Astronomy - EARTHSET WITH AN IPHONE

 2026 April 22

Earthset with an iPhone
Video Credit: NASA, Reid Wiseman
Text: Keighley Rockcliffe (NASA GSFC, UMBC CSST, CRESST II)

Explanation: What does it mean for the Earth to set? Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman gave us another spectacular view of Earth from their historic flyby of the Moon. Commander Wiseman's video, taken with an iPhone at 8x zoom, shows our entire planet gradually blocked from view by the Moon. On the Earth, the 24-hour planetary rotation causes the Sun to set below your horizon every night. However, on Artemis II the Earthset was caused not by the Moon’s rotation but by the spacecraft moving behind the Moon (at about 55 seconds in this video). Once rare, views of Earth are now taken many times a day from many spacecraft, including NASA’s SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography) satellite tracking freshwater resources and USGS Landsat 8 and 9 satellites supporting water management for farmers, for example. Space agencies around our home planet now work together to provide unique and ever-improving views of our Earth.

Santé/Médecine - LES SYMPTOMES DE LA FIBROMYALGIE: 1. DES DOULEURS MUSCULAIRES - (3/12)

1. Des douleurs musculaires

Ce sont les douleurs musculaires qui caractérisent cette maladie. Plus spécifiquement, ces douleurs sont diffuses, c’est-à-dire qu’elles peuvent s’étendre à tout le corps. Souvent, elles sont plus intenses dans les zones autour de la colonne vertébrale :

 

- la nuque, 

- les épaules, 

- la région entre les 2 épaules, 

- les omoplates, 

- le bas du dos, 

- les hanches. 

Autre caractéristique des douleurs de la fibromyalgie : Elles sont constantes. Avec des périodes où elles s’aggravent, et d’autres où elles s’améliorent. Elles peuvent aussi varier en intensité ou être très localisées.

CommentEconomiser

Astronomy - THREE SKY ARCHES OVER SNOWY ALPS

 2026 April 21

Three Sky Arches over Snowy Alps
Image Credit & Copyright: Angel Fux

Explanation: Why are there three arches across the sky instead of two? Last month, after being dropped off by a helicopter at a high mountain peak in the Alps near the Swiss Italian border, an adventurous astrophotographer expected two arches of our Milky Way galaxy to be visible during the night. These were the inner arch looking in toward the center of our galaxy on the left, visible just before sunrise, and the outer arch on the right visible just after sunset. But there were three arches. The surprised astrophotographer soon realized that the sky was so dark that an entire arc of faint zodiacal light was also noticeable -- sunlight scattered by inner Solar System dust. And it artfully connected the two Milky Way arches! The next morning a helicopter picked the astrophotographer back up, and after 40 hours of processing and combining that night's images, the featured triple-arch 360-degree panorama resulted.

Santé/Medecine - LA FIBROMYALGIE (2/12)

Voici les symptômes de la fibromyalgie chez l'homme et la femme :

Certaines choses du quotidien peuvent aggraver les symptômes de cette maladie. Voici les 4 principales à connaître : 

- les niveaux de stress, 

- le froid, 

- l’humidité et 

- l’effort physique. 

Et inversement, ceux qui les calment, mais seulement de manière temporaire, sont : 

- la chaleur (par exemple, une douche ou un bain chauds) et 

- le sommeil. 

Voyons maintenant ensemble quels sont les symptômes que vous devez identifier pour savoir si vous souffrez de fibromyalgie...

CommentEconomiser

Astronomy - COMET R3 PauSTARRS OVER A HIMALAYAN VALLEY

 2026 April 20

Comet R3 PanSTARRS over a Himalayan Valley
Image Credit & Copyright: Basudeb Chakrabarti & Samit Saha

Explanation: The best way to see comet R3 PanSTARRS’s long tail is with a camera. This week, the recently brightened comet appears in northern skies to the east just before dawn, but is only barely visible to the unaided eye. The many-degree ion tail captured on long duration camera exposures is not unusual for a comet - it is primarily due to the Earth's nearly sideways view of the tail as it points away from the Sun. In the featured image taken last week, Comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) showed off its flowing tail through a valley between two peaks in the Himalayan mountains of India.   The comet passed its closest to the Sun yesterday. As it nears its closest approach to Earth next week, a bushy dust tail may become visible. The comet is slowly moving out of northern skies and by the end of the month will be visible after sunset in southern skies as it fades and leaves our Solar System. 

