É realmente a luz que se deseja

O desejo da luz produz luz.

É realmente a luz que se deseja
quando qualquer outro móbil está ausente.

Embora os esforços de atenção

fossem durante anos aparentemente estéreis,

um dia, uma luz exatamente proporcional

a esses esforços

inundará a alma.

Cada esforço acrescentará um pouco mais de ouro

a um tesouro que nada no mundo pode roubar.


Simone Weil

Four Quasar Images Surround a Galaxy Lens

Four Quasar Images Surround a Galaxy Lens 
 Image Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA, Sherry Suyu et al. Explanation: An odd thing about the group of lights near the center is that four of them are the same distant quasar. This is because the foreground galaxy -- in the center of the quasar images and the featured image -- is acting like a choppy gravitational lens. A perhaps even odder thing is that by watching these background quasars flicker, you can estimate the expansion rate of the universe. That is because the flicker timing increases as the expansion rate increases. But to some astronomers, the oddest thing of all is that these multiply imaged quasars indicate a universe that is expanding a bit faster than has been estimated by different methods that apply to the early universe. And that is because ... well, no one is sure why. Reasons might include an unexpected distribution of dark matter, some unexpected effect of gravity, or something completely different. Perhaps future observations and analyses of this and similarly lensed quasar images will remove these oddities.

Thunderstorm

A Supercell Thunderstorm Cloud Over Montana 
 Image Credit & Copyright: Sean R. Heavey Explanation: Is that a spaceship or a cloud? Although it may seem like an alien mothership, it's actually a impressive thunderstorm cloud called a supercell. Such colossal storm systems center on mesocyclones -- rotating updrafts that can span several kilometers and deliver torrential rain and high winds including tornadoes. Jagged sculptured clouds adorn the supercell's edge, while wind swept dust and rain dominate the center. A tree waits patiently in the foreground. The above supercell cloud was photographed in 2010 July west of Glasgow, Montana, USA, caused minor damage, and lasted several hours before moving on.

[A man and a woman Are one. A man and a woman and a blackbird Are one.]

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird .Wallace Stevens

Poemário by LN

I

Among twenty snowy mountains,
The only moving thing
Was the eye of the blackbird.

II
I was of three minds,
Like a tree
In which there are three blackbirds.

III
The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.
It was a small part of the pantomime.

IV
A man and a woman
Are one.
A man and a woman and a blackbird
Are one.

V
I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after.

VI
Icicles filled the long window
With barbaric glass.
The shadow of the blackbird
Crossed it, to and fro.
The mood
Traced in the shadow
An indecipherable cause.

VII
O thin men of Haddam,
Why do you imagine golden birds?
Do you not see how the blackbird
Walks around the feet
Of the women about you?

VIII
I know noble accents
And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
But I know, too,
That the blackbird is involved
In what I know.

IX
When the blackbird flew out of sight,
It marked the edge
Of one of many circles.

X
At the sight of blackbirds
Flying in a green light,
Even the bawds of euphony
Would cry out sharply.

XI
He rode over Connecticut
In a glass coach.
Once, a fear pierced him,
In that he mistook
The shadow of his equipage
For blackbirds.

XII
The river is moving.
The blackbird must be flying.

XIII
It was evening all afternoon.
It was snowing
And it was going to snow.
The blackbird sat
In the cedar-limbs.

de Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens. Copyright © 1954 by Wallace Stevens. poema encontrado aqui

Treze Maneiras de Olhar para um Melro

I

Entre as vinte montanhas nevadas
A única coisa movendo-se
Era o olho de um melro.

II

Eu tinha três almas
Como a árvore
Em que há três melros.

III

Os melros rodopiaram nos ventos outonais.
O que era uma pequena parte da pantomima.

IV

Um homem e uma mulher
São um.
Um homem e uma mulher e um melro,
São um.

V

Não sei que preferir –
A beleza das inflexões
Ou a beleza das insinuações,
O melro que gorjeia,
Ou o depois.

VI

Pingos de gelo enchiam a vasta janela
De vidro bárbaro.
A sombra do melro
Cruzava-a, de cá para lá, de lá para cá.
A situação
Traçava na sombra
Um curso indecifrável.

VII

Ó homens magros de Haddam,
Porque imaginais pássaros de ouro?
Não vedes como o melro
Passeia à volta dos pés
Das mulheres à vossa volta?

VIII

Sei de nobres tons
E de lúcidos e inescapáveis ritmos;
Mas também sei
Que o melro está envolvido
No que eu sei.

IX

Quando o melro desapareceu da vista,
Marcou o limite
De um de vários círculos.

