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I saw this photo the other day on the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center’s Flickr stream, and my jaw dropped: What is this? Here: Newborn stars, hidden behind thick dust, are revealed in this image of a section of the so-called Christmas Tree Cluster from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. The newly revealed infant stars appear as pink and red specks toward the center and appear to have formed in regularly spaced intervals along linear structures in a configuration that resembles the spokes of a wheel or the pattern of a snowflake. Hence, astronomers have nicknamed this the “Snowflake Cluster.” Star-forming cloudsDown the rabbit hole….

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The James Webb Space Telescope has returned its first imagery, and a teaser image was released today: The field of vision here is the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length. That absolutely astonishes me. Also, the visible “warping” effect, like a partial fish-eye lens, is because the galaxy cluster seen here acts as a “gravitational lens”, bending the light waves that have been traversing the Cosmos for billions of years. More, so much more, to come. Webb is one of the most exciting things I can remember, and I’m so glad that even in times as dark as theseDown the rabbit hole….

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Time to close out some tabs I’ve had open for a while: ::  The Future Republicans Want A look at the unbelievably fascist document that is the official platform of the Texas Republican Party: The fundamentalist religious fervor perhaps extends most strongly to gay rights and others of alternative sexual lifestyles. The platform directly declares that “Homosexuality is an abnormal lifestyle choice” and that “We oppose all efforts to validate transgender identity.” §§ 143–144 (p. 21). The Republican platform seeks to ban gay marriage. And that’s just one example of the awfulness therein. ::  The Message of the Republican Party:Down the rabbit hole….

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While on my lunch break the other day, I watched this short film about dam removal on streams in the Hudson River watershed. Fascinating film, with amazing photography (well-worth watching in full-screen HD). Were there a place I could say my soul resided, it would likely be alongside one of the forest streams of America’s Northeast.   Share This PostDown the rabbit hole….

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The very first alignment images from the James Webb Space Telescope are coming back: From the Marshall Space Flight Center’s Flickr page: On March 11, the Webb team completed the stage of alignment known as “fine phasing.” At this key stage in the commissioning of Webb’s Optical Telescope Element, every optical parameter that has been checked and tested is performing at, or above, expectations. The team also found no critical issues and no measurable contamination or blockages to Webb’s optical path. The observatory is able to successfully gather light from distant objects and deliver it to its instruments without issue.Down the rabbit hole….

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A good marker of being an adult is when you find yourself regretting the lack of attention you paid in one class or another in grade school. In my case, sometimes it’s Earth Science, and I really did pay quite a bit of attention in that class! But geology was never really my thing, so I just kinda got through it. And now, I notice things about the world and I wonder how they got to be that way. Here’s a good case in point from my neck of the woods. This image (screen-captured from Google Maps, thanks, Google) isDown the rabbit hole….

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I saw this image on one of NASA’s Flickr streams and I had to share it. It’s a Hubble image of a star-forming region called the “Chameleon Cloud Complex”. Look how gorgeous this is! Here’s some explanation: The segment in this Hubble composite image, called Chamaeleon Cloud I (Cha I), reveals dusty-dark clouds where stars are forming, dazzling reflection nebulae glowing by the light of bright-blue young stars, and radiant knots called Herbig-Haro objects. Herbig-Haro objects are bright clumps and arcs of interstellar gas shocked and energized by jets expelled from infant “protostars” in the process of forming. The white-orangeDown the rabbit hole….

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(A repost from exactly ten years ago, because today is the SIXTIETH anniversary of John Glenn’s flight on Friendship 7! I’ve fixed a bit of wording and removed a dead link.) Sixty years ago today, astronaut John Glenn launched in a spacecraft called Friendship 7 and became the first American to orbit the Earth. Here’s a wonderful documentary, assembled by NASA after the mission’s end, detailing the events of Glenn’s mission, from pre-launch preparations to Glenn’s post-splashdown arrival on the aircraft carrier. I watched this film way back in third grade, when our class was doing a research project onDown the rabbit hole….

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Here’s a photo from the Hubble Space Telescope: From NASA’s Flickr stream: In this image, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captures a side-on view of NGC 3568, a barred spiral galaxy roughly 57 million light-years from the Milky Way in the constellation Centaurus. In 2014 the light from a supernova explosion in NGC 3568 reached Earth – a sudden flare of light caused by the titanic explosion accompanying the death of a massive star. Photos of entire galaxies always blow my mind a little…and that photo contains many galaxies. What an amazingly grand universe!   Share This PostDown the rabbit hole….