Santé/Médecine - LA FIBROMYALGIE FATIGUE BEAUCOUP ET PROVOQUE DES DOULEURS ARTICULAIRES - (1/12)

La fibromyalgie provoque des douleurs articulaires. Mais pas seulement ! Elle fatigue beaucoup ceux qui en souffrent surtout pendant une crise. Cette maladie, au nom difficile à dire, est un ensemble de symptômes. Et le principal, c’est une douleur chronique et diffuse. Souvent, les personnes qui en souffrent disent avoir "mal partout". Les autres symptômes ? Ils varient énormément d’une personne à l’autre. Ainsi, il peut y avoir des périodes où ils s’améliorent, et d’autres où ils s’aggravent. Si vous pensez souffrir de cette maladie, parlez-en sans attendre à votre médecin. En effet, il existe des traitements pour vous soulager, même si les smptomes ne disparaissent jamais complètement.

CommentEconomiser

Astronomy - EYE ON THE MILKY WAY

 2026 April 19

Eye on the Milky Way
Image Credit & Copyright: Miguel Claro (TWAN, Dark Sky Alqueva)

Explanation: Have you ever had stars in your eyes? It appears that the eye on the left does, and moreover, it appears to be gazing at even more stars. The featured 27-frame mosaic was taken in 2019 from Ojas de Salar in the Atacama Desert of Chile. The eye is actually a small lagoon captured reflecting the dark night sky as the Milky Way Galaxy arched overhead. The seemingly smooth band of the Milky Way is really composed of billions of stars, but decorated with filaments of light-absorbing dust and red-glowing nebulas. Additionally, both Jupiter (slightly left the galactic arch) and Saturn (slightly to the right) are visible. The lights of small towns dot the unusual vertical horizon. The rocky terrain around the lagoon appears to some more like the surface of Mars than our Earth.

Astronomie - ETOILES FILANTES - LE RADIANT DES PERSEIDES

Image composite réunissant 29 météores photographiés au cours de la nuit du 11 au 12 août 2016. Le radiant de l'essaim météoritique est clairement visible au centre, en direction de la constellation de Persée, alors en pleine ascension au-dessus du lac Collins, en Californie.

© Rick Whitacre, Flickr

Astronomy - M82: STARBURST GALAXY WITH A SUPERWIND

 2026 April 17

M82: Starburst Galaxy with a Superwind
Image Credit & Copyright: Arnaud Malleval

Explanation: Messier 82 is a starburst galaxy with a superwind. In fact, through supernova explosions and powerful winds from massive stars, the burst of star formation in M82 is driving a prodigious outflow. Evidence for the superwind from the galaxy's central regions is clear in the sharp telescopic portrait. The composite image includes 33 hours of narrowband data, highlighting emission from long outflow filaments of atomic hydrogen gas in reddish hues. Some of the gas in the superwind, enriched in heavy elements forged in the massive stars, will eventually escape into intergalactic space. Triggered by a close encounter with nearby large galaxy M81, the furious burst of star formation in M82 should last about 100 million years or so. Also known as the Cigar Galaxy for its elongated visual appearance, M82 is about 30,000 light-years across. It lies 12 million light-years away near the northern boundary of Ursa Major.

Astronomy - LAUNCH PLUME : SPACE X JELLYFISH

 2026 March 19

Launch Plume: SpaceX Jellyfish
Image Credit & Copyright: Michael Seeley
Text: Cecilia Chirenti (NASA GSFC, UMCP, CRESST II)

Explanation: Even if you live with your head in the clouds, you won’t find a jellyfish like this one very often. The featured image shows a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida on March 4. The launch happened 52 minutes before sunrise, and the second stage rocket exhaust plume was high enough in the sky to catch the light of the rising sun, while the photographer was still in the dark. This combination of light and shadow, possible at dawn or dusk, makes the exhaust, mostly water vapor and carbon dioxide, appear as a glowing cloud. It only looks like it's going down, as the rocket follows the curvature of the Earth on its way to space. A related effect is the twilight phenomenon, which causes colorful contrails sometimes mistaken for UFOs. But, in case you are wondering: real jellyfish were sent to space by NASA in the 1990s as part of a science experiment.