The Pandemic is over, and, while covid still lurks, this subject is swiftly becoming a non-newsworthy subject.  Mind you, don't be stupid about this virus, for it will yet return in various ways.  In the future, though, until this happens, Thursdays will thus evolve into my health and medical advances day.  So for today, from   Worldometer : Most cases this week ( 7 day period ): World  161,589  #1  S. Korea  106,642  ( 66% of all cases ) #2  USA  15,918 #3  Brazil  9,297 But many countries don't report anymore. Cases in past week per million population: World  20 #1  Tokelau  22,496 #2  S. Korea  2,078 #3  Barbados  1309 #18  USA  48 #30  Phillipines  20 Deaths this past week: World  577 Brazil  138 Canada  96 USA  81 Deaths in past week per million population: World  0.07 #1  Barbados  21 #2  Norway  6 #3  New Zealand  5 #16  USA  0.2 The  James Webb Space Telescope celebrated its one-year old birthday  by sending us a new photo of the closest star-forming region to Planet Ea

                      From  Worldometer  (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):     DAY     USA    WORLD      Brazil      India      South Africa June     9     1093     4732         1185        246       82 July    22      1205     7128         1293      1120     572 Aug    12      1504     6556        1242        835     130 Sept     9      1208      6222       1136       1168       82 Oct     21      1225      6849         571        703       85 Nov    25       2304    12025        620        518      118 Dec     30       3880    14748       1224       299      465 Jan      14       4142      15512        1151        189      712 Feb      3       4005    14265       1209       107      398 Mar      2       1989     9490        1726       110      194 April     6        906    11787         4211       631       37 May     4        853     13667        3025      3786     59   June    1        287    10637         2346      3205      95  July    7         251      8440        1595        8

For my science Wednesday, I return to outer space.  It is more and more appearing that just about every star out there has a surrounding solar system, meaning planets, or, relative to us, extrasolar planets, or exoplanets.  In fact,  Forbes , speculated that for every star, there are from 100 to 100,000 planets.  Most of these are rogue planets in the spaces between stars.  The ones astrobiologists  are interested in for possible life must, of course, have a close-by star to provide energy. Any photos of them?   Actually one was announced  in April of this year, using the Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea, together with the Hubble Telescope.  Well, maybe not quite, as this a globe about 9 times the mass of Jupiter at an early stage of planet formation.  It was located circling star AB Aurigae located 508 light years away. If that counts as one, then now two, as the  James Webb Space Telescope  just reported imaging another. Exoplanet 65426 b has no chance for life, as it is a gas giant nin

The latest photos from the   James Webb Space Telescope   were again noteworthy.  While earlier shots peered deep into space, the newest two featured Jupiter: See that white spot?  This is the Great Red Spot, a storm so big that it could swallow Planet Earth.  Why is the color white?  That circle reflects a lot of sunlight.  This is the usual graphic. The image also shows two tiny moons, Amalthea and Adrastea.   How many of you know how many moons are circling Jupiter ?  There are 80, plus other moonlets.   The largest moons are Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, all discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610.  There is a naming-pattern to these moons:  lovers and sexual partners of Roman god Jupiter, or his Greek equivalent Zeus.  23 of them have yet to be named.  They should begin to add those of  Eros . Actually, there are Chinese astronomical records reporting in 356 BC that Gan De detected a moon of Jupiter, probably Ganymede, with the naked eye.  Reportedly, he used a tree to "oc

Yesterday I indicated that NASA would be releasing the  first full-color image released from the James Webb Space Telescope .  Well, here it is: Our universe is around 13.7 billion years old.  The JWST,  launched on December 25, 2021 , will have the potential to look back perhaps 13.4 billion years.   It is six times larger and 100 times more powerful than   Hubble, sent out 32 years ago in 1990.   Here is a graphic of the same portion of the sky comparing Hub with Jim: Galaxy clusters, as seen above, are the most massive objects in the universe.  This boggles the mind, but a cluster of galaxies can consist of hundreds to thousands of galaxies bound together by gravity.  The typical mass of each is 10 to the fourteenth power - 10 to the fifteenth power the mass of our sun!  Then, there are  bodies such as the  Laniakea SUPERcluster  as seen to the right.   Laniakea is Hawaiian for  immense heaven .  Remember that asteroid that recently zoomed through our solar system?   Oumuamua  was d

Today, again, nothing worthy about Donald Trump, although tomorrow could be another major  House January 6 Committee hearing  day.  Starts at 11 AM EDT, focusing on how the Trump team marshaled the mob.  Then, on Thursday, possibly their final hearing, the Committee will zero-in on The Donald. Today a few odds and ends accumulating on this blog site.  To start, a few more tidbits about The Open, which Wednesday night at 10PM in Hawaii begins telecasting on the USA channel: About the 100 golfers teeing off: #74  Kurt Kitayama, a 29-year old American who graduated from UNLV, has been playing on the DP World ( European ) Tour, and was #2 on the Genesis Scottish Open yesterday.  And for those who watched that tournament and didn't figure it out,  Genesis  is the luxury line of Hyundai, officially becoming a standalone model with the Genesis G90 in 2017.  JD Power named Genesis the most dependable automative brand in 2020. #57  Bryson DeChambeau. #37  Justin Rose #29  Tiger Woods ( has