Magazine Posts

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What's behind Betelgeuse? One of the brighter and more unusual stars in the sky, the red supergiant star Betelgeuse can be found in the direction of famous constellation Orion. Betelgeuse, however, is actually well in front of many of the constellation's other bright stars, and also in front of the greater Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. Numerically, light takes about 700 years to reach us from Betelgeuse, but about 1,300 years to reach us from the Orion Nebula and its surrounding dust and gas. All but the largest telescopes see Betelgeuse as only a point of light, but a point so bright that the inherent blurriness created by the telescope and Earth's atmosphere make it seem extended. In the featured long-exposure image, thousands of stars in our Milky Way Galaxy can be seen in the background behind Betelgeuse, as well as dark dust from the Orion Molecular Cloud, and some red-glowing emission from hydrogen gas on the outskirts of the more distant Lambda Orionis Ring. Betelgeuse has recovered from appearing unusually dim over the past six months, but is still expected to explode in a spectacular supernova sometime in the next (about) 100,000 years.

Photo by Adam BlockSteward Observatory, University of Arizona

This writing is just for you,
no one else, to read and say
the words I write on this screen,
makes my mind wake up
to all those things, you do.
If you write a comment
about a line or if this
writing strikes a chord
or rings a bell about an experience
that you recall, then I will succeed
in this writing that you read;
being more about you
and very little about me.

Many thoughts, all meshed
into one,
when will this "Lock up"
ever be done?
It might be for the
older ones,
to remain sequestered until
the virus is done.

We march together,
but die alone,
from life's beginning
until it is done.

When the storm passes
and the roads are tamed,
and we are the survivors
of a collective shipwreck.

With a weeping heart
and a blessed destiny 
we will feel happy
just for being alive.

And we will hug
the first stranger
and praise the luck 
of not having lost a friend.

And then we'll remember
everything we lost
And all at once we will learn
all we had not learned before

We will no longer be envious 
because we have all suffered
We will no longer be lazy
And will be more compassionate 

What belongs to all will be worth more 
than that never achieved
We will be more generous
and much more committed 

We will understand how fragile
it means to be alive.
We will sweat empathy
for who is and who has left.

We will miss the old man
asking for a dollar in the market
we didn't know his name
although he was next to us

And perhaps the poor old man
was your God in disguise.
You never asked for his name
because you were in a hurry.

And everything will be a miracle
And everything will be legacy.
And life will be respected,
the life we have won.

When the storm passes
I ask God, full of sadness 
to return us to be better
as he had dreamed we would be.

Translation of Alexis Valdés  poem "Esperanza" (Hope) written in Spanish in March 2020 about the humanitarian crisis brought "by the Coronavirus and the "hope" of how we will feel when the "Storm Passes" ("Cuando pase la tormenta"  -  Esperanza)

Alexis Valdés is a Cuban composer, singer, musician and poet residing in Miami. Translated by CP

I am reminded of a petulant child,
who's ideas are crazy and wild.
You open your mouth wide
and the lies spew out.
What in this World
are you all about?

Wisdom can become you, as we age.
Your life experience will make you a Sage.
The years go by so quickly,
turn the page.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What's happening to this spiral galaxy? Just a few hundred million years ago, NGC 2936, the upper of the two large galaxies shown, was likely a normal spiral galaxy -- spinning, creating stars -- and minding its own business. But then it got too close to the massive elliptical galaxy NGC 2937 below and took a dive. Dubbed the Porpoise Galaxy for its iconic shape, NGC 2936 is not only being deflected but also being distorted by the close gravitational interaction. A burst of young blue stars forms the nose of the porpoise toward the right of the upper galaxy, while the center of the spiral appears as an eye. Alternatively, the galaxy pair, together known as Arp 142, look to some like a penguin protecting an egg. Either way, intricate dark dust lanes and bright blue star streams trail the troubled galaxy to the lower right. The featured re-processed image showing Arp 142 in unprecedented detail was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope last year. Arp 142 lies about 300 million light years away toward the constellation, coincidently, of the Water Snake (Hydra). In a billion years or so the two galaxies will likely merge into one larger galaxy.

Photo by Raul Villaverde

I sit here alone;
She's next to me.
Alone in my thoughts
of our life's reverie.

She speaks of the
past life of memory,
not of facts but,
"Do you remember?"

The questions she asks,
my mind cannot see,
without more facts;
who or where it might be.

Giving a place or name,
I say back to She;

I don't know comes back to me.
Answers like this or less,
end in each of our own misery.

He rose from the dead
to take care of you,
so on this good day,
that's what he will do.
Stay safe together,
in your abode.
Confess your sins,
as if he strode,
down your lane,
so long of a time,
he could come again
to take care of all,
no matter the twain.

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