X

À vista dos melros
Voando na luz verde
Até os alcoviteiros da eufonia
Gritariam desafinados.

XI

O homem atravessou o Connecticut
Num coche de vidro.
Uma vez, um terror o trespassou,
E foi quando tomou
A sombra dos cavalos
Por melros.

XII

O rio move-se.
O melro deve estar a voar.

XIII

Foi entardecer toda a tarde.
Nevava
E estava a ponto de nevar.
O melro pousado
Nos ramos do cedro.

de Poesia do Século XX, organização e tradução de Jorge de Sena,
Fora do Texto, 1994

.

" Y qué pasó
        entonces.

        Pasó una mujer.

        Pero qué pasó.

        Que era
        de las que nunca
        terminan
        de pasar "

      Karmelo C. Iribarren.

.

" Hay mucha diferencia de dar lo que se posee y se tiene en  las manos, a dar lo que está en esperanzas de poseerse "

              " Vale más buena esperanza que ruin posesión, y buena queja que mala paga "

              " Es mejor ser loado de los pocos sabios que burlado de los muchos necios "

                     Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra ( 1547-1616 )


-

" Todos tenemos una amiga
       de ojos tristes.
                             La mía
       es una esfinge cuyos ojos
       despiertan no sé qué cantidad
       de olvidos.

       Suelo obsequiarla con miércoles
       o jueves
                    recién cortados
       y con breves paseos
       por su historia personal.

       Ella responde  a mis obsequios
       con sonrisas generosas
       mientras sus ojos atardece
       en los míos "

        Manuel Díaz Martínez.


.

" Preferir el tránsito a la meta. Ser un deseo en marcha, una corriente "

    " Soñar la vida : hacer surtir las aguas subterráneas "

    " Para alzar el vuelo lo primero es perder el equilibrio "

    "  Allí donde todo está por hacer no cabe el desaliente: más vasto es el filón por explorar "

          Eduardo García ( 1965-2016 )

.

" … la cuestión es precisamente saber si el pasado ha dejado de existir, o si ha dejado de ser útil… "

Henri Bergson ( 1859-1941 )

" Tan peligroso y nuevo es el camino
       por donde lleva Amor mi pensamiento
       que, en solo los discursos de mi intento,
       aprueba la razón su desatino.

       Efecto nunca visto y peregrino
       enloquecer de puro entendimiento
       un sujeto incapaz  del escarmiento,
       ciego por voluntad y por destino.

       Amor no guarda ley, que la hermosura
       es lícita violencia y tiranía
       que obliga con los mismo que maltrata.

       Su fin es fuerza , y esperar, locura;
       pues es tal por su causa el ansía mía
       que de mí que la tengo se recata "

        Conde de Villamediana ( 1582-1622 )

All Nobel Prizes in Physics

The Nobel Prize in Physics 1901-2000

NGC 3621: Far Beyond the Local Group

NGC 3621: Far Beyond the Local Group 
Image Credit & Copyright: Processing - Robert Gendler, Roberto Colombari
Data - Hubble Legacy Archive, European Southern Observatory, et al.

Explanation: Far beyond the local group of galaxies lies NGC 3621, some 22 million light-years away. Found in the multi-headed southern constellation Hydra, the winding spiral arms of this gorgeous island universe are loaded with luminous blue star clusters, pinkish starforming regions, and dark dust lanes. Still, for astronomers NGC 3621 has not been just another pretty face-on spiral galaxy. Some of its brighter stars have been used as standard candles to establish important estimates of extragalactic distances and the scale of the Universe. This beautiful image of NGC 3621, is a composite of space- and ground-based telescope data. It traces the loose spiral arms far from the galaxy's brighter central regions for some 100,000 light-years. Spiky foreground stars in our own Milky Way Galaxy and even more distant background galaxies are scattered across the colorful skyscape.

Seven Worlds for TRAPPIST-1

Explanation: Seven worlds orbit the ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1, a mere 40 light-years away. In May 2016 astronomers using the Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST) announced the discovery of three planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system. Just announced, additional confirmations and discoveries by the Spitzer Space Telescope and supporting ESO ground-based telescopes have increased the number of known planets to seven. The TRAPPIST-1 planets are likely all rocky and similar in size to Earth, the largest treasure trove of terrestrial planets ever detected around a single star. Because they orbit very close to their faint, tiny star they could also have regions where surface temperatures allow for the presence of liquid water, a key ingredient for life. Their tantalizing proximity to Earth makes them prime candidates for future telescopic explorations of the atmospheres of potentially habitable planets. All seven worlds appear in this artist's illustration, an imagined view from a fictionally powerful telescope near planet Earth. Planet sizes and relative positions are drawn to scale for the Spitzer observations. The system's inner planets are transiting their dim, red, nearly Jupiter-sized parent star.

