Tag: #FreeReitschuster

M27: The Dumbbell Nebula

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What will become of our Sun? The first hint of our Sun’s future was discovered inadvertently in 1764. At that time, Charles Messier was compiling a list of diffuse objects not to be confused with comets. The 27th object on Messier’s list, now known as M27 or the Dumbbell Nebula, is a planetary nebula, one of the brightest planetary nebulae on the sky — and visible toward the constellation of the Fox (Vulpecula) with binoculars. It takes light about 1000 years to reach us from M27, featured here in colors emitted by hydrogen and oxygen. We now know that in about 6 billion years, our Sun will shed its outer gases into a planetary nebula like M27, while its remaining center will become an X-ray hot white dwarf star. Understanding the physics and significance of M27 was well beyond 18th century science, though. Even today, many things remain mysterious about planetary nebulas, including how their intricate shapes are created. via NASA https://ift.tt/3hwt9lf

Wikipedia article of the day for July 12, 2021

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Wikipedia article of the day is National Union of Freedom Fighters. Check it out: Article-Link Summary: The National Union of Freedom Fighters (NUFF) was an armed Marxist revolutionary group in Trinidad and Tobago. The group fought a guerrilla campaign to overthrow the government of Prime Minister Eric Williams following the failed 1970 Black Power uprising and a mutiny in the Trinidad and Tobago Regiment. NUFF formed from the Western United Liberation Front, a loose grouping of largely unemployed men from the western suburbs of Port of Spain. NUFF drew disaffected members of the National Joint Action Committee, a Black Power organisation, and established a training camp in south Trinidad. In 1972 and 1973 NUFF attacked police posts to acquire weapons, robbed banks, and carried out an insurgent campaign against the government. With improved intelligence capabilities, the government eventually killed or captured most of its leadership. Eighteen NUFF members and three policemen were killed over the course of the insurgency. NUFF was anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist and was notable for the extent to which women played an active role in the organisation, including among its guerrilla fighters.

Find the Moon

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Where’s the Moon? Somewhere in this image, the Earth’s Moon is hiding. The entire Moon is visible, in its completely full phase, in plain sight. Even the photographer’s keen eye couldn’t find it even though he knew exactly where to look — only the long exposure of his camera picked it up — barely. Although by now you might be congratulating yourself on finding it, why was it so difficult to see? For one reason, this photograph was taken during a total lunar eclipse, when the Earth’s shadow made the Moon much dimmer than a normal full Moon. For another, the image, taken in Colorado, USA, was captured just before sunrise. With the Moon on the exact opposite side of the sky from the Sun, this meant that the Sun was just below the horizon, but still slightly illuminating the sky. Last, as the Moon was only about two degrees above the horizon, the large volume of air between the camera and the horizon scattered a lot of light away from the background Moon. Twelve minutes after this image was acquired in 2012, the Sun peeked over the horizon and the Moon set. via NASA https://ift.tt/3r1kdaM

Wikipedia article of the day for July 11, 2021

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Wikipedia article of the day is Plants vs. Zombies (video game). Check it out: Article-Link Summary: Plants vs. Zombies is a 2009 tower defense video game developed and published by PopCap Games. First released for Windows and Mac OS X, the game has since been ported to consoles, handhelds, and mobile devices. In Plants vs. Zombies, the player takes the role of a homeowner in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. As a horde of zombies approaches along several parallel lanes, the player must defend the home by putting down plants, which fire projectiles at the zombies or otherwise detrimentally affect them. The game was designed by George Fan (pictured) as a sequel to Insaniquarium. Fan took inspiration from the games Magic: The Gathering and Warcraft III and the movie Swiss Family Robinson. The game was positively received by critics and was nominated for multiple awards. It quickly became the best-selling game developed by PopCap Games. Plants vs. Zombies was followed by a series of games after the acquisition of PopCap Games by Electronic Arts.

Mercury and the Da Vinci Glow

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On July 8th early morning risers saw Mercury near an old Moon low on the eastern horizon. On that date bright planet, faint glow of lunar night side, and sunlit crescent were captured in this predawn skyscape from Tenerife’s Teide National Park in the Canary Islands. Never far from the Sun in planet Earth’s sky, the fleeting inner planet shines near its brightest in the morning twilight scene. Mercury lies just below the zeta star of the constellation Taurus, Zeta Tauri, near the tip of the celestial bull’s horn. Of course the Moon’s ashen glow is earthshine, earthlight reflected from the Moon’s night side. A description of earthshine, in terms of sunlight reflected by Earth’s oceans illuminating the Moon’s dark surface, was written over 500 years ago by Leonardo da Vinci. Waiting for the coming dawn in the foreground are the Teide Observatory’s sentinels of the Sun, also known as (large domes left to right) the THEMIS, VTT, and GREGOR solar telescopes. via NASA https://ift.tt/3AQHHnt

Wikipedia article of the day for July 10, 2021

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Wikipedia article of the day is MAX Orange Line. Check it out: Article-Link Summary: The MAX Orange Line is a light rail service in Portland, Oregon, United States, operated by TriMet as part of the MAX Light Rail system. It connects Portland City Center to Portland State University, Southeast Portland, Milwaukie, and Oak Grove. The Portland–Milwaukie Light Rail Project was the second and final phase of the South Corridor Project that in its first phase expanded light rail services to Interstate 205 and the Portland Transit Mall. The extension, which followed years of failed light rail plans for Clackamas County, began construction work in mid-2011. As part of the project, TriMet built Tilikum Crossing (pictured), billed as “the largest car-free bridge in the United States”, over the Willamette River. The extension opened to Orange Line service on September 12, 2015. The line serves 17 stations and runs for 201⁄2 hours daily with a minimum headway of 15 minutes during most of the day.