Contributor Posts

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 at the bottom, 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, just below, and took a turn. Sometimes dubbed the Hummingbird Galaxy for its iconic shape, NGC 2936 is not only being deflected but also being distorted by the close gravitational interaction. Behind filaments of dark interstellar dust, bright blue stars form the nose of the hummingbird, while the center of the spiral appears as an eye. Alternatively, the galaxy pair, together known as Arp 142, look to some like Porpoise or a penguin protecting an egg. The featured re-processed image showing Arp 142 in great detail was taken recently by the Hubble Space Telescope. Arp 142 lies about 300 million light years away toward the constellation of the Water Snake (Hydra). In a billion years or so the two galaxies will likely merge into one larger galaxy.

I remember the event,
not by date, just a peep.
of saying "Get in the car girls,"
They said, "Get lost you creep."

Those words spoken
to my friends and I,
by my future wife
and her friend. Sigh!

Visiting my wife,
she was asleep,
as it usually is.
Too tired to weep.

Round it up.
Turn it down.
Don't act normal.
Be the Clown.

Enjoy your life,
times running short.
Get it together,
don't abort.

Play hard,
every day.
Do it now or,
it's going away.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What's rising above the horizon behind those clouds? It's the Sun. Most sunrises don't look like this, though, because most sunrises don't include the Moon. In the early morning of 2013 May 10, however, from Western Australia, the Moon was between the Earth and the rising Sun. At times, it would be hard for the uninformed to understand what was happening. In an annular eclipse, the Moon is too far from the Earth to block the entire Sun, and at most leaves a ring of fire where sunlight pours out around every edge of the Moon. The featured time-lapse video also recorded the eclipse through the high refraction of the Earth's atmosphere just above the horizon, making the unusual rising Sun and Moon appear also flattened. As the video continues, the Sun continues to rise, while the Sun and Moon begin to separate. The next annular solar eclipse will occur in less than three weeks. On Saturday, October 14, a ring of fire will be visible through clear skies from a thin swath crossing both North and South America. Tour the Universe: Random APOD Generator

When the rays of the Sun,
bring warmth to the ground,
or the wind in the willows,
stirs branches around,

then I will remember,
through thick and thin,
where I was when
it all would begin.

Why the indifference,
what is the cause,
which creates, not caring?
Is life now on pause?

It won't do,
to run and hide,
they'll still come,
from the other side.

They come at night,
many or a few.
They will keep coming,
and will find you.

A strange occurrence,
last night as I was
making a light snack as
I would do in our home.

I reside in an Independent
living facility while my wife
resides in the memory care
unit, one floor below me.

I heard my wife's voice,
saying," What are you up to?"
It sounded real, but she seldom
speaks.

The emotional impact was instant.
I lost control, my eyes started
leaking. I write this several hours
after it happened and my eyes are
now moist.

I do not like this feeling of
helplessness. The most difficult
activity I have ever dealt with.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

An analemma is that figure-8 curve you get when you mark the position of the Sun at the same time each day for one year. To make this one, a 4x5 pinhole camera was set up looking north in southern New Zealand skies. The shutter was briefly opened each clear day in the afternoon at 4pm local time exposing the same photosensitized glass plate for the year spanning September 23, 2022 to September 19, 2023. On two days, the winter and summer solstices, the shutter was opened again 15 minutes after the main exposure and remained open until sunset to create the sun trails at the bottom and top of the curve. The equinox dates correspond to positions in the middle of the curve, not the crossover point. Of course, the curve itself is inverted compared to an analemma traced from the northern hemisphere. And while fall begins today at the Autumnal Equinox for the northern hemisphere, it's the Spring Equinox in the south.

Photo by Ian Griffin