Tag: space

Miracle. All of it.

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comet-45p-honda-mrkos-pajdusakova

“Comet 45P/Honda–Mrkos–Pajdušáková was first discovered 13 orbits ago in 1948 and has returned to the inner Solar System. It is physically ancient. It spends most of its time near the orbit of Jupiter and last neared the Sun in 2011. Over the past few months, Comet 45P’s new sunward plummet has brightened it considerably. The comet is currently visible with binoculars over the western horizon just after sunset, not far from the much brighter planet Venus. Comet 45P was captured last week sporting a long ion tailwith impressive structure. It will pass relatively close to the Earth early next month.”

Notes:

It happened on Christmas Eve, 48 years ago.

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earth

It happened on Christmas Eve, 48 years ago. Three men took turns reading from the first 10 verses of the Book of Genesis. They were nearly 250,000 miles away from Bethlehem, but since it was the night before Christmas, and there was no chimney from which to hang their stockings, the three astronauts inside the Apollo 8 capsule orbiting the moon thought it would be appropriate. So as Jim Lovell, Frank Borman and Bill Anders looked at the faraway Earth through the small window of the spacecraft, they read the verses: “In the beginning, God made the heavens and the Earth.”

Their distant-sounding voices from far beyond our atmosphere were broadcast live to the whole planet that night over radio and television. It was one of those moments that brought the world together, that helped us to see our common humanity…

~ Eric Metaxas, from Christmas Eve in Space and Communion on the Moon (wsj.com, Dec, 24, 2016)

 

Photo: Earth (Great Lakes). Canadian Space Agency/Chris Hadfield via Space.com

Lightly child, lightly

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light-sunlight-morning

In the morning
the light flickers—

every place it touches is unnamed.

I forget
my silk-spun dreams & losing heart.

I am open. I am soft.
I move into the silence

but I know I can’t stay.

— Michelle Tudor, This is Not the Place

Notes:

  • Photo: NoelleBuske – “Magia” (via Mennyfox55)
  • Poem: Michelle Tudor via couvertures de sérénité 
  • Prior “Lightly child, lightly” Posts? Connect here.
  • Post Title & Inspiration: Aldous Huxley: “It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.”

 

Truth in That

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pluto

What really blows my mind is that NASA is able to receive data from a 4.67 billion miles far away spacecraft, while i lose wifi signal once i move to the kitchen.

~ Showerthoughts, RBN

Notes:

  • Don’t miss reader comments on this quote here: Showerthoughts, RBN
  • Space.com – Photo of Pluto taken in July, 2014 by NASA’s New Horizon’s featuring Pluto’s “heart”.

 

Spaces of Otherness

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Tigran Tsitoghdzyan,painting

Heterotopia is a concept elaborated by philosopher Michel Foucault to describe spaces of otherness, which are neither here nor there, that are simultaneously physical and mental, such as the space of a phone call or the moment when you see yourself in the mirror. Foucault uses the idea of a mirror as a metaphor for utopia because the image that you see in it does not exist, but it is also a heterotopia because the mirror is a real object that shapes the way you relate to your own image.

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