ASTRONOMY - Halloween and the Wizard Nebula

 2023 October 31

Halloween and the Wizard Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Richard McInnis

Explanation: Halloween's origin is ancient and astronomical. Since the fifth century BC, Halloween has been celebrated as a cross-quarter day, a day halfway between an equinox (equal day / equal night) and a solstice (minimum day / maximum night in the northern hemisphere). With a modern calendar however, even though Halloween occurs today, the real cross-quarter day will occur next week. Another cross-quarter day is Groundhog Day. Halloween's modern celebration retains historic roots in dressing to scare away the spirits of the dead. Perhaps a fitting tribute to this ancient holiday is this closeup view of the Wizard Nebula (NGC 7380). Visually, the interplay of stars, gas, and dust has created a shape that appears to some like a fictional ancient sorcerer. Although the nebula may last only a few million years, some of the stars being conjured from the gas by the great gravitational powers may outlive our Sun.

SANTE/MEDECINE - Pli dans le lobe de l'oreille

Maux de tête, toux ou nez qui coule ? Ce sont des symptômes que nous connaissons tous et que nous pouvons tous interpréter. Mais que se passe-t-il quand on a un pli dans le lobe de l'oreille ? Notre corps nous envoie de nombreux signaux qui nous permettent de détecter certaines maladies.

Les lobes d’oreilles ridés sont, la plupart du temps, le simple signe d’un âge avancé, mais si vous avez des rides en diagonale sur le lobe de vos deux oreilles, c’est souvent un signe de maladie cardio-vasculaire. Les personnes présentant ce phénomène ont 77 % plus de risques d’être touchées par une maladie cardio-vasculaire.

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ASTRONOMY - Reflections of the Ghost Nebula

 2023 October 30

Reflections of the Ghost Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Bogdan Jarzyna

Explanation: Do any shapes seem to jump out at you from this interstellar field of stars and dust? The jeweled expanse, filled with faint, starlight-reflecting clouds, drifts through the night in the royal constellation of Cepheus. Far from your own neighborhood on planet Earth, these ghostly apparitions lurk along the plane of the Milky Way at the edge of the Cepheus Flare molecular cloud complex some 1,200 light-years away. Over two light-years across and brighter than the other spooky chimeras, VdB 141 or Sh2-136 is also known as the Ghost Nebula, seen toward the bottom of the featured image. Within the reflection nebula are the telltale signs of dense cores collapsing in the early stages of star formation.

ASTRONOMY - A Partial Lunar Eclipse

 2023 October 29

A Partial Lunar Eclipse
Image Credit & Copyright: Orazio Mezzio

Explanation: What's happened to the Moon? Within the last day, part of the Moon moved through the Earth's shadow. This happens about once or twice a year, but not every month since the Moon's orbit around the Earth is slightly tilted. Pictured here, the face of a full Hunter's Moon is shown twice from Italy during this partial lunar eclipse. On the left, most of the Moon appears overexposed except for the eclipsed bottom right, which shows some familiar lunar surface details. In contrast, on the right, most of the (same) Moon appears normally exposed, with the exception of the bottom right, which now appears dark. All lunar eclipses are visible from the half of the Earth facing the Moon at the time of the eclipse, but this eclipse was visible specifically from Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia, clouds permitting. In April, a total solar eclipse will be visible from North America.

SANTE/MEDECINE - (5/11) - Des lèvres constamment gercées

Maux de tête, toux ou nez qui coule ? Ce sont des symptômes que nous connaissons tous et que nous pouvons tous interpréter. Mais que se passe-t-il quand on a souvent les lèvres constamment gercées ? Notre corps nous envoie de nombreux signaux qui nous permettent de détecter certaines maladies.

Des lèvres constamment gercées

Si vous avez les lèvres gercées et que ce n’est pas dû à la météo, peut être que votre corps vous est en train de vous dire que vous êtes en carence de vitamine B ou de zinc. Les lèvres gercées étant sensibles aux infections fongiques, entre autres choses, il est fortement recommandé de se procurer un remède en pharmacie. Des lèvres constamment gercées ne doivent en aucun cas être négligées.

