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It’s been a tough year. To many of us, every day during the coronavirus pandemic has felt incredibly long. Perhaps it will come as a relief that Monday will be the shortest day of the year. December 21 will also bring a rare cosmic phenomenon. If the sky is clear over the next few nights, look out just over the southwest horizon. You may see Jupiter and Saturn coming together and then drifting apart in an event known as “the great conjunction.” Although this occurs once every two decades, the last time they came this close, and we Earthlings got such a clear view, was in 1226.
William Teets, director of the Dyer Observatory at Vanderbilt University, explains what exactly happens on the winter solstice, and invites you to join his livestream of the great conjunction on Dec. 21.
This week we also liked a profile of Anthony Fauci, an in-depth piece about llamas and an article that explained what’s going on with food insecurity in Los Angeles
County.
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The 2020 winter solstice night will be accompanied by another cosmic event known as ‘the great conjunction,’ when Saturn and Jupiter will appear right next to each other.
Andrew Doughty/EyeEm via Getty Images and Jeff Dai/Stocktrek via Getty Images
William Teets, Vanderbilt University
The 2020 winter solstice is also when Saturn and Jupiter appear closest to each other for 60 years, Here's what you need to know about both the events.
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Fauci is an accomplished scientist who also excels at connecting with the public.
AP Photo/Cliff Owen
Barbara Gastel, Texas A&M University
2020 was a big year for Fauci – but he's been on the national stage for decades. Here's more about his work before COVID-19 and why he was perfectly poised to help the US respond to the pandemic.
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Llamas In a pen, Pasajes, Tarija, Bolivia.
Insights/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Emily Wakild, Boise State University
Llama toys, therapy lamas, petting zoo llamas: llamas are hot in the US, surpassing unicorns in popularity, but their relationship with South American people stretches over 7,000 years.
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Rodolfo Galvan Estrada III, Fuller Theological Seminary
The differences in the Gospels are hard to reconcile. That's because, says a scholar, they offer an important insight into the Greco-Roman views of ethnic identity.
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Kayla de la Haye, University of Southern California
Not having enough to eat is a major public health concern, not only because it causes hunger and distress, but also because it’s linked to poor nutrition and unstable diet patterns.
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Sarah Esther Lageson, Rutgers University - Newark ; Elizabeth Chiarello, Saint Louis University
A recent Labor Department memo urges agencies to avoid releasing press releases accusing companies of violating laws, to protect the companies' reputations. People are denied the same protections.
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