I've seen several examples of this on Twitter today. I'm disgusted at some of the (predictable) responses, such as 'they can't be trusted with vouchers' & 'I bet the parents smoke & drink and have Netflix'.
How about we ask ourselves how we are in a 1st world country and kids have food insecurity at all.
This myth that people are poor because they deserve it needs to be stopped. We do not all get the same break in life. Stop being so arrogant.
Note: I'm not saying I've never been judgemental. I definitely have. If you're privileged, it's easy to think you got there purely because of your hard work and talent. But over the years I've stepped outside myself, grown up, and stop being so self-centred.
In case anyone wants to know who the company that got this contract is, it's @Chartwells_UK. They're making huge amounts of money from poor people. Remember that. They're pretending this is not a true example, but there are a lot more testimonials from people.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
M60, shown here being photobombed by NGC 4647, is a giant elliptical galaxy in the constellation Virgo♍️. It is this week’s #MessierMonday 👏and to be honest M60's friends are a bit more interesting than it. . .
(1/5)
Image credits: NASA/ESA
NGC 4647 & M60 form a pair known as Arp 116. From Earth they appear to overlap but there isn’t the associated star formation you usually get with interacting galaxies. This led astronomers to wonder whether there is any actual interaction between the two.
(2/5)
Hubble to the rescue: 🛰️
Recent studies of images from the HST show that they are starting to interact tidally. This suggests that there is interaction but it’s relatively new.
For this week’s #MessierMonday we turn to the constellation Virgo♍️. . . and 62 million light years away.
It’s M58, which is a bar spiralled galaxy. 😍
This image is so beautiful, it looks like a painting.🎨
Credit: Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona
(1/7)
M58 is the most distant Messier object. In large binoculars you can see its bright centre. It’s one of the brightest members of the Virgo Cluster.
Below shows the galaxy in infrared.
(2/7)
Image:NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Kennicutt & the SINGS Team
It's designated NGC 4579 in the New General Catalogue, and has other designations but it doesn’t have a special name like some deep sky objects, which is a shame because, as you will see, it is pretty special.
You might recognise this week’s #MessierMonday. It’s a bit of a superstar🤩. Well, technically it’s the remains of a moderately sized star, but it’s quite famous. 😃
Here is M57. The glorious ring nebula.
(1/6)
Credit: ESA/NASA
The ring nebula is found in the constellation Lyra. The word ‘nebula’ often conjures up images of huge stellar nurseries from giant supernova explosions, but this is a planetary nebula—the remains of a medium-sized star. Like ours.
(2/6)
They have a less spectacular ending than that of larger stars. That does not take anything away from their beauty though.
The white dot at the centre is a white dwarf. It's no longer undergoing fusion but it’s still incredibly hot and emitting ionising radiation.
(3/6)
It’s #MessierMonday, tweeps!
This sparkling beauty is M56, a globular cluster in the constellation Lyra.
The image is from the HST and composed of wavelengths in visible & infrared. Without the infrared component some of that beauty would be obscured.
(1/5)
Image: NASA/ESA
Messier discovered M56 on the 19th January, in 1779. Even though it’s not difficult to find position-wise it’s difficult to see without a telescope. Even with binoculars it looks a bit like an out-of-focus star. It’s quite dim and doesn’t have an especially bright core.
(2/5)
Part of the reason for this is it’s close to the galactic plane, which means there’s loads of cosmic dust in the way. The inclusion of infrared in the Hubble image helps reveal parts obscured by the dust.
(3/5)
This week, #MessierMonday brings you the Summer Rose Star in the summer constellation Sagittarius. 🌹🌟
Also known as M55, it’s not a star but a globular cluster. In fact, it’s about 100,000 stars!
(1/5)
Image: ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA
M55 was originally discovered by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1752 in (what is now) South Africa. With a declination of about -30°, it never gets very far above the horizon for me, even in the summer.
Charles Messier was in Paris, which has a latitude of about 49°N. . .
(2/5)
. . .so there weren't many good opportunities for him to have a good look at the Summer Rose Star. He was actively searching for this object, rather than just discovering it in the sky & putting it in his catalogue. He finally managed it in 1778.
(3/5)
Last week we looked at the furthest northerly globular cluster discovered and for this week's #MessierMonday we’re going to look at the first globular cluster found OUTSIDE OUR GALAXY!
Say hi to M54. 👋
(1/5)
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
M54 belongs to the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy. But in time the Milky Way will gobble the dwarf galaxy up and it will be ours! *Evil laugh*.
It's already passed several times & may have led to new star formation in the Milky Way.
(2/5)
Image credit: ESA
Messier discovered M54 in 1778 but it wasn’t known it was in a different galaxy until 1994 — over 200 years later!
He described it as a 'very faint nebula. . .its centre is brilliant and it contains no star'. It is brilliant but it's got more than its fair share of stars!