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ASTRONOMY - Encke and the Tadpoles

 2023 October 27

Encke and the Tadpoles
Image Credit & Copyright: Dan Bartlett

Explanation: History's second known periodic comet is Comet Encke (2P/Encke). As it swings through the inner Solar System, Encke's orbit takes it from an aphelion, its greatest distance from the Sun, inside the orbit of Jupiter to a perihelion just inside the orbit of Mercury. Returning to its perihelion every 3.3 years, Encke has the shortest period of the Solar System's major comets. Comet Encke is also associated with (at least) two annual meteor showers on planet Earth, the North and South Taurids. Both showers are active in late October and early November. Their two separate radiants lie near bright star Aldebaran in the head-strong constellation Taurus. A faint comet, Encke was captured in this telescopic field of view imaged on the morning of August 24. Then, Encke's pretty greenish coma was close on the sky to the young, embedded star cluster and light-years long, tadpole-shaped star-forming clouds in emission nebula IC 410. Now near bright star Spica in Virgo Comet Encke passed its 2023 perihelion only five days ago, on October 22.

SANTE/MEDECINE - (4/11) - Quand le blanc des yeux n'est plus blanc

Maux de tête, toux ou nez qui coule ? Ce sont des symptômes que nous connaissons tous et que nous pouvons tous interpréter. Mais que se passe-t-il quand Le blanc des yeux qui n’est pas tout à fait blanc ? Notre corps nous envoie de nombreux signaux qui nous permettent de détecter certaines maladies.

Si le blanc de vos yeux tend vers le jaunâtre, cela peut être dû à plusieurs choses. La plupart du temps il ne s’agit que d’un rhume ou d’un manque de sommeil, mais il existe des causes plus graves, comme un dysfonctionnement du foie. Une couleur rougeâtre indiquera en revanche que vous souffrez probablement d’une conjonctivite ou de la chlamydia.

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ASTRONOMY - Gone in 60 Seconds: A Green Flash Sunset

 2023 October 25

Gone in 60 Seconds: A Green Flash Sunset
Video Credit & Copyright: Tengyu Cai

Explanation: In 60 seconds, this setting Sun will turn green. Actually, the top of the Sun already appears not only green, but wavey -- along with all of its edges. The Sun itself is unchanged -- both effects are caused by looking along hot and cold layers in Earth's atmosphere. The unusual color is known as a green flash and occurs because these atmospheric layers not only shift background images but disperse colors into slightly different directions, like a prism. The featured video was captured earlier this month off the coast of Hawaii, USA. After waiting those 60 seconds, at the video's end, the upper part of the Sun seems to hover alone in space, while turning not only green, but blue. Then suddenly, the Sun appears to shrink to nothing -- only to return tomorrow.

SANTE/MEDECINE - (3/11) : Quand les sourcils retrécissent

Maux de tête, toux ou nez qui coule ? Ce sont des symptômes que nous connaissons tous et que nous pouvons tous interpréter. Mais que se passe-t-il quand vous perdez du poil aux sourcils ?

Les sourcils qui rétrécissent

Si vous perdez des poils aux extrémités externes de vos sourcils, il y a de quoi vous inquiéter. C’est peut-être un signe d’hypothyroïdie. Elle peut néanmoins être détectée par un test sanguin et traitée assez facilement.

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ASTRONOMY - Arp 87: Merging Galaxies from Hubble

 2023 October 24

Arp 87: Merging Galaxies from Hubble
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble; Processing: Harshwardhan Pathak

Explanation: This dance is to the death. As these two large galaxies duel, a cosmic bridge of stars, gas, and dust currently stretches over 75,000 light-years and joins them. The bridge itself is strong evidence that these two immense star systems have passed close to each other and experienced violent tides induced by mutual gravity. As further evidence, the face-on spiral galaxy on the right, also known as NGC 3808A, exhibits many young blue star clusters produced in a burst of star formation. The twisted edge-on spiral on the left (NGC 3808B) seems to be wrapped in the material bridging the galaxies and surrounded by a curious polar ring. Together, the system is known as Arp 87. While such interactions are drawn out over billions of years, repeated close passages will ultimately create one merged galaxy. Although this scenario does look unusual, galactic mergers are thought to be common, with Arp 87 representing a stage in this inevitable process. The Arp 87 dancing pair are about 300 million light-years distant toward the constellation of the Lion (Leo). The prominent edge-on spiral galaxy at the far left appears to be a more distant background galaxy and not involved in the on-going merger.