NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

How do stars form? To help find out, astronomers created this tantalizing false-color composition of dust clouds and embedded newborn stars in infrared wavelengths with WISE, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. The cosmic canvas features one of the closest star forming regions, part of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex some 400 light-years distant near the southern edge of the pronounceable constellation Ophiuchus. After forming along a large cloud of cold molecular hydrogen gas, young stars heat the surrounding dust to produce the infrared glow. Stars in the process of formation, called young stellar objects or YSOs, are embedded in the compact pinkish nebulae seen here, but are otherwise hidden from the prying eyes of optical telescopes. An exploration of the region in penetrating infrared light has detected emerging and newly formed stars whose average age is estimated to be a mere 300,000 years. That's extremely young compared to the Sun's age of 5 billion years. The prominent reddish nebula at the lower right surrounding the star Sigma Scorpii is a reflection nebula produced by dust scattering starlight. This view from WISE, released in 2012, spans almost 2 degrees and covers about 14 light-years at the estimated distance of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud.

Victor Hugo (1802 - 1885) French poet, novelist, and dramatist. He is considered to be one of the greatest French writers. 

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Grand tidal streams of stars seem to surround galaxy NGC 5907. The arcing structures form tenuous loops extending more than 150,000 light-years from the narrow, edge-on spiral, also known as the Splinter or Knife Edge Galaxy. Recorded only in very deep exposures, the streams likely represent the ghostly trail of a dwarf galaxy - debris left along the orbit of a smaller satellite galaxy that was gradually torn apart and merged with NGC 5907 over four billion years ago. Ultimately this remarkable discovery image, from a small robotic observatory in New Mexico, supports the cosmological scenario in which large spiral galaxies, including our own Milky Way, were formed by the accretion of smaller ones. NGC 5907 lies about 40 million light-years distant in the northern constellation Draco.

Photo by R Jay Gabany

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

A star cluster around 2 million years young surrounded by natal clouds of dust and glowing gas, M16 is also known as The Eagle Nebula. This beautifully detailed portrait of the region was made with groundbased narrow and broadband image data. It includes cosmic sculptures made famous in Hubble Space Telescope close-ups of the starforming complex. Described as elephant trunks or Pillars of Creation, dense, dusty columns rising near the center are light-years in length but are gravitationally contracting to form stars. Energetic radiation from the cluster stars erodes material near the tips, eventually exposing the embedded new stars. Extending from the ridge of bright emission at lower left is another dusty starforming column known as the Fairy of Eagle Nebula. M16 lies about 7,000 light-years away, an easy target for binoculars or small telescopes in a nebula rich part of the sky toward the split constellation Serpens Cauda (the tail of the snake).

Photo by Martin Pugh

I am so small inside this big house
for here I am a little furry mouse.
My fur is shiny and the intent
is to keep me warm and the portent.
I'm a nocturnal creature and out at night,
as I do not want to give humans a fright.
How can anyone scream and others cry
for I am harmless, so sayeth I.
If you catch me in a humane trap
please put me outside in the rain.
I thank you ahead, if this happens to me
and hope that you will set me free.

a boulder
river rock ashine
pebbles

Recipe and Instructions  for this delicious Slow Cooker Beef Chili - by Dusty Hutchins-McNutt creator of Cooking Mamas https://www.cookingmamas.com

Course: Entrée
Cuisine: American
Skill Level: Easy

Servings: 8 cups

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs. lean ground beef
1 (16 oz.) can tomato sauce
1 (15 oz.) can dark red kidney beans rinsed
1 (15 oz.) can light red kidney beans rinsed
1 1/2 c. thick and chunky mild salsa
1 c. frozen corn thawed, drained
1 onion chopped
2 T. chili powder
1 c. finely shredded Mexican style four cheese blend

Instructions

Brown ground beef; drain off excess grease.
Add to slow cooker with remaining ingredients except cheese; stir to combine.
Cover with lid. Cook on LOW 5 to 6 hours OR on HIGH 3 to 4 hours.
Stir just before serving. Serve topped with shredded cheese

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

On November 11, 2019 the Sun was mostly quiet, experiencing a minimum in its 11 year cycle of activity. In fact, the only spot visible was actually planet Mercury, making a leisurely 5 1/2 hour transit in front of the calm solar disk. About 1/200th the apparent diameter of the Sun, the silhouette of the solar system's inner most planet is near center in this sharp, full Sun snapshot. Taken with a hydrogen alpha filter and safe solar telescope, the image also captures prominences around the solar limb, the glowing plasma trapped in arcing magnetic fields. Of course, only inner planets Mercury and Venus can transit the Sun to appear in silhouette when viewed from planet Earth. Following its transit in 2016, this was Mercury's 4th of 14 transits across the solar disk in the 21st century. The next transit of Mercury will be on November 13, 2032.

Photo by John Chumack