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From today's featured article

Sirius A and B from the
Hubble Space Telescope

Sirius, designated Alpha Canis Majoris, is the brightest star in the night sky with a visual magnitude of −1.46. It is a close binary star system, consisting of Sirius A, a white main-sequence star, and a faint companion white dwarf, Sirius B, which was originally a massive bluish star that became a red giant before shedding its outer layers and collapsing to a white dwarf. It is one of Earth's near neighbors, at 2.6 parsecs (8.6 light-years). Sirius A is about twice as massive as the Sun and has an absolute magnitude of 1.42. It is 25 times more luminous than the Sun but has a lower luminosity than other bright stars. The system is 200 to 300 million years old. Sirius is known as the "Dog Star", due to its prominence in its constellation, Canis Major. The rising of Sirius marked the flooding of the Nile in Ancient Egypt and the "dog days" of summer for the ancient Greeks, while to the Polynesians it was important for Pacific navigation. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Chemical graph of the overlapping substructures of caffeine

... that one of the first generators of chemical graphs (example pictured) was developed in the context of NASA's Mariner program to facilitate the automated identification of chemical compounds in the search for life on Mars?
... that Millie Dienert was called the "first lady of prayer" for her work on behalf of evangelist Billy Graham?
... that the Sonata in C major for piano four-hands by Franz Schubert was, for over a century after its publication in 1837, thought of as a symphony in disguise?
... that Joseph B. O'Hagan resigned the presidency of the College of the Holy Cross to recuperate but soon thereafter died at sea?
... that the Mississippi–Alabama barrier islands have shrunken rapidly and drifted westward since first being mapped in the 1800s?
... that Domus Litonii is the only remaining 19th-century residential building in the entire centre of Helsinki?
... that in the film Dog Day Afternoon, Al Pacino improvised the "Attica! Attica!" scene following the suggestion of an assistant director?
... that Hollis Taylor has argued that birdsong should be considered music?

In the news

Samia Suluhu

Samia Suluhu (pictured) becomes the first female president of Tanzania, following the death of John Magufuli at the age of 61.
Mathematicians Avi Wigderson and László Lovász share the Abel Prize for their work in complexity theory and graph theory.
In sailing, the America's Cup concludes with Team New Zealand beating Italy's Luna Rossa Challenge.
In the United States, a series of mass shootings at three massage parlors in Atlanta leaves eight dead, including six women of Asian descent.

On this day

March 21

Statue of Phra Phrom at the Erawan Shrine

1556 – Former Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer, one of the founders of Anglicanism, was burnt at the stake for heresy in Oxford, England.
1861 – Alexander H. Stephens, Vice President of the Confederate States of America, gave an extemporaneous speech laying out the Confederacy's rationale for seceding from the United States.
1968 – War of Attrition: The Battle of Karameh took place between the Israel Defense Forces and allied troops of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Jordanian Armed Forces.
2006 – A man smashed the statue of Phra Phrom (pictured) at the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok, Thailand, with a hammer, and was subsequently beaten to death by bystanders.

John Law (d. 1729)
Al Williamson (b. 1931)
Marina Salye (d. 2012)

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Today's featured picture

The Vision of St. John on Patmos is a series of frescoes painted between 1520 and 1522 by the Italian Renaissance artist Antonio da Correggio. Depicting a scene from the Book of Revelation, it occupies the interior of the dome, and the surrounding pendentives, of the Benedictine church of San Giovanni Evangelista in Parma, Italy.

Painting credit: Antonio da Correggio; photographed by Livioandronico2013

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