Contributor Posts

Gjipe Beach, Albania. Today is Albania's Independence Day.

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

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

How different are these two streaks? The streak on the upper right is Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas showing an impressive dust tail. The comet is a large and dirty iceberg that entered the inner Solar System and is shedding gas and dust as it is warmed by the Sun's light. The streak on the lower left is a meteor showing an impressive evaporation trail. The meteor is a small and cold rock that entered the Earth's atmosphere and is shedding gas and dust as it is warmed by molecular collisions. The meteor was likely once part of a comet or asteroid -- perhaps later composing part of its tail. The meteor was gone in a flash and was only caught by coincidence during a series of exposures documenting the comet's long tail. The featured image was captured just over a month ago from Sichuan Province in China. Gallery: Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS in 2024

Photo by Wang Hao; Processing: Song Wentao

Eruption of Strokkur (Icelandic for "churn"), a fountain geyser located in the Haukadalur geothermal area, southwest of Iceland.

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

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

This floating ring is the size of a galaxy. In fact, it is a galaxy -- or at least part of one: the photogenic Sombrero Galaxy is one of the largest galaxies in the nearby Virgo Cluster of Galaxies. The dark band of dust that obscures the mid-section of the Sombrero Galaxy in visible light (bottom panel) actually glows brightly in infrared light (top panel). The featured image shows the infrared glow in false blue, recorded recently by the space-based James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and released yesterday, pictured above an archival image taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope in visible light. The Sombrero Galaxy, also known as M104, spans about 50,000 light years and lies 28 million light years away. M104 can be seen with a small telescope in the direction of the constellation Virgo.

Sika deer (Cervus nippon) in Halileo's Dacha Nature Reserve, Ternopil Oblast, Ukraine.

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

"Medicare Advantage – the commercial alternative to traditional Medicare that promised to cost less, is drawing down federal health care funds, costing taxpayers an extra 22% per enrollee to the tune of US$83 billion a year." More at The Conversation ➜

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

One of the most identifiable nebulas in the sky, the Horsehead Nebula in Orion, is part of a large, dark, molecular cloud. Also known as Barnard 33, the unusual shape was first discovered on a photographic plate in the late 1800s. The red glow originates from hydrogen gas predominantly behind the nebula, ionized by the nearby bright star Sigma Orionis. The darkness of the Horsehead is caused mostly by thick dust, although the lower part of the Horsehead's neck casts a shadow to the left. Streams of gas leaving the nebula are funneled by a strong magnetic field. Bright spots in the Horsehead Nebula's base are young stars just in the process of forming. Light takes about 1,500 years to reach us from the Horsehead Nebula. The featured image was taken from the Chilescope Observatory in the mountains of Chile.

Photo by Alex Lin (Chilescope)

Papaya fruits in a grocery store. Colatina, Espírito Santo, Brazil.

ArionStar, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.