Five

Rigged Vote

Explanation:

Sprawling emission nebulae IC 1396 and Sh2-129 mix glowing interstellar gas and dark dust clouds in this nearly 12 degree wide field of view toward the northern constellation Cepheus the King. Energized by its central star IC 1396 (left), is hundreds of light-years across and some 3,000 light-years distant. The nebula's intriguing dark shapes include a winding dark cloud popularly known as the Elephant's Trunk below and right of center. Tens of light-years long, it holds the raw material for star formation and is known to hide protostars within. Located a similar distance from planet Earth, the bright knots and swept back ridges of emission of Sh2-129 on the right suggest its popular name, the Flying Bat Nebula. Within the Flying Bat, the most recently recognized addition to this royal cosmic zoo is the faint bluish emission from Ou4, the Giant Squid Nebula. Near the lower right edge of the frame, the suggestive dark marking on the sky cataloged as Barnard 150 is also known as the dark Seahorse Nebula.

PinkWug

Explanation: It's fun to scribble on the canvas of the sky. You can use a creative photographic technique to cause the light of point-like stars to dance across a digital image by tapping lightly on the telescope while making an exposure. The result will be a squiggly line traced by the star (or two squiggles traced by binary stars) that can reveal the star's color. Colorful lines, dubbed Ghirigori, made from stars found in the northern sky constellations Bootes, Corona Borealis, Ophiucus, and Coma Berenices, are captured in this artistic mosaic. The 25 stars creating the varied and colorful squiggles are identified around the border. Of course, temperature determines the color of a star. While whitish stars tend to be close to the Sun's temperature, stars with bluer hues are hotter, and yellow and red colors are cooler than the Sun.

What's that below the Moon? Jupiter -- and its largest moons. Many skygazers across planet Earth enjoyed the close conjunction of Earth's Moon passing nearly in front of Jupiter in mid-June. The featured image is a single exposure of the event taken from Morón de la Frontera, Spain. The sunlit lunar crescent on the left is overexposed, while the Moon's night side, on the right, is only faintly illuminated by Earthshine. Lined up diagonally below the Moon, left to right, are Jupiter's bright Galilean satellites: Callisto, Ganymede, Io (hard to see as it is very near to Jupiter), and Europa. In fact, Callisto, Ganymede, and Io are larger than Earth's Moon, while Europa is only slightly smaller. NASA's robotic spacecraft Juno is currently orbiting Jupiter and made a close pass near Io only a week ago. If you look up in the night sky tonight, you will again see two of the brightest objects angularly close together -- because tonight is another Moon-Jupiter conjunction.

Communities are also fiercely opposing the mining because of the threat of water pollution. A 2019 report handed to judges of the Constitutional Court of Ecuador by the US foundation Defend Them All detailed the significant damage the exploitation of Loma Larga would have on the wetlands ecosystem, saying it was “virtually guaranteed to contaminate surface and groundwater” and that “the complicated hydrology of the moorlands means that this contamination will spread unpredictably”.

The campaigning from locals has already had some success. A 2021 referendum saw 80% of the population vote to ban metal mining near water sources, and a court ruling last year also banned mining in the region, with a judge ruling that DPM had not properly consulted the community. DPM downplayed both rulings, and regarding the latter has asked if it can gain permission to repeat the consultation while continuing with the project.

Nestled between the working-class Hochelega neighborhood, a port logistics center, and the St. Lawrence River in Southeast Montreal, the Terrain Vague is a green space and commons in the metropolitan desert. For longer than anyone can remember, people have gathered at this spot to celebrate, share food, and enjoy each other’s company. In ways analogous to the South River Forest in Atlanta, this ‘terrain vague’—a technical term that roughly translates as ‘vacant lot’—functions as one of the last real public spaces in Montreal where people can do what they want. A wild and unusual place, as vague as it is beautiful.

It thus surprises no one that over the past few decades, a succession of industrial projects have threatened to crush the territory’s unruly ambiguity—or that the surrounding community has fought back. Most recently, hundreds of people from a variety of social and political backgrounds converged on the space from June 4 to 11 for a series of workshops, circus performances, children’s theatrical plays, and punk shows in a shared effort to keep these woods alive.