), sun-like stars still in the early stages of formation. To further complicate the picture, infrared observations indicate that T Tauri itself is part of a multiple system and suggest that the associated Hind's Nebula may also contain a very young stellar object. The well-composed image spans about 8 light-years at the estimated distance of T Tauri.

Photo by Dawn Lowry

I Sit Here

Posted by MFish • Profile • 02/10/22 at 12:57AM • Life Stories - Memories • See more by MFish

I sit here
alone, without you,
in our home
of many years.
You have gone
to a memory care
facility, to be
attended to.
I have visited
every day,
except the lockdown,
when the facility
was closed, due to
a Covid, positive result.
Every day,
when I see you,
I'm asked, "are you my husband?"
and you say, "I haven't seen you
in a long time."
Yet, you cried when I
told you Good Night,
when I left,
at 9 PM.
My emotions are raw.
My guilt, I feel,
as this part of life
is torture and pain,
no matter how I
try to rationalize.
Forgive me please.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What's the most dangerous star near earth? Many believe it's Eta Carinae, a binary star system about 100 times the mass of the Sun, just 10,000 light years from earth. Eta Carinae is a ticking time bomb, set to explode as a supernova in only a few million years, when it may bathe the earth in dangerous gamma rays. The star suffered a notorious outburst in the 1840s when it became the brightest star in the southern sky, only to fade to obscurity within decades. The star was not destroyed, but lies hidden behind a thick, expanding, double-lobed structure called the Homunculus which now surrounds the binary. Studies of this ejecta provide forensic clues about the explosion. Using observations from NASA satellites we can now visualize the 3D distribution of the shrapnel, all the way from the infrared, through optical and UV, to the outermost shell of million-degree material, visible only in X-rays.

Hunger impacts all of us | 360-435-1631

Snohomish, Skagit and Island County

Powered by Volunteers | 360-794-7959