Magazine Posts

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

The Mars Ingenuity Helicopter, all four landing legs down, was captured here on sol 39 (March 30) slung beneath the belly of the Perseverance rover. The near ground level view is a mosaic of images from the WATSON camera on the rover's SHERLOC robotic arm. Near the center of the frame the experimental helicopter is suspended just a few centimeters above the martian surface. Tracks from Perseverance extend beyond the rover's wheels with the rim of Jezero crater visible about 2 kilometers in the distance. Ingenuity has a weight of 1.8 kilograms or 4 pounds on Earth. That corresponds to a weight of 0.68 kilograms or 1.5 pounds on Mars. With rotor blades spanning 1.2 meters it will attempt to make the first powered flight of an aircraft on another planet in the thin martian atmosphere, 1 percent as dense as Earth's, no earlier than April 11.

A golden, yellow curve entwines,
amongst the Tulip petals.
Tulip flowers; the delicate curve
of a Lover's breast, standing
with stems erect, as if in prayer,
as they genuflect among
the grey-green altar leaves.
Long is the beauty, visions to be
of Spring flowers, showing their
wares against the Grape Hyacinth
and golden Daffodils.

The Moon is ashine,
beams sifting
through the clouds below.
A silver color; a fine wine,
reflects on all it touches,
for the Worlds to see.
A night without a Moon,
is not where I will be.

I rise in the morning.
I am still half asleep.
I must begin moving.
I have promises to keep.

Life is like a sheep's,
lost deep in the herd.
Deep in the crowd,
a voice won't be heard.
Speak out now, for you must,
as the time will pass by
and our thoughts will be dust.

Where are the words
stuck in my head?
Why are they missing?
Is this a new process,
something I should dread
or is it a reason,
these words shouldn't be said;
not put to paper,
where they can be read?

Words, words, words.
Ah the wonders,
we read today,
as others will write
of the mood
now in play.
Tell me please,
what can be done,
so we can appease,
the hate of another,
who looks not
like me?

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Gorgeous spiral galaxy NGC 3521 is a mere 35 million light-years away, toward the constellation Leo. Relatively bright in planet Earth's sky, NGC 3521 is easily visible in small telescopes but often overlooked by amateur imagers in favor of other Leo spiral galaxies, like M66 and M65. It's hard to overlook in this colorful cosmic portr

Photo by Eric Benson

How wide the road,
how narrow the trail,
when the Pony Express,
delivered the U. S. Mail.

At the end of the street of broken dreams,
awaits the fate of this life's scene.
The end of the road; the end of time.
It will be the last Auld Lang Sine.

Watered down words,
was what I heard.
A "white" lie,
bordering on absurd.
Vaccines for all.
Do it soon,
on April 15
before it's noon.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Have you ever seen a rocket launch -- from space? A close inspection of the featured time-lapse video will reveal a rocket rising to Earth orbit as seen from the International Space Station (ISS). The Russian Soyuz-FG rocket was launched in November 2018 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying a Progress MS-10 (also 71P) module to bring needed supplies to the ISS. Highlights in the 90-second video (condensing about 15-minutes) include city lights and clouds visible on the Earth on the lower left, blue and gold bands of atmospheric airglow running diagonally across the center, and distant stars on the upper right that set behind the Earth. A lower stage can be seen falling back to Earth as the robotic supply ship fires its thrusters and begins to close on the ISS, a space laboratory that celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2018. Astronauts who live aboard the Earth-orbiting ISS conduct, among more practical duties, numerous science experiments that expand human knowledge and enable future commercial industry in low Earth orbit.