ASTRONOMY - Fireflies, Meteors, and Milky Way

 2025 August 2

Fireflies, Meteors, and Milky Way
Image Credit & Copyright: Daniel Korona

Explanation: Taken on July 29 and July 30, a registered and stacked series of exposures creates this dreamlike view of a northern summer night. Multiple firefly flashes streak across the foreground as the luminous Milky Way arcs above the horizon in the Sierra de Órganos national park of central Mexico, The collection of bright streaks aligned across the sky toward the upper left in the timelapse image are Delta Aquariid meteors. Currently active, the annual Delta Aquarid meteor shower shares August nights though, overlapping with the better-known Perseid meteor shower. This year that makes post-midnight, mostly moonless skies in early August very popular with late night skygazers. How can you tell a Delta Aquariid from a Perseid meteor? The streaks of Perseid meteors can be traced back to an apparent radiant in the constellation Perseus. Delta Aquariids appear to emerge from the more southerly constellation Aquarius, beyond the top left of this frame. Of course, the bioluminescent flashes of fireflies are common too on these northern summer nights. But how can you tell a firefly from a meteor? Just try to catch one.

SANTé/MEDECINE - Marcher c'est réduire les risques de cancer (4/4)

Marcher contre le cancer : une habitude simple à adopter dès maintenant

Bien sûr, plus on bouge, mieux c'est. Mais ce qui est frappant dans cette étude, c'est que les résultats "plafonnent" au-delà de 9 000 pas. Autrement dit, inutile de viser l'impossible ou de se mettre la pression. La marche, même modérée, peut déjà suffire à réduire le risque de cancer, sans bouleverser votre quotidien.

Finalement, marcher chaque jour n'est pas qu'un geste pour décompresser ou faire circuler le sang dans les jambes. C'est un véritable réflexe santé, à intégrer dans ses routines — au même titre qu'une bonne alimentation ou une nuit de sommeil réparateur. Et il n'est même pas question ici de faire du sport, au sens classique du terme : bouger un peu, faire ses courses à pied, jardiner, monter les escaliers, tout compte. Parce que prévenir le cancer, ça commence parfois simplement par un pas devant l'autre.

Grazia

ASTRONOMY - Small Dark Nebula

2025 August 1

Small Dark Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Peter Bresseler

Explanation: A small, dark, nebula looks isolated near the center of this telescopic close-up. The wedge-shaped cosmic cloudlet lies within a relatively crowded region of space though. About 7,000 light-years distant and filled with glowing gas and an embedded cluster of young stars, the region is known as M16 or the Eagle Nebula. Hubble's iconic images of the Eagle Nebula include the famous star-forming Pillars of Creation, towering structures of interstellar gas and dust 4 to 5 light-years long. But this small dark nebula, known to some as a Bok globule, is a fraction of a light-year across. The Bok globule stands out in silhouette against the expansive background of M16's diffuse glow. Found scattered within emission nebulae and star clusters, Bok globules are small interstellar clouds of cold molecular gas and obscuring dust that also form stars within their dense, collapsing cores.