Contributor Posts

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas is now headed back to the outer Solar System. The massive dusty snowball put on quite a show during its trip near the Sun, resulting in many impressive pictures from planet Earth during October. The featured image was taken in mid-October and shows a defining visual feature of the comet -- its impressive anti-tail. The image captures Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) with impressively long dust and ion tails pointing up and away from the Sun, while the strong anti-tail -- composed of more massive dust particles -- trails the comet and points down and (nearly) toward the recently-set Sun. In the foreground is village of Tai di Cadore, Italy, with the tremendous Dolomite Mountains in the background. Another comet, C/2024 S1 (ATLAS), once a candidate to rival Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas in brightness, broke up last week during its close approach to our Sun. Growing Gallery: Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS in 2024

Photo by Alessandra Masi

Leonardo Pisano Bigollo, also known as Leonardo of Pisa, or simply Fibonacci, (“Filius Bonacci - the son of ”Bonacci") was not the first to think of the sequence and pattern of counting made up of numbers that sum the previous two numbers before them — 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 — and so on. But he was the first to bring it to the European world and bring awareness to its importance in the furthering of science.  The sequence is now used in computing, stock trading, architecture and design. In 1202, Fibonacci published “Liber Abaci” (The Book of Calculation) introducing Europe not only to his now-famous sequence but also to the Hindu-Arabic base 10, numeral system, which by the 15th century replaced the Roman numeral system, revolutionized math, and is in use today in most of the world although some countries still rely on their traditional numeral system for specific purposes.

The sequence itself first appeared in Indian Mathematics, known as Virahanka numbers, and was connected with Sanskrit prosody. The number sequence is also tied to the golden ratio and the golden triangle, both of which appear again and again in nature, as does the sequence itself. It is in the most fundamental of things, from the petals of the yellow chamomile to the complex and seemingly random branching of a tree’s limbs. These are just a few. The Fibonacci sequence is everywhere. Video

November 23 is the date chosen by some to celebrate as Fibonacci day, because when the date is written in the mm/dd format (11/23), the digits forms a Fibonacci sequence: 1,1,2,3. Fibonacci was a very important mathematician and that date may remind us to take the opportunity to marvel at the way math pervades everything around us. The Fibonacci sequence can be used to calculate the proportions of countless things on Earth and beyond, such as animals, plants, weather patterns, and even galaxies. Pause to observe your surroundings and you’ll start to notice the familiar spiral all around you. Leonardo Bonacci was born to an Italian merchant and customs official working in in North Africa, modern-day Algeria, It was there when living with his father, that Fibonacci learned Hindu-Arabic numerals. It is believed that Fibonacci died sometime between 1240 and 1250 in Pisa, Italy. More

Note: Fibonacci' Liber abaci book, contains the respectful quote: "If by chance I have omitted anything more or less proper or necessary, I beg forgiveness, since there is no one who is without fault and circumspect in all matters".

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Why were the statues on Easter Island built? No one is sure. What is sure is that over 900 large stone statues called moais exist there. The Rapa Nui (Easter Island) moais stand, on average, over twice as tall as a person and have over 200 times as much mass. It is thought that the unusual statues were created about 600 years ago in the images of local leaders of a vibrant and ancient civilization. Rapa Nui has been declared by UNESCO to a World Heritage Site. Pictured here, some of the stone giants were imaged last month under the central band of our Milky Way galaxy. Previously unknown moais are still being discovered. Alternative Multi-APOD Front Page: MyUniverseHub.com

Photo by Josh Dury

"The Catholic Church still governs the care that can be delivered to millions in those hospitals each year, using religious directives to ban abortions and limit contraceptives, in vitro fertilization, and medical aid in dying......over time, focus on margins led the hospitals to transform into behemoths that operate for-profit subsidiaries and pay their executives millions, according to hospital tax filings" More at KFF Health News ➜

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

The Great Nebula in Orion, an immense, nearby starbirth region, is probably the most famous of all astronomical nebulas. Here, glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an immense interstellar molecular cloud only 1500 light-years away. In the featured deep image in assigned colors highlighted by emission in oxygen and hydrogen, wisps and sheets of dust and gas are particularly evident. The Great Nebula in Orion can be found with the unaided eye near the easily identifiable belt of three stars in the popular constellation Orion. In addition to housing a bright open cluster of stars known as the Trapezium, the Orion Nebula contains many stellar nurseries. These nurseries contain much hydrogen gas, hot young stars, proplyds, and stellar jets spewing material at high speeds. Also known as M42, the Orion Nebula spans about 40 light years and is located in the same spiral arm of our Galaxy as the Sun.

Photo by Fényes Lóránd

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What's that black spot on Jupiter? No one is sure. During one pass of NASA's Juno over Jupiter, the robotic spacecraft imaged an usually dark cloud feature informally dubbed the Abyss. Surrounding cloud patterns show the Abyss to be at the center of a vortex. Since dark features on Jupiter's atmosphere tend to run deeper than light features, the Abyss may really be the deep hole that it appears -- but without more evidence that remains conjecture. The Abyss is surrounded by a complex of meandering clouds and other swirling storm systems, some of which are topped by light colored, high-altitude clouds. The featured image was captured in 2019 while Juno passed only about 15,000 kilometers above Jupiter's cloud tops. The next close pass of Juno near Jupiter will be in about three weeks.