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NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Light rays from accretion disks around a pair of orbiting supermassive black holes make their way through the warped space-time produced by extreme gravity in this stunning computer visualization. The simulated accretion disks have been given different false color schemes, red for the disk surrounding a 200-million-solar-mass black hole, and blue for the disk surrounding a 100-million-solar-mass black hole. That makes it easier to track the light sources, but the choice also reflects reality. Hotter gas gives off light closer to the blue end of the spectrum and material orbiting smaller black holes experiences stronger gravitational effects that produce higher temperatures. For these masses, both accretion disks would actually emit most of their light in the ultraviolet though. In the video, distorted secondary images of the blue black hole, which show the red black hole's view of its partner, can be found within the tangled skein of the red disk warped by the gravity of the blue black hole in the foreground. Because we're seeing red's view of blue while also seeing blue directly, the images allow us to see both sides of blue at the same time. Red and blue light originating from both black holes can be seen in the innermost ring of light, called the photon ring, near their event horizons. Astronomers expect that in the not-too-distant future they’ll be able to detect gravitational waves, ripples in space-time, produced when two supermassive black holes in a system much like the one simulated here spiral together and merge.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Bright elliptical galaxy Messier 87 (M87) is home to the supermassive black hole captured by planet Earth's Event Horizon Telescope in the first ever image of a black hole. Giant of the Virgo galaxy cluster about 55 million light-years away, M87 is the large galaxy rendered in blue hues in this infrared image from the Spitzer Space telescope. Though M87 appears mostly featureless and cloud-like, the Spitzer image does record details of relativistic jets blasting from the galaxy's central region. Shown in the inset at top right, the jets themselves span thousands of light-years. The brighter jet seen on the right is approaching and close to our line of sight. Opposite, the shock created by the otherwise unseen receding jet lights up a fainter arc of material. Inset at bottom right, the historic black hole image is shown in context, at the center of giant galaxy and relativistic jets. Completely unresolved in the Spitzer image, the supermassive black hole surrounded by infalling material is the source of enormous energy driving the relativistic jets from the center of active galaxy M87.

A classic Italian soup of beans and short pasta with tomatoes and vegetables with many variations. Click the image below to read Hank Shaw's recipe  at Simply Recipes

I am so shallow,
so shallow am I.
If I had any courage
I would ask you why.
Why you ignore me
day after day,
when all you would
have to do, is say,
leave me alone,
just go far away
for I haven't the time
for you on this day.

What about me? What about you.
Isn't there anything we can do,
About your memory loss,
Or dreams of the past.
Most of your long term memory
is gone now; short term memory bad.
For you can't remember anything
of the conversation we just had.

Years ago, when light was gray;
Before the dawn of a coming day.
I arose early to watch the Moon,
traverse the Sky, like a Loon.
An object with a shape of long
forgotten material, lay among
the branches of a Maple tree,
awaiting the love, escaping me.
Far away from the lonely abode,
upon Death's horse, he rode.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

This supernova shock wave plows through interstellar space at over 500,000 kilometers per hour. Near the middle and moving up in this sharply detailed color composite, thin, bright, braided filaments are actually long ripples in a cosmic sheet of glowing gas seen almost edge-on. Cataloged as NGC 2736, its elongated appearance suggests its popular name, the Pencil Nebula. The Pencil Nebula is about 5 light-years long and 800 light-years away, but represents only a small part of the Vela supernova remnant. The Vela remnant itself is around 100 light-years in diameter, the expanding debris cloud of a star that was seen to explode about 11,000 years ago. Initially, the shock wave was moving at millions of kilometers per hour but has slowed considerably, sweeping up surrounding interstellar material. In the featured narrow-band, wide field image, red and blue colors track, primarily, the characteristic glows of ionized hydrogen and oxygen atoms, respectively. Portal Universe: Random APOD Generator

Photo by Utkarsh Mishra

Where are you now,
my elusive friend.
Was it something I said,
from which you ran?
Tell me, please tell me
for this life will soon end.
An end of friendship, my dear friend.

A sound,
a noise,
a smell
of decay,
as our
earthly body's
life ebbs,
from our soul
and will
be what,
becomes now,
in our
own dismay.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

How fast do elementary particles wobble? A surprising answer to this seemingly inconsequential question came out of Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, USA in 2001, and indicated that the Standard Model of Particle Physics, adopted widely in physics, is incomplete. Specifically, the muon, a particle with similarities to a heavy electron, has had its relatively large wobble under scrutiny in a series of experiments known as g-2 (gee-minus-two). The Brookhaven result galvanized other experimental groups around the world to confirm it, and pressured theorists to better understand it. Reporting in last week, the most sensitive muon wobble experiment yet, conducted at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Illinois and pictured here, agreed with the Brookhaven result. The unexpected wobble rate may indicate that an ever-present sea of virtual particles includes types not currently known. Alternatively, it may indicate that flaws exist in difficult theoretical prediction calculations. Future runs at Fermilab's g-2 experiment will further increase precision and, possibly, the statistical difference between the universe we measure and the universe we understand.

https://www.indigostormphotography.com

Whence came you,
oh, forgotten one.
Is it true you were,
the eldest Son
of one who was
from the very best.
The largest Star,
living in the West?
Tell me now,
will you please,
for I am in prayer,
down on my knees.