Our local star the Sun has been the source of many studies from ground based telescopes to space based observatories. The ESA Solar Orbiter has been approaching the Sun, capturing images along the way in unprecedented detail. It arrived at its halfway point in March last year and captured a series of 25 images. They have now been stitched together to reveal an astonishingly high resolution image. You can even zoom in to see individual granules in the solar photosphere.  In comparison to Earth, the Sun is massive but in when it comes to other stars, it’s pretty average. It provides energy to sustain life through the process of nuclear fusion deep in its core.  The hydrogen atoms are fused into helium generating so much energy that heat and light bathes our planet. Like all other stars, the Sun is a great big ball of electrically charged gas with a visible surface temperature of about 5,500°C. It measures a staggering 1.39 million km across and lies at an average distance of 150 million km from us. It accounts for 99% of the mass of the Solar System and it is this which is responsible for its immense gravitational pull which has kept planets, asteroids and comets in orbit for the last 4.6 billion years! The Sun on November 1, 2023 with the eQuinox 2 telescope by Unistellar and Smart Solar Filter. Credit: Nancy Atkinson. Without a doubt it is the most prominent astronomical object to grace our skies and so it is no surprise it has been the target of many, many studies. ESA’s Solar Orbiter is one of those space based observatories that has started to unveil some of the mysteries of our nearest star. It was launched in February 2020 and was designed to capture images of the Sun’s poles along with measuring its magnetic fields and the solar wind. The orbit followed by Solar Orbiter is very specific following an elliptical orbit that takes it to within 42 million km of the Sun.  Solar Orbiter On board Solar Orbiter are instruments to probe the dynamics of the Sun. The most exciting of these are those designed to observe the Sun directly and includes the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) and the Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI) which when combined can with other on board instruments can create some fabulously high resolution images. With Solar Orbiter already half way to the Sun ESA have released a stunning new image of our nearest star derived from data from both EUI and PHI. At the time the images were taken, Solar Orbiter was 74 million km away from the Sun (Mercury is approximately 50 million km away) and was too close to be able to capture one image of the whole Sun. Instead, 25 images were taken over a few hours and then stitched together to create the mosaic that has just been released. The finished result can be seen here and has a resolution of around 175 km per pixel. Previous observations have gone deeper for example the Gregor Solar Telescope on Tenerife has achieved a resolution of just 50 km per pixel but this was only ever of a small section of the Sun. Large mosaics were never possible due to the turbulence in the atmosphere making it impossible to stitch sufficient images together.  The image is stunning. If you zoom in you can see the pattern of granulation all over the Sun’s photosphere and even a few sunspots in super high resolution.  Source : The Solar Fire Up Close The post An Insanely High-Resolution Image of the Sun appeared first on Universe Today.

Freaky!

Giving back to his community. For the past 19 years, country music legend Tracy Lawrence has spent the week of Thanksgiving the same way most Americans will be celebrating this week: Cooking turkey. But unlike most Americans, Tracy isn't just cooking up one bird to feed his family. He's frying up 1,600 to feed his community. Tracy and friends took to the Nashville Fairgrounds today for his 19th annual Mission:Possible Turkey Fry, an event benefiting the Nashville Rescue Mission that has served nearly 100,000 meals to the homeless community in Middle Tennessee over nearly two decades. I stopped by the Fairgrounds this morning to talk to Tracy about the event and what it means to the community - and how it got started: "Just a handful of friends wanting to give back to the rescue mission, wanting to do something positive for the community. We've just taken advantage of the opportunities when they presented themselves and grown into this amazing event with all these volunteers and so many great sponsors." And Tracy's not kidding when he talks about the contributions from volunteers that help to make sure the event can happen. This year, he estimates between 250-300 volunteers showed up to help fry up the birds, accept donations and pack bags full of side dishes to be handed out to those in need. But it's way more than one day of work to make it all happen: "I bet we had 75 last night getting everything prepped and laying all the pops out and setting our grid up and everything, getting everything set up, and cleaning and prepping our turkeys. I bet we have 250 to 300 here today at least...and a lot of these folks have been coming every single year, so it's something they put on their list that they come and participate with every year. It's kind of an official kickoff to the holiday season here in Nashville." Over the course of the day, Tracy estimated that they would fry around 1,600 turkeys, which were all donated by the National Wild Turkey Federation and Cargill Turkey. And in addition to those birds, another 1,500 will be donated to various organizations in the area to cook for themselves and serve to the community. It all adds up to around 25,000 meals that will be provided to those in need around Middle Tennessee. But beyond the food, Tracy has also made it his mission to raise money to help keep the support going. As part of the Turkey Fry, Tracy will be hosting a concert at Luke Combs' new downtown Nashville bar, Category 10, featuring performances from Meghan Patrick, Russell Dickerson, Halfway to Hazard and John Schneider (who you may know as Bo Duke from the Dukes of Hazzard). And he also recently launched his own injectable marinade, with a portion of the sales going to support the homeless community in the Nashville area. Over the years, Tracy's Mission:Possible foundation has raised millions of dollars that he's been able to donate back into his Nashville community, and he hopes that it inspires others to do the same in their own communities: "Hopefully what we do will inspire other people. If they have any questions we'll be happy to share our footprint with them and show them how we've done this and how we've grown. Hopefully we can inspire other people to do what we do here, and other people can do it in other places." But that doesn't mean that Tracy doesn't have bigger visions for what he can do in his own community. In addition to his annual Mission:Possible golf tournament, he would like to eventually add a music festival that would be able to bring even more help to those in need: "At some point I would like to see us do something like Farm Aid. We've talked about possibly adding a summertime concert where we actually pay acts and we do something on a televised, grand level. That would be another piece that if we could get to that, something that is on our agenda that we're in conversations about now. There's always room to grow." If you're interested in learning more about supporting Tracy's Mission:Possible foundation, you can check out their website here. And if you're interested in trying out his marinade (I've got a jar sitting on my counter now that I can't wait to try out), you can get it on Amazon and Tracy's website for now, but it will also be available in stores soon. And it's all going to a good cause. @whiskeyriff @Tracy Lawrence ?? // whiskeyriff.com #whiskeyriff #tracylawrence ♬ Find out Who Your Friends Are - Tracy Lawrence