Daphnis and the Rings of Saturn

Daphnis and the Rings of Saturn 
 Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, Space Science Institute, Cassini Explanation: What's happening to the rings of Saturn? Nothing much, just a little moon making waves. The moon is 8-kilometer Daphnis and it is making waves in the Keeler Gap of Saturn's rings using just its gravity -- as it bobs up and down, in and out. The featured image is a wide-field version of a previously released image taken last month by the robotic Cassini spacecraftduring one of its new Grand Finale orbits. Daphnis can be seen on the far right, sporting ridges likely accumulated from ring particles. Daphnis was discovered in Cassini images in 2005 and raised mounds of ring particles so high in 2009 -- during Saturn's equinox when the ring plane pointed directly at the Sun -- that they cast notable shadows.

Almost Three Tails for Comet Encke

Almost Three Tails for Comet Encke 
 Image Credit & Copyright: Fritz Helmut Hemmerich Explanation: How can a comet have three tails? Normally, a comet has two tails: an ion tail of charged particles emitted by the comet and pushed out by the wind from the Sun, and a dust tail of small debris that orbits behind the comet but is also pushed out, to some degree, by the solar wind. Frequently a comet will appear to have only one tail because the other tail is not easily visible from the Earth. In the featured unusual image, Comet 2P/Encke appears to have three tails because the ion tail split just near to the time when the image was taken. The complex solar wind is occasionally turbulent and sometimes creates unusual structure in an ion tail. On rare occasions even ion-tail disconnection events have been recorded. An image of the Comet Encke taken two days later gives a perhaps less perplexing perspective.

as·sump·ção 
(latim assumptio, -onis, recebimento)

substantivo feminino

O mesmo que assunção.

Palavras relacionadas: 

assunção

.

"ASSUMPÇÃO", in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa [em linha], 2008-2013, https://www.priberam.pt/dlpo/ASSUMP%C3%87%C3%83O [consultado em 19-02-2017].

as·sun·ção 
(latim assumptio, -onis, recebimento)

substantivo feminino

1. Acto de assumir.

2. Elevação (a dignidade).

3. [Teologia católica]  Acto de a divindade assumir natureza humana.

4. [Religião]  Elevação da Virgem ao Céu.

Sinónimo Geral: ASSUMPÇÃO

Palavras relacionadas: 

assumpção, dormição

.

"assunção", in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa [em linha], 2008-2013, https://www.priberam.pt/dlpo/assun%c3%a7%c3%a3o [consultado em 19-02-2017].

dúc·til 
(latim ductilis, -e)

adjectivo de dois géneros

1. Que pode ser estendido na fieira ou a martelo sem se quebrar.

2. [Figurado]  Fácil de moldar.

3. Que cede facilmente.

4. Dócil, contemporizador.

Superlativo: ductílimo ou ductilíssimo.

"dúctil", in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa [em linha], 2008-2013, https://www.priberam.pt/dlpo/d%C3%BActil [consultado em 19-02-2017].

ma·le·á·vel 

adjectivo de dois géneros

1. Susceptível de ser estendido a martelo.

2. [Figurado]  Dócil, brando.

3. Que se deixa convencer ou apiedar.

"maleável", in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa [em linha], 2008-2013, https://www.priberam.pt/dlpo/male%C3%A1vel [consultado em 19-02-2017].

Penumbral Eclipse Rising

Penumbral Eclipse Rising 
Image Credit & Copyright: Bill Jelen

Explanation: As seen from Cocoa Beach Pier, Florida, planet Earth, the Moon rose at sunset on February 10 while gliding through Earth's faint outer shadow. In progress was the first eclipse of 2017, a penumbral lunar eclipse followed in this digital stack of seaside exposures. Of course, the penumbral shadow is lighter than the planet's umbral shadow. That central, dark, shadow is easily seen on the lunar disk during a total or partial lunar eclipse. Still, in this penumbral eclipse the limb of the Moon grows just perceptibly darker as it rises above the western horizon. The second eclipse of 2017 could be more dramatic though. With viewing from a path across planet Earth's southern hemisphere, on February 26 there will be an annular eclipse of the Sun.

*

que os anjos velem por ti

enquanto dormes

e que cada dia te veja despertar

renovado e confiante

para que, ao acordares,

possas sentir a grandiosidade

do mistério da vida.

(Anselm Grün)

*