Sometimes the dark dust of interstellar space has an angular elegance. Such is the case toward the far-south constellation of Chamaeleon. Normally too faint to see, dark dust is best known for blocking visible light from stars and galaxies behind it. In this 11.4-hour exposure, however, the dust is seen mostly in light of its own, with its strong red and near-infrared colors creating a brown hue. Contrastingly blue, a bright star Beta Chamaeleontis is visible on the upper right of the V, with the dust that surrounds it preferentially reflecting blue light from its primarily blue-white color. All of the pictured stars and dust occur in our own Milky Way Galaxy with one notable exception: a white spot just below Beta Chamaeleontis is the galaxy IC 3104, which lies far in the distance. Interstellar dust is mostly created in the cool atmospheres of giant stars and dispersed into space by stellar light, stellar winds, and stellar explosions such as supernovas. via NASA https://go.nasa.gov/4i88TnT
https://www.youtube.com/watch/47mymgbAs1I How bad is Trump’s Epstein problem? | ask ian
Could Trump have handled the Epstein files any worse? Ian Bremmer says the former president came close, first opposing the release, then reversing course once it was clear he was losing Republican support in Congress.
“When they’re running you out of town, get in front of the crowd and make it look like you’re leading the parade,” Ian says of Trump’s Sunday-night flip.
Now Republicans can safely vote to release what’s legally permissible, while Trump’s DOJ delays disclosures by launching new investigations into Democrats named in the files.
It caps a rough stretch for Trump: election losses in multiple states, slipping poll numbers, and public feuds with longtime allies. But when it comes to the Epstein documents themselves, Ian is clear: they will likely contain embarrassing details for Trump, but he does not expect they will show illegal involvement, or the Biden administration would have already acted.
GZERO Media, a Eurasia Group company, is a multimedia publisher providing news, insights, and commentary on the events shaping our world. Our properties include GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, our weekly show on US public television; our newsletters GZERO Daily, GZERO AI, GZERO North, and GZERO Daily with Ian Bremmer; our parody series Puppet Regime; our digital video series including Ian Bremmer’s Quick Take every week; and the GZERO World Podcast. Our content is free and available at https://bit.ly/4fd0tst.
https://www.youtube.com/watch/zcyA9B9QhAA Trump Attacks Greene and Massie Amid MAGA Civil War Over Epstein Scandal: A Closer Look
Seth takes a closer look at Trump lashing out at MAGA Republicans over their push to release the Epstein files and his sudden reversal on the upcoming House vote.
What has happened to Comet Lemmon’s tail? The answer is blowing in the wind — the wind from the Sun in this case. This continuous outflow of charged particles from the Sun has been quite variable of late, as the Sun emits bursts of energy, CMEs, that push out and deflect charged particles emitted by the comet itself. The result is a blue hued ion tail for Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) that is not only impressively intricate but takes some unusual turns. This long-duration composite image taken from Alfacar, Spain last month captured this inner Solar System ionic tumult. Comet Lemmon is now fading as it heads out away from the Earth and Sun and back into the outer Solar System. via NASA https://go.nasa.gov/49YqlZP
https://www.youtube.com/watch/6_N_fY3vRU0 Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin Share Their Cut SNL Ideas; Call Seth an Enemy of Spider League
Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin talk about sharing an office when they worked at Saturday Night Live, how they ended up casting Jim Downey in their show The Chair Company and their Spider League group chat where everyone battles using spiders they find in the wild.
https://www.youtube.com/watch/hkF1R0oe8OA Epstein White House Briefing Cold Open – SNL
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt (Ashley Padilla) gives a press briefing on newly released Jeffrey Epstein emails before Donald Trump (James Austin Johnson) answers a few questions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch/lHpa62eTUTg MacGruber: Epstein Files – SNL
MacGruber (Will Forte) gets distracted by the Epstein files while attempting to diffuse a bomb with his partners (Glen Powell, Chloe Fineman).
https://www.youtube.com/watch/SesRWE02PIU Weekend Update: Government Shutdown Ends, Epstein Email Says Trump “Knew About the Girls” – SNL
Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week’s biggest news, like DNA analysis showing Hitler had a genetic disorder that caused low testosterone levels and a micropenis.
If this is Saturn, where are the rings? When Saturn’s “appendages” disappeared in 1612, Galileo did not understand why. Later that century, it became understood that Saturn’s unusual protrusions were rings and that when the Earth crosses the ring plane, the edge-on rings will appear to disappear. This is because Saturn’s rings are confined to a plane many times thinner, in proportion, than a razor blade. In modern times, the robotic Cassini spacecraft that orbited Saturn frequently crossed Saturn’s ring plane during its mission to Saturn, from 2004 to 2017. A series of plane crossing images from 2005 February was dug out of the vast online Cassini raw image archive by interested Spanish amateur Fernando Garcia Navarro. Pictured here, digitally cropped and set in representative colors, is the striking result. Saturn’s thin ring plane appears in blue, bands and clouds in Saturn’s upper atmosphere appear in gold. Details of Saturn’s rings can be seen in high dark shadows. The moons Dione and Enceladus appear as bumps in the rings. via NASA https://go.nasa.gov/49sl24V
Crooked believes that we need a better conversation about politics, culture, and the world around us—one that doesn’t just focus on what’s broken, but what we can do to fix it. At a time when it’s increasingly easy to feel cynical or hopeless, former Obama staffers Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, and Tommy Vietor have created a place where people can have sane conversations that inform, entertain, and inspire action. In 2017 they started Crooked with Pod Save America—a no-bullshit conversation about politics. Since then, we continue to add shows, voices, and opportunities for activism, because it’s up to all of us to do our part to build a better world. That’s it. End of mission.