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(From NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; used w/o permission.) (The Cartwheel galaxy group, 500,000 light-years out, in the constellation Scorpius. (James Webb Space Telescope image released by NASA (August 2, 2022)) I'll be looking at some of the first pictures sent back from the James Webb Space Telescope, starting with the Cartwheel Galaxy. More at A Catholic Citizen in America . New views of the Cartwheel Galaxy, Carina Nebula and the first compact galaxy group discovered. Infrared images and the value of color astrophotography.

Glancing at my news feed this month, I've noticed that Europe is burning, California is ablaze, and Alaska has caught fire. All because of climate change.... ...Blazing California suburbs have been routine summer news for decades. European and Alaskan wildfires, not so much. I'll grant that this has been an unusually fire-prone year. On the other hand, I won't "trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries" over the doom and gloom presumably facing us all. Trying to pretend that Earth’s climate doesn't change — or shouldn't, at any rate — doesn't make any more sense than jumping on the gloom wagon. Not to me. Neither does believing that we're in the secular equivalent of End Times. More at A Catholic Citizen in America . Climate change happens. So does sound and fury. Headlines, a good idea or two, the Little Ice Age and a crisis at the dawn of civilization: maybe.

I'll be talking about today's Pakistan: particularly what it's like being a Pakistani Christian, Hindu or Sikh. Or, for that matter, the 'wrong' sort of Pakistani Muslim. The list of at-risk Pakistanis depends partly on who's talking. A few weeks ago, someone asked me to write about what Pakistani Christians are enduring. Finding more-or-less current news or information on that general topic wasn't nearly as easy as I'd hoped. What I did find told me that what's happening now has very deep roots. More at A Catholic Citizen in America . The story so far, from before the Indus Valley civilization and Vedic period to the East India Company, independence and blasphemy laws.

(From STR/AFP/Getty Images, via NPR, used w/o permission.) (China's FAST radio telescope, another eye on the universe since 2016.) Scientists in China's Guizhou province have been receiving radio signals from interstellar space since 2016. Three of these signals may have been from folks who aren't human, but use radio waves the way we do. Then again, maybe they weren't.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America . Narrow-band signals from interstellar space. Tesla, pulsars, the Wow! signal and Tabby’s Star. Still looking for alien civilizations.

(From Bonhams auction house, used w/o permission.) (Louis William Wain's "A curious cat." (ca. 1930)) As a behavior, curiosity is part of being a rat, a cat, or a human. In humans, at least, it's also an emotion. Whether the decline in curiosity exhibited by many of us as we mature is a natural process, or is the result of education — that's a can of worms I'll ignore today. Cultural values very likely also encourage, or discourage, curiosity. Happily, there's more to my native culture than this proverb.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America . This week I discuss using and misusing curiosity: with quotes from St. Augustine, Pope Leo XIII, St. Thomas Aquinas and H. P. Lovecraft.

One way or another, energy is in the headlines nearly every day. But I won't be talking about the latest energy crisis, shortage or agreement. Instead, I'll be looking at developments in fusion power from a few months — and a few days — ago. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

(From Jürgen Ludwig, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.) I talked about angels, real and imagined, last month; mentioned Doctor Faustus' big plans, including putting a brass wall around Germany, and said that I'd talk about Valdes and Cornelius next month. Then I got sick. I'm still running a fever; but considering that this is COVID-19, it could be worse. "Next month" is now this month, so I'd better introduce Valdes and Cornelius: "friends to Faustus," Marlowe calls them in the dramatis personae.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

(From Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago; used w/o permission.) That's the great hall in Colleen Moore's Fairy Castle, a 13-room dollhouse in Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. The museum's online exhibit page for the great hall opens with something that's not in the room: " ...the good fairy welcoming you to Fairyland.... " But I'll start with that sweeping staircase: which has no railing. It's not a design flaw. Colleen Moore and the folks who created this dollhouse imagined that fairies lived there. The tiny little winged fairies that became my culture's default version of the fair folk in Victorian times, and that's another topic. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Science stories and topics have been piling up in my 'to do' list for more than a year. This week, I'm catching up on what we're learning about life here on Earth; and developments in the ongoing search for extraterrestrial life..... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Scientists in Sweden, taking part in 2019's BEAST program that used SPHERE on the VLT discovered an 'it might be an exoplanet.' In 2021, they got confirmation. They'd spotted an exoplanet. And SPHERE on the VLT 1 has an picture of the newly-discovered world. I'd planned on talking about BEAST, SPHERE, VLT; comparing ground-based and space observatories; and whatever else came to mind. Then, on Tuesday, I started running a fever. It was of the 'nothing serious' variety, but quite enough to slow me down. After that, the household got a brief visit from number-two daughter, son-in law and granddaughter: a happy occasion. Which also didn't help me do what I'd planned. So I trimmed my plans back to what was possible, and this is the result. b Centauri(AB)b, AKA HD 129116 b: Big Bright Stars and a Big Mystery Planet (From ESO, used w/o permission.) (Binary star HD 129116 and HD 129116 b, its huge exoplanet.)... More at A Catholic Citizen in

