An astronaut on the International Space Station took these images of the Quirimbas Islands along Mozambique’s coastline near Tanzania’s border on Nov. 24, 2021. The 32 small islands stretch 322 kilometers (200 miles) along the coastline and are partly linked o the coast by mangroves, sand bars and coral reefs. The light blue-green water surrounding the islands highlights the shallow complex of corals, sand and seagrass. The islands are home to an array of plants and animals including 3,000 floral species, with 1,000 being endemic, meaning they are only found on the islands. The islands’ waters host 52 species of corals, 140 species of mollusk, eight species of marine mammals and five species of turtles. Vamizi, one of the largest islands of the Quirimbas Archipelago, is an important nesting site for hawksbill turtles and green turtles. 170 green turtle nests were observed on the island from 2019 to 2020, making it the largest nesting site in Mozambique for the species. https://go.nasa.gov/3xdbWo8
[NASA Earth]
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“At 19, I read a sentence that re-terraformed my head: The level of matter in the universe has been constant since the Big Bang." In all the aeons we have lost nothing, we have gained nothing - not a speck, not a grain, not a breath. The universe is simply a sealed, twisting kaleidoscope that has reordered itself a trillion trillion trillion times over.
Each baby, then, is a unique collision - a cocktail, a remix - of all that has come before: made from molecules of Napoleon and stardust and comets and whale tooth; colloidal mercury and Cleopatra's breath: and with the same darkness that is between the stars between, and inside, our own atoms. When you know this, you suddenly see the crowded top deck of the bus, in the rain, as a miracle: this collection of people is by way of a starburst constellation. Families are bright, irregular-shaped nebulae. Finding a person you love is like galaxies colliding.
We are all peculiar, unrepeatable, perambulating micro-universes - we have never been before and we will never be again. Oh God, the sheer exuberant, unlikely face of our existences. The honour of being alive. They will never be able to make you again. Don't you dare waste a second of it thinking something better will happen when it ends. Don't you dare."
- Caitlin Moran