Vivek Reveals Some Of The First ‘Low-Hanging Fruit’ DOGE Is Looking At [WATCH]

The little gourd can shoot its seeds nearly 40 feet via "ballistic dispersal”—but until now, the mechanism behind the plant’s power and proliferation was poorly understood.

The Australian guitarist Orianthi is certainly one of the most famous and respected female guitarists to emerge in recent decades. She is best known for being a member of Michael Jackson's band and for playing with Alice Cooper. Now, the Godfather of Shock Rock has announced that she will rejoin his band for a few dates in 2025, filling in for Nita Strauss, who has commitments of her own. Orianthi was a member of Alice's band from 2011 to 2014. About the future shows with the guitarist, Alice Cooper said: "When Orianthi moved on to pursue her own career in 2014, we were lucky to find Nita. Over the past decade, Nita, Chuck and Tommy have also launched their own projects." "We always try to coordinate our schedule so we can keep the band together, but these shows came up after Nita had already committed to another tour. So I reached out to Orianthi, and thankfully she was available to jump back in, so we're all really looking forward to doing these shows with her. I'm so fortunate to always have such great musicians to work with," Alice Cooper said. Alice Cooper shows with Orianthi on guitar: January 31 - Augusta, GA - Bell Auditorium February 1 - Cherokee, NC - Harrah's Casino Resort Event Center 2 - Greensboro, NC - Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts 4 - Mobile, AL - Saenger Theatre 6 - Orlando, FL - Hard Rock 7 - Ft Myers, FL - Barbara Mann Performing Arts Hall 8 - Clearwater, FL - Coachmen Park 11 - St. Augustine, FL - Amphitheatre 13-17 - Miami, FL - Rock Legends Cruise Further tour dates with Nita Strauss will be announced later. Alice's current band is also formed by Ryan Roxie (Guitar), Chuck Garric (Bass), Tommy Henriksen (Guitar) and Glen Sobel (Drums). His most recent album is "Road" released in 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg94SeFn_Pg&pp=ygUVYWxpY2UgY29vcGVyIG9yaWFudGhpThe post Orianthi will return to Alice Cooper’s band for a few dates in 2025 appeared first on Rock and Roll Garage.

The British guitarist and singer Elvis Costello talked in an interview with Rockonteurs podcast (Transcribed by Ultimate Classic Rock) about his 1986 album "King of America", which was influenced by Folk, Country and Americana. Most of the songs talked about his personal experiences in a way that it was more accessible to the listeners. To explain the importance of that, he compared Bob Dylan and Taylor Swift, saying it is something that both of them do. Elvis Costello compares Bob Dylan and Taylor Swift “All I was doing was reciting things that were happening to me. I know that can be interesting to hear. But it doesn't necessarily engage the listener because they don't know what you're talking about.” “(It) is something that marks out a lot of the Blood on the Tracks songs by Bob Dylan, where one minute they seem to be very raw emotion. The next minute they're clearly invention. And that keeps you guessing.” “I'm not just trying to say this to be down with the kids, but it's also what makes Taylor Swift speak to people. She understands the necessity of taking personal experience, but expressing it in a way that's (relatable). There's lots of other examples of that, she's just the most successful one that you could cite. But that's why she's able to sustain communication with her audience in quite that way,” Elvis Costello said. It was not the first time that Costello praised Swift, he already said that "I think we'll all be working for her eventually". Active in the music business since 1970, Costello already released 33 studio albums, the most recent one being "A Boy Named If", released in 2022. Taylor Swift https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfWlot6h_JM&pp=ygUZdGF5bG9yIHN3aWZ0IHNoYWtlIGl0IG9mZg%3D%3D Born in West Reading, Pennsylvania, Taylor Swift is one of the best-selling artists of all time. She sold an estimated amount of more than 200 million records sold worldwide. Until 2024 she released 11 studio albums, 4 live albums and 4 re-recorded albums. She is currently the solo artist with the most weeks at number one on the United States Billboard 200 chart and also the first billionaire to have music as the main source of income. In 2023 she was the most streamed artist in Spotify, with 26.1 billion streams. Certainly there is no artist like her nowadays, who can generate this amount of ticket and record sales everywhere in the world.The post Elvis Costello compares Bob Dylan and Taylor Swift appeared first on Rock and Roll Garage.

