Photo shared by Heather Cox Richardson from Letters from an American

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

In 185 AD, Chinese astronomers recorded the appearance of a new star in the Nanmen asterism. That part of the sky is identified with Alpha and Beta Centauri on modern star charts. The new star was visible for months and is thought to be the earliest recorded supernova. This deep image shows emission nebula RCW 86, understood to be the remnant of that stellar explosion. The narrowband data trace gas ionized by the still expanding shock wave. Space-based images indicate an abundance of the element iron and lack of a neutron star or pulsar in the remnant, suggesting that the original supernova was Type Ia. Unlike the core collapse supernova explosion of a massive star, a Type Ia supernova is a thermonuclear detonation on a a white dwarf star that accretes material from a companion in a binary star system. Near the plane of our Milky Way galaxy and larger than a full moon on the sky this supernova remnant is too faint to be seen by eye though. RCW 86 is some 8,000 light-years distant and around 100 light-years across.

Photo by Martin Pugh

Brown the ground,
beneath my feet.
Grass all dead
where we did meet,
on trodden soil
with roots beneath
the sod of years
of the old growth.

All those things we did before
have gone, here no more.
Memories we cherished, dear
have left and no longer here.

Black as night
blue, green sheen
of feathered coat,
smart not mean.
A noble bird
of any scene
was it a vision
or just a dream?

When Winter Winds
cease to be.
When Spring winds
chase the chill,
Summer winds scorch
the Earth,
as timbers parched,
raise their limbs
to escape the heat,
awaiting Winter snows..

A Lack of truth,
in our World today,
brings on the need
to begin the play
of words and acts
to set the stage
for one another.
Don't ask.me
I'm not your Mother

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Like Earth's moon, Saturn's largest moon Titan is locked in synchronous rotation. This mosaic of images recorded by the Cassini spacecraft in May of 2012 shows its anti-Saturn side, the side always facing away from the ringed gas giant. The only moon in the solar system with a dense atmosphere, Titan is the only solar system world besides Earth known to have standing bodies of liquid on its surface and an earthlike cycle of liquid rain and evaporation. Its high altitude layer of atmospheric haze is evident in the Cassini view of the 5,000 kilometer diameter moon over Saturn's rings and cloud tops. Near center is the dark dune-filled region known as Shangri-La. The Cassini-delivered Huygens probe rests below and left of center, after the most distant landing for a spacecraft from Earth.

Forever, more.
A word
More than ever.
Resolves the ills
Of the World.
Commitment to
A cause
Forever.
Enduring to you,
As devotion

A lost love.
A failed dream.
How could fate,
Be this mean?
Dreams die hard
As was seen
When memories left
No room between,
Left of center,
Fat or lean.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Magnificent spiral galaxy NGC 4565 is viewed edge-on from planet Earth. Also known as the Needle Galaxy for its narrow profile, bright NGC 4565 is a stop on many telescopic tours of the northern sky, in the faint but well-groomed constellation Coma Berenices. This sharp, colorful image reveals the galaxy's boxy, bulging central core cut by obscuring dust lanes that lace NGC 4565's thin galactic plane. NGC 4565 itself lies about 40 million light-years distant and spans some 100,000 light-years. Easily spotted with small telescopes, sky enthusiasts consider NGC 4565 to be a prominent celestial masterpiece Messier missed.

Photo by Michael Sherick