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NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

This stunning infrared image was released one year ago as the James Webb Space Telescope began its exploration of the cosmos. The view of the early Universe toward the southern constellation Volans was achieved in 12.5 hours of exposure with Webb's NIRCam instrument. Of course the stars with six spikes are well within our own Milky Way. Their diffraction pattern is characteristic of Webb's 18 hexagonal mirror segments operating together as a single 6.5 meter diameter primary mirror. The thousands of galaxies flooding the field of view are members of the distant galaxy cluster SMACS0723-73, some 4.6 billion light-years away. Luminous arcs that seem to infest the deep field are even more distant galaxies though. Their images are distorted and magnified by the dark matter dominated mass of the galaxy cluster, an effect known as gravitational lensing. Analyzing light from two separate arcs below the bright spiky star, Webb's NIRISS instrument indicates the arcs are both images of the same background galaxy. And that galaxy's light took about 9.5 billion years to reach the James Webb Space Telescope.

Berthe Morisot - Berthe Marie Pauline Morisot (1841 – 1895) was a French painter and a member of the circle of painters in Paris who became known as the Impressionists. Morisot was married to Eugène Manet, the brother of her friend and colleague Édouard Manet. She was described by art critic Gustave Geffroy in 1894 as one of "les trois grandes dames" (The three great ladies) of Impressionism alongside Marie Bracquemond and Mary Cassatt.

"The recent transformation of the state’s election laws explicitly enabled citizens to file unlimited challenges to other voters’ registrations. Experts warn that election officials’ handling of some of those challenges may clash with federal law" More at ProPublica ➜

Am I losing my mind?
Can it possibly be,
I'm losing my grip
on my own sanity?

I am emotional,
when an old song, I hear,
twists my old heart,
as my eyes form a tear.

If love comes to you,
don't push it away.
Savor the feeling,
'til the end of your day.

Love may appear
in many ways,
knowing not what it is,
creates an emotional haze.

Accept willingly, all the love
you receive,
it will be important later,
when you must grieve.

Western the lights,
at the end of the day.
Sun shrouds feelings,
nights, on its way.

Twilight, a great one,
to release or to play.
Stay with me tonight,
please don't go away.

Soft were the rays,
when the East wind blew,
remembrances of my love
for only you.

We all need love,
it's not running away,
when you express love,
but home you will stay.

How much joy
is left in my heart,
after all the disease,
has taken us apart?

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Comet C/2023 E1 (ATLAS) was just spotted in March, another comet found by the NASA funded Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System. On July 1 this Comet ATLAS reached perihelion, its closest approach to the Sun. Shortly afterwards the telescopic comet was captured in this frame sporting a pretty greenish coma and faint, narrow ion tail against a background of stars in the far northern constellation Ursa Minor. This comet's closest approach to Earth is still to come though. On August 18 this visitor to the inner Solar System will be a mere 3 light-minutes or so from our fair planet. Based on its inclination to the ecliptic plane and orbital period of about 85 years C/2023 E1 (ATLAS) is considered a Halley-type comet.

Photo by Dan Bartlett

Fiber is your body’s natural guide to weight management – rather than cutting carbs out of your diet, eat them in their original fiber packaging instead  More at The Conversation ➜