🔥 Thousands of Christians throng Jerusalem for the traditional Holy Fire rite ahead of the Orthodox Easter, despite a security clampdown in the holy city.
❖ Every Orthodox Holy Saturday in Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulcher, thousands gather to witness a flame “miraculously” appearing in the tomb of Jesus.
Orthodox Christians believe it’s a potent symbol of the resurrection.
It’s the Church’s most important miracle. And it’s believed to have been happening annually for the past 1,200 years.
The ritual begins with the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem (or another Orthodox archbishop), descending into the empty tomb of Christ within the church and reciting special prayers. A non-Orthodox Christian is also said to examine the edicule (a small structure surrounding the tomb) to make sure no oil lamps have been left burning inside that the patriarch could use to light his candles.
In the crowded church above the tomb and surrounding the edicule, the faithful chant with one voice “Kyrie eleison” (Lord, have mercy). The wait might be long or short but eventually a light is said to appear in the tomb where the patriarch has been praying alone. He then lights his candles from this miraculous flame and, accompanied by the pealing of bells, emerges to spread the fire among the crowd. The oncedark church becomes illuminated by the miraculous Holy Fire.
It is said that for the first several minutes the fire burns, but does not consume. During this time, many of the faithful bathe their faces and hands in the flame, apparently without being harmed. The flame is passed from candle to candle and then placed in lanterns so that it can be spread far and wide.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on January 6, 2023
🛑 A mystery object described by one local news outlet as a “UFO” has been shot down in the southern Russian region of Rostov.
Vasily Golubev, the governor of Rostov oblast, wrote on Telegram that a “small-size object in the shape of a ball” had been discovered flying “in the wind” at an altitude of around one and a half miles on January 3. With the object spotted above the village of Sultan Sala in the region’s Myasnikovsky district, Golubev said “the decision was taken to liquidate it.”
“I urge everyone to remain calm. To ensure security, all forces and means are involved. The sky is covered with anti-aircraft defenses,” he added, without specifying what the object was.
In reporting his comments, local news outlet Pivyet Rostov carried a headline that said “a UFO in the form of a ball was shot down in the sky.”
Telegram channels that night described how air defense systems in Rostov had been operating. The channel Ostorozhna, Novosti (Caution, News) published a video showing a shining object flying and then exploding in the sky.
“Look, another one has gone,” someone is heard saying in the clip, which was captioned, “another video of the work of Rostov regional air defenses.” A witness told the channel how “there was a very strong explosion” and that “everything in the house shook. We realized that the air defenses were in operation.”
Newsweek has contacted the governor’s office for further comment.
Rostov borders the Sea of Azov, which is connected to the Black Sea by the Strait of Kerch, a strategic location for both sides of the war in Ukraine. Since the start of Vladimir Putin’s invasion, the oblast near Ukraine has been subjected to regular shelling and drone attacks.
In October, Rostov was named as one of six Russian regions and two annexed regions in which Putin introduced a “medium-response level” to the threats posed by the war. This includes restrictions on movement and strengthening public order measures.
He also announced a “maximum response”—effectively martial law—on the four regions he claimed to have annexed but does not fully control; Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on September 7, 2022
💭 The Nebula is named for its resemblance to a burrowing tarantula’s home
NASA released the latest image from its James Webb Space Telescope on Tuesday, showing tens of thousands of young stars in a stellar nursery dubbed the “Cosmic Tarantula.”
The nebula, located 161,000 light-years away, is the largest star-forming region of all galaxies close to the Milky Way.
Radiation from young stars, which glow pale blue, has hollowed out a cavity in the nebula that can be seen in the center of the image.
“Only the densest surrounding areas of the nebula resist erosion by these stars’ powerful stellar winds, forming pillars that appear to point back toward the cluster,” NASA explained. “These pillars contain forming protostars, which will eventually emerge from their dusty cocoons and take their turn shaping the nebula.”
Astronomers have long studied the Tarantula Nebula, which got its namesake due to its resemblance to a burrowing tarantula’s home, but Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera brought it into clearer focus than ever before.
💭 See The First Image of an Exoplanet Caught by The James Webb Space Telescope
It really is amazing that I was watching the news about the fire and the cross that survived the fire from churches all over the world at night, and now this new information came out a few minutes ago. The work of the Our Holy Saviour is absolutely wonderful. Today is monthly feast of Holy Savior.
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
The powerful telescope uses infrared light to produce a detailed image of the far-off gas giant.
For the first time ever, astronomers at NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) captured a direct image of an exoplanet using the James Webb Space Telescope. Extra solar planets, or exoplanets, are planets that exist outside of our solar system.
Researchers are currently analyzing the new data from these observations and are working on a paper for peer review. The findings are currently published in a preprint. But Webb’s first capture of an exoplanet already hints at future possibilities for studying distant worlds.
JWST captured the image of the inhabitable gas giant called HIP 65426 b located about 385 light-years away from Earth. It is roughly six to 12 times the mass of Jupiter (our solar system’s biggest planet) and astronomers believe that their observations could help narrow down that estimate. Compared to 4.5 billion-year-old Planet Earth, HIP 65426 b is only 15 to 20 million years-old, so still a young one as far as planets go.
“This is a transformative moment, not only for Webb but also for astronomy generally,” said Sasha Hinkley, associate professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, who led these observations with a large international collaboration, in a NASA blog.
The image released by NASA/ESA/CSA shows the exoplanet through four different light filters. Unlike the human eye, JWST can see the universe in infrared light, which gives astronomers more precise measurements of an exoplanet’s mass and temperature and can even detect clouds moving in a distant planet’s sky. The infrared light pointing the way to future observations that will reveal more information than ever before about exoplanets.
“It was really impressive how well the Webb coronagraphs worked to suppress the light of the host star,” said Hinkley.
While this specific image is new to astronomers, HIP 65426 b is not. The exoplanet was first detected in 2017 using the SPHERE instrument located at the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope in northern Chile. The ground-based telescope took images of the exoplanet using short infrared wavelengths of light. JWST is able to capture longer infrared wavelengths, revealing some new details that ground-based telescopes can’t necessarily see due to the intrinsic infrared glow of Earth’s atmosphere.
While more than 5,000 exoplanets have been discovered, taking direct images of them is incredibly challenging. Exoplanets revolve around a star just like Earth revolves around the sun, and those stars are typically much brighter than planets. According to NASA, HIP 65426 b is more than 10,000 times fainter than its host star in the near-infrared and a few thousand times fainter in the mid-infrared.