The legendary pianist and singer Elton John said in an interview with Good Morning America that he is blind in his right eye and can't see anything. He had already talked a few months ago that he was recovering from an eye infection that causes temporary blindness. However, the recovery is slow and as he told the American TV show, he can't see in his right eye since July. His vision is also not really good in the left eye, so he said he can't read and can't watch anything. Elton John says he is blind in his right eye "I unfortunately lost my eyesight in my right eye in July because I had an infection in the South of France, and it's been four months now since I haven’t been able to see. My left eye is not the greatest." "I can do something like this (the interview) but going into the studio and recording, I don't know. Because I can't see a lyric for start. ... It kind of floored me, and I can't see anything. I can't read anything, I can't watch anything." Recently a song called "Never Too Late" with Brandi Carlile was released and will be part of the documentary "Elton John: Never Too Late". In the same interview he talked about that, saying: "I'm so proud of the documentary. I'm proud of my sons. I'm proud of my attitude towards myself and what's going on. I’m just very lucky and I’m very grateful." Born in Pinner, Middlesex, England back in 1947, Elton John started his musical career in 1962, releasing his solo debut album “Empty Sky” in 1969. Since then he became one of the best-selling artists of all time with an estimated amount of more than 300 million records sold worldwide. His farewell tour started back in 2018 and became during the last years the first one in history to achieve over $900,000,000 tickets sold. He released more than 30 studio albums during his career and many of them have received countless awards like the Grammy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwL4UC_tLTI&pp=ygUaZWx0b24gam9obiBicmFuZGkgY2FybGlsZSA%3D The post Elton John says he is blind in his right eye appeared first on Rock and Roll Garage.

Phil Collins certainly demonstrated his versatility throughout his career. He first achieved fame as a drummer, then became the frontman of Genesis, proved his talent as a songwriter, enjoyed immense success in his solo career, and even ventured into acting. While growing up, he was influenced by many kinds of music, but the so-called "Motown sound" held a particularly special place in his heart. He once revealed which band, famous for their Motown Records albums, was his favorite. The Motown band that Phil Collins said was his favorite The most recent Phil Collins album is "Going Back", released in 2010, which features only covers of Motown and Soul standards. In an interview with Centerstage in the year the record was released (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage), Collins revealed which was his favorite Motown band or artist. "Probably the Four Tops were (my favorite). Because they had, certainly in England, where I lived, they had just one hit after the other. They were just full of hooks and you know, they're just great songs." (...) (Motown) is the music I grew up with. I mean, as well as The Beatles, which of course, everybody grew up with. For me, it was the Motown records that I really gravitated to. So for me it's the soundtrack of my life. I've never sung these songs, apart from the school band," Phil Collins said. On his album "Going Back", Collins covered a few songs previously recorded by Four Tops. Some of them were songs "Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever", "Standing in the Shadows of Love" and "Something About You". He wrote a song for The Four Tops and became a huge hit In the 80s, besides being a solo artist and a member of Genesis, Collins also worked as a producer and co-wrote songs for other artists. One of them was "Loco In Acapulco", which was curiously given to The Four Tops. He co-wrote the track with Lamont Dozier, who is one of the most famous songwriters of the Motown songwriting team. The song was part of the Four Tops album "Indestructible" in 1988. Also part of the soundtrack of the movie "Buster", released in the same year, starring Phil Collins. In an interview with EON music, the founding member of The Four Tops, Abdul "Duke" Fakir talked about working with Collins. "We met him. He wrote that with Lamont Dozier who was part of the team with Holland–Dozier–Holland." "He sang on the recording. When he won some kind of award, we came over with him to get some kind of award. We got to be pretty good buddies for a while there! I love him," Abdul "Duke" Fakir said. Collins played that song live during a solo show in 1997. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5pv06dXmgQ The Four Tops have been active since 1953 but the band continues without original members. The last surviving member, who was Abdul, passed away in 2024 at the age of 88. During their career, the band released 27 studio albums, the most recent one being "Christmas Here with You" (1995). Some of their most famous songs are "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch), "Reach Out I'll Be There" and "Baby I Need Your Loving".The post The Motown band that Phil Collins said was his favorite appeared first on Rock and Roll Garage.