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NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

It was a new year, and the sky was doubly red. The new year meant that the Earth had returned to its usual place in its orbit on January 1, a place a few days before its closest approach to the Sun. The first of the two red skyglows, on the left, was a red aurora, complete with vertical rays, caused by a blast from the Sun pushing charged particles into Earth's atmosphere. The second red glow, most prominent on the far right, was possibly a SAR arc caused by a river of charged particles flowing across Earth's atmosphere. Although both appear red, the slight color difference is likely due to the aurora being emitted by both oxygen and nitrogen, whereas the higher SAR arc was possibly emitted more purely by atmospheric oxygen. The featured image was taken on January 1 from near Pieve di Cadore in Italy. Portal Universe: Random APOD Generator

Photo by Alessandra Masi

Night view of the Széchenyi Chain Bridge from Buda Castle in Budapest, Hungary.

Wilfredor, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

"...Rebuilding trust in insurance won’t be easy, but it’s essential. Insurance is the great protector of financial security for the American middle class, but only when it works. As the recent reaction demonstrates, it needs to work better. The insurance industry won’t change by itself; the financial pressures on insurers from increasing losses and fierce market competition are too great." More at The Conversation ➜

This is taken from my backyard bird collection. This bird is a constant visitor and likes the suite feeder I have hanging out. Occasionally he will look in the window and stare down the cat, who moves away from the window when this happens.

Bruce Jastrow on Unsplash

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Billions of years from now, only one of these two galaxies will remain. Until then, spiral galaxies NGC 2207 and IC 2163 will slowly pull each other apart, creating tides of matter, sheets of shocked gas, lanes of dark dust, bursts of star formation, and streams of cast-away stars. The featured image in scientifically assigned colors is a composite of Hubble exposures in visible light and Webb exposures in infrared light. Astronomers predict that NGC 2207, the larger galaxy on the right, will eventually incorporate IC 2163, the smaller galaxy on the left. In the most recent encounter that about peaked 40 million years ago, the smaller galaxy is swinging around counter-clockwise and is now slightly behind the larger galaxy. The space between stars is so vast that when galaxies collide, the stars in them usually do not collide. Jigsaw Challenge: Astronomy Puzzle of the Day

Maya Angelou (1928-2014) American writer, poet, singer, and civil rights activist

Back when the neighbors had dairy cows, we used to get our milk direct from the udder. Unpasteurized, no growth hormone, no antibiotic whole milk. Course, back then we were told by the FDA and the food scientists that this would increase our chances of heart disease and diabetes. But …! If we took a baby aspirin a day, we could lessen those chances. Sort of like driving over the speed limit but wearing a seat belt. You get in a wreck, you might survive..... More at The Skeeter Daddle Diaries ➜

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Have you ever seen a rocket launch -- from space? A close inspection of the featured time-lapse video will reveal a rocket rising to Earth orbit as seen from the International Space Station (ISS). The Russian Soyuz-FG rocket was launched in November 2018 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying a Progress MS-10 (also 71P) module to bring needed supplies to the ISS. Highlights in the 90-second video (condensing about 15-minutes) include city lights and clouds visible on the Earth on the lower left, blue and gold bands of atmospheric airglow running diagonally across the center, and distant stars on the upper right that set behind the Earth. A lower stage can be seen falling back to Earth as the robotic supply ship fires its thrusters and begins to close on the ISS, a space laboratory that celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2023. Astronauts who live aboard the Earth-orbiting ISS conduct, among more practical duties, numerous science experiments that expand human knowledge and enable future commercial industry in low Earth orbit.