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Looking through these three windows on history reminds us that while the tools of civilization evolve, the human story continues to be driven by many of the same hopes, challenges, and ambitions that have shaped every generation. Continue reading

Wulfenite crystals with calcite, found in the Erupción Mine, Sierra de Los Lamentos, Ahumada Municipality, Chihuahua, Mexico.

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

 By Marc Hastenteufel on Unsplash 

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

In an interplanetary first, on July 19, 2013 Earth was photographed on the same day from two other worlds of the Solar System, innermost planet Mercury and ringed gas giant Saturn. Pictured on the left, Earth is the pale blue dot just below the rings of Saturn, as captured by the robotic Cassini spacecraft then orbiting the outermost gas giant. On that same day people across planet Earth snapped many of their own pictures of Saturn. On the right, the Earth-Moon system is seen against the dark background of space as captured by the sunward MESSENGER spacecraft, then in Mercury orbit. MESSENGER took its image as part of a search for small natural satellites of Mercury, moons that would be expected to be quite dim. In the MESSENGER image, the brighter Earth and Moon are both overexposed and shine brightly with reflected sunlight. Destined not to return to their home world, both Cassini and MESSENGER have since retired from their missions of Solar System exploration.

An image of the Immaculate Heart of Mary on a stained-glass window located in a church in St. Peters, Missouri. Today is the feast day of the Immaculate Heart in the Roman Catholic Church.

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

By Jonathan Lampel on Unsplash

Captured with Canon EOS REBEL T4i.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

To see Venus and Jupiter together this month, you won't need binoculars or even a telescope. Just look up after sunset and you'll find them emerging as the sky grows dark near the western horizon. In fact, on June 9 the two brightest planets were in close conjunction, separated on the sky by less than 2 degrees from our perspective. Since (brighter) inner planet Venus orbits the Sun faster than outer planet Jupiter, it catches up with and passes the outer planet along the ecliptic roughly every 13 months. But every three years or so their resulting conjunction can be viewed far enough from the Sun to be easily seen in Earth's twilight skies. On June 9, the two celestial beacon's close "cosmic kiss" was captured here next to the two large standing stones at the cove within a 4,000 year old stone circle at Avebury, UK. Larger than Stonehenge, the Avebury henge and stone circle complex is also recognized as one of the most significant neolithic ceremonial sites on planet Earth.

Photo by Josh Dury

A memorial to victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting in front the Stonewall Inn in New York City. On June 12, 2016, a terrorist shot and killed 49 people and wounded 53 more in a mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, USA.

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

Anaïs Nin (1903-1977) French-American diarist, essayist, novelist, and writer.