Contributor Posts

Humoristic cartoon from Puck on the establishment of diplomatic relations between Greece and Persia. In 499 BC, the Persian Achaemenid Empire tried unsuccessfully to conquer various ancient Greek city-states. Finally in 449 BC a de facto peace was concluded and the Greco-Persian Wars effectively ended, but the two sides refused to have any relations. In 1902, Mozaffar ad-Din Shah of Persia and George I of Greece agreed to de jure recognition and after 2393 years established diplomatic relations.

Samuel D. Ehrhart, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

                      "The cycle of seasons, the tidals of man,
                       Revolve in the orb of the infinite plan;
                       We move to the rhythm of ages long done,
                       And each has his hour — to dwell in the sun!"

This is the last stanza of the poem "Hope" by Georgia Douglas Johnson, published in 1917. Read the full poem 

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Is this what will become of our Sun? Quite possibly. The first hint of our Sun's future was discovered inadvertently in 1764. At that time, Charles Messier was compiling a list of diffuse objects not to be confused with comets. The 27th object on Messier's list, now known as M27 or the Dumbbell Nebula, is a planetary nebula, one of the brightest planetary nebulas on the sky and visible with binoculars toward the constellation of the Fox (Vulpecula). It takes light about 1000 years to reach us from M27, featured here in colors emitted by sulfur (red), hydrogen (green) and oxygen (blue). We now know that in about 6 billion years, our Sun will shed its outer gases into a planetary nebula like M27, while its remaining center will become an X-ray hot white dwarf star. Understanding the physics and significance of M27 was well beyond 18th century science, though. Even today, many things remain mysterious about planetary nebulas, including how their intricate shapes are created. APOD Year in Review: Night Sky Network Presentation for 2024

Photo by Christopher Stobie

Wedge-tailed grass finch (Emberizoides herbicola) in Terenos, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil.

Jairmoreirafotografia, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

Cornelia Arnolda Johanna "Corrie" Ten Boom (1892 – 1983) was a Dutch watchmaker, resistance hero and later a Christian writer and public speaker. Her most famous book, The Hiding Place, is a biography that recounts the story of her family's efforts to help many Jewish people escape from the Nazis during World War II, and how after she was caught, arrested and sent to a concentration camp she found and shared hope in God while she was imprisoned.
Quote source: Corrie Ten Boom, Clippings from My Notebook  

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What are these bubbles frozen into Lake Baikal? Methane. Lake Baikal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Russia, is the world's largest (by volume), oldest, and deepest lake, containing over 20% of the world's fresh water. The lake is also a vast storehouse of methane, a greenhouse gas that, if released, could potentially increase the amount of infrared light absorbed by Earth's atmosphere, and so increase the average temperature of the entire planet. Fortunately, the amount of methane currently bubbling out is not climatologically important. It is not clear what would happen, though, were temperatures to significantly increase in the region, or if the water level in Lake Baikal were to drop. Pictured, bubbles of rising methane froze during winter into the exceptionally clear ice covering the lake. Jigsaw Challenge: Astronomy Puzzle of the Day

Photo by Kristina Makeeva

Interior of the Canterbury Cathedral. Thomas Becket was martyred at the altar on this date in 1170. Today is Thomas Becket's feast day.

Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Orion seems to come up sideways, climbing over a distant mountain range in this deep skyscape. The wintry scene was captured from southern Poland on the northern hemisphere's long solstice night. Otherwise unseen nebulae hang in the sky, revealed by the camera modified to record red hydrogen-alpha light. The nebulae lie near the edge of the Orion molecular cloud and join the Hunter's familiar belt stars and bright giants Betelgeuse and Rigel. Eye of Taurus the Bull, yellowish Aldebaran anchors the V-shaped Hyades star cluster near top center. Still, near opposition in planet Earth's sky, the Solar System's ruling gas giant Jupiter is the brightest celestial beacon above this horizon's snowy peaks.

Photo by Włodzimierz Bubak

Satellite picture of the Etna volcano erupting in eastern Sicily (Italy) in December 2018.

NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Text by Kasha Patel., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.