I started writing about stars, names, designations and how we got to a point where Sirius is also known as BD-16°1591, ADS 5423 and GJ 244. That started me thinking about telescopes, Galileo, Aristotle and Dante.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

If you haven't already, you'll soon read about a new development in the war between science and religion. " How Covid Raised the Stakes of the War Between Faith and Science " Tish Harrison Warren, The New York Times (November 7, 2021) " Reviews | How Covid raised the stakes in the war between faith and science " newsnetdaily.com (November 7, 2021) Alleged war, at any rate. I can't read the original piece in The New York Times, since it's behind a paywall.... ...I did, however, find this snippet in an online blurb.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Designations like HD 63935 b and c don't exactly roll of the tongue. Although with a little work I might pronounce them "trippingly on the tongue," as Hamlet put it. Maybe saying "sixty five ninety three five bee and cee" would do the trick. Then again, maybe not. I thought, briefly, of calling HD 63935, HD 63935 b and HD 63935 c "Sam, Fred and Chuck;" but thought better of it. At any rate, I'd been catching up on 'exoplanet' notes from the last year or so when I read about the HD 63935 planetary system. HD 63935's known planets there, sub-Neptunes, should help scientists learn more about how planets form. Or, rather, observing them and analyzing those observations should.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

It's barely over two weeks since scientists at the University of Cologne published what they'd learned about a trilobite's unique eye. Their research vindicated an amateur paleontologist's observations, and very likely will raise more questions than it answers. That's par for the course. Answering a few questions and raising many more, I mean. So is discovering something new. New to us, that is. This trilobite's 'hyper-compound' eye last saw the light of day — or dark of the ocean floor — 390,000,000 years ago. I had fun writing this, and hope you enjoy reading it. Who knew trilobite eyes could be so entrancing? More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), a robotic observatory, began 200,000 nearby stars on August 7, 2018. So far, scientists have found more than 2,200 TESS Objects of Interest (TOI). Of these, again so far, 154 have turned out to be exoplanets. They include a few probably-rocky planets around Earth's size, but none are 'Earth 2.0.' And some are like nothing in our Solar System. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Nothing in this universe lasts forever, including stars. Massive stars live fast and die young: exploding as supernovae. One of these, AT2016jka, nicknamed "Requiem," was first spotted in 2016. It showed up again in 2019. Scientists figure they'll get another look in 2037, give or take a few years But the supernova only exploded once. We're getting reruns of the event, thanks to gravitational lensing. I'll be taking about stars, including supernovae, gravitational lensing, and whatever else comes to mind. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Since I'll be talking about COVID-19, variants, and the pandemic, clarifications may be in order. I had COVID-19 vaccinations in May and June, because I thought it was a good idea. Politicos, partisans and crackpots have been throwing accusations and assertions about the pandemic at each other. I'll be talking about that, but I'm not 'political.' I've neither been proclaiming that one political party is in league with the Antichrist, nor denouncing another as a tool of fascists and racists. And, although I think the COVID-19 pandemic is real, I haven't been dreading America's impending doom and destruction. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

The University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research has learned that more than half of all Americans think evolution is real. Seems that 2016 was the tipping point. That's when my country, on average, decided to step into the late 19th century. Or stopped listening to Bible-thumpers. Or started learning about science. At any rate: More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

How the Grand Canyon was formed depends on who's talking. Scientists say it's what happened as a river cut through the Colorado Plateau. Since I think scientists are right about the Colorado River's role in making that mile-deep gulch, and think that both are part of God's creation, maybe an explanation is in order. To begin with, I'm a Christian and a Catholic, so I must believe that God made and makes everything. Which doesn't mean I see God as a supercharged Paul Bunyan. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Several days ago, a robot on Mars selected a hollow coring bit from its tool kit, drilled into a rock, withdrew the tool and placed the core into a sample tube. At least, that's what should have happened. But just to be sure, Perseverance felt inside the tube and took a look before sealing it. Oops. The sample tube was empty. NASA's discussion of the robot's first try at collecting samples is more detailed and less anthropomorphic.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .