December 23

The SAN Script Friday, December 23

 

The path of the righteous is like the morning sun,
shining ever brighter till the full light of day.

– Proverbs 4:18

If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.

Shirley Chisholm

St. Anthony Today

Great news today – we will receive $4500.00 from Telus today – to be used exclusively for our makerspaces!

Special breakfast Treat brought to you by the social committee!!

Pizza Day!!

Goodlife Fitness M Chartrand’s class – 2:20 PM

Final St. Anthony Superstars for 2016!!

Traditions of Christmas Bells

Golden Christmas Bells

Bells, especially Church Bells, have traditionally been associated with Christmas for a long time. In the Anglican and Catholic churches, the church day starts at sunset, so any service after that is the first service of the day. So a service on Christmas Eve after sunset is traditionally the first service of Christmas day! In churches that have a Bell or Bells, They are often rung to signal the start of this service.

In some churches in the UK, it is traditional that the largest bell in the church is rung four times in the hour before midnight and then at midnight all the bells are rung in celebration.

In the Catholic Church, Christmas and Easter are the only times that Mass is allowed to be held at Midnight. It’s traditional that at both midnight Masses, the church and altar bells too in many cases are rung while the Priest says the “Gloria” (Gloria in excelsis Deo).

Having a Mass at Midnight at Christmas dates back to the early church, when it was believed that Jesus was born at midnight, although there has never been any proof of this! A lot of Churches have midnight services on Christmas Eve, although not every church will have a mass or communion as part of the service.

In many Catholic countries such as France, Spain and Italy, the midnight mass service is very important and everyone tries to go to a service.

In Victorian times, it was very fashionable to go carol singing with small handbells to play the tune of the carol. Sometimes there would only be the bells and no singing! Handbell ringing is still popular today.

 

December 21

The SAN Script – Wednesday, December

 

guest-readers

In a very real sense not one of us is qualified, but it seems that God continually chooses the most unqualified to do [God’s] work, to bear [God’s] glory.

Madeleine L’Engle

St. Anthony Today

Assembly – 9:15 am

Paul out – deliveries of hampers to our families

Goodlife Gymnastics – Grade 3 2:00 PM

#CelebrateWithDE – Winter Holidays

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Holidays unite people around ideas, beliefs, and customs. As schools and classrooms prepare for winter break, many students will celebrate holidays. Explore these Discovery Education resources to learn more about winter holidays around the world and check out some fresh takes on familiar traditions.

link to this audio – some great content you can use today!!

December 20

The SAN Script – Tuesday, December 20

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Hi everyone

I strongly urge you to move to Remind as a way to communicate with your parents.  Here is an instructional video

St. Anthony Today

lunch-lady

Guest Reader Session in Mrs. Rupnik’s class-1:15 Aiden’s dad – 1:15

Goodlife – Ms Troccoli – 12:50

Paul away – 1:30 PM Board

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The 12 Days of Christmas

Drawing of a Partridge in a Pear Tree - The 12 Days of ChristmasThe 12 Days of Christmas are now most famous as a song about someone receiving lots of presents from their ‘true love’. However, to get to the song there had to be the days to start with!

The 12 Days of Christmas start on Christmas Day and last until the evening of the 5th January – also known as Twelfth Night. The 12 Days have been celebrated in Europe since before the middle ages and were a time of celebration.

The 12 Days each traditionally celebrate a feast day for a saint and/or have different celebrations:

  • Day 1 (25th December): Christmas Day – celebrating the Birth of Jesus
  • Day 2 (26th December also known as Boxing Day): St Stephen’s Day. He was the first Christian martyr (someone who dies for their faith). It’s also the day when the Christmas Carol ‘Good King Wenceslas‘ takes place.
  • Day 3 (27th December): St John the Apostle (One of Jesus’s Disciples and friends)
  • Day 4 (28th December): The Feast of the Holy Innocents – when people remember the baby boys which King Herod killed when he was trying to find and kill the Baby Jesus.
  • Day 5 (29th December): St Thomas Becket. He was Archbishop of Canterbury in the 12th century and was murdered on 29th December 1170 for challenging the King’s authority over Church.
  • Day 6 (30th December): St Egwin of Worcester.
  • Day 7 (31st December): New Years Eve (known as Hogmanay in Scotland). Pope Sylvester I is traditionally celebrated on this day. He was one of the earliest popes (in the 4th Century). In many central and eastern European countries (including Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland and Slovenia) New Years Eve is still sometimes called ‘Silvester’. In the UK, New Years Eve was a traditional day for ‘games’ and sporting competitions. Archery was a very popular sport and during the middle ages it was the law that it had to be practised by all men between ages 17-60 on Sunday after Church! This was so the King had lots of very good archers ready in case he need to go to war!
  • Day 8 (1st January): 1st January – Mary, the Mother of Jesus
  • Day 9 (2nd January): St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory Nazianzen, two important 4th century Christians.
  • Day 10 (3rd January): Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus. This remembers when Jesus was officially ‘named’ in the Jewish Temple. It’s celebrated by different churches on a wide number of different dates!
  • Day 11 (4th January): St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American saint, who lived in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the past it also celebrated the feast of Saint Simon Stylites (who lives on a small platform on the top of a pillar for 37 years!).
  • Day 12 (5th January also known as Epiphany Eve): St. John Neumann who was the first Bishop in American. He lived in the 19th century.

Twelfth Night

Twelfth Night was a big time of celebration with people holding large parties. During these parties, often the roles in society were reversed with the servants being served by the rich people. This dated back to medieval and Tudor times when Twelfth Night marked the end of ‘winter’ which had started on 31st October with All Hallows Eve (Halloween).

At the start of Twelfth Night the Twelfth Night cake was eaten. This was a rich cake made with eggs and butter, fruit, nuts and spices. The modern Italian Panettone is the cake we currently have that’s most like the old Twelfth Night cake.

A dried pea or bean was cooked in the cake. Whoever found it was the Lord (or Lady) of Misrule for night. The Lord of Misrule led the celebrations and was dressed like a King (or Queen). This tradition goes back to the Roman celebrations of Saturnalia. In later times, from about the Georgian period onwards, to make the Twelfth Night ‘gentile’, two tokens were put in the cake (one for a man and one for a women) and whoever found them became the the ‘King’ and ‘Queen’ of the Twelfth Night party.

In English Cathedrals during the middle ages there was the custom of the ‘Boy Bishop’ where a boy from the Cathedral or monastery school was elected as a Bishop on 6th December (St Nicholas Day) and had the authority of a Bishop (except to perform Mass) until 28th December. King Henry VIII banned the practise in 1542 although it came back briefly under Mary I in 1552 but Elizabeth I finally stopped it during her reign.

Twelfth Night Tradition - geograph.org.uk - 102515
Wassailing apple trees on Twelfth Night in Maplehurst, West Sussex, UK by Glyn Baker [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

During Twelfth Night it was traditional for different types of pipes to be played, especially bagpipes. Lots of games were played including ones with eggs. These included tossing an egg between two people moving further apart during each throw – drop it and you lose and passing an egg around on spoons. Another popular game was ‘snapdragon’ where you picked raisins or other dried fruit out of a tray of flaming brandy!

The first monday after Christmas feast has finished was known as ‘Plough Monday’ as this was when farming work would all begin again!

In many parts of the UK, people also went Wassailing on Twelfth Night.

Twelfth Night is also known as Epiphany Eve. In many countries it’s traditional to put the figures of the Wise Men/Three Kings into the Nativity Scene on Epiphany Eve ready to celebrate Epiphany on the 6th January.

It’s also traditional to take your Christmas decorations down following Twelfth Night.

Twelfth Night is also the name of a famous play written by William Shakespeare. It’s thought it was written in 1601/1602 and was first performed at Candlemas in 1602, although it wasn’t published until 1623.

 

 

December 18

The SAN Script The week of December 19 – 23

It’s never enough

It’s not enough.

There are more people, better off, with more freedom, more agency and more power than at any other time in our history.

That’s not enough.

As we use technology and culture to create more health, more access and more dignity for more people, we keep reminding ourselves how inadequate it is in the face of the injustice and pain that remains.

That’s how we get better.

We must focus on the less fortunate and the oppressed not because the world isn’t getting better but because it is.

It’s our attention to those on the fringes that causes the world to get better.

When Beauty Leads to Empathy

I’ve been blessed to speak to a variety of audiences and events around the world. But in September it was my great privilege to speak alongside my youngest daughter to a TEDx audiences in West Vancouver.

Having spoken in West Vancouver a few years ago, I was asked to return. A few weeks before my invitation, Martha, who was in grade 12 mentioned that one day she would love to give a TED talk. So I asked Craig Cantlie if he might be willing to take a chance and have Martha and I speak together. Craig listened to our proposal for a talk which was really a thread of an idea and decided to take a chance.

This talk is based on Martha’s passion around feminism. She has taught me a great deal and I tried to take her learning and mine and put it in a broader context. Our process of collaboration began with her writing what she wanted to say. I then tried to compliment her story as best I could.

Given the events of the past few weeks, I think the talk offers much to ponder. My personal passion for civil discourse and a focus on beauty are ideas that I still am working through. I don’t think we’re offering any simple answers here but just a story and some ideas to consider.

St. Anthony this week

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Monday, December 19

Office Hours Rec Link Mondays 9:00 – 3:00PM

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Tuesday, December 20

lunch-lady

 

 

 

 

Goodlife – Ms Troccoli – 12:50

Wednesday, December 21

wastefree-wednesday

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Winter Solstice (Discovery Education)

9:00 am – School Assembly

Agenda:
1.Sports Presentation – highlights from this fall

Boys Volleyball

Girls Volleyball

Girls Gaelic Football

Boys Soccer
2. Wastefree Wednesday Winners
3. Report of Waste Audit and Google Slide Presentation
4. Grade 6 (extended class) will be performing a (short) original song at the assembly too

Goodlife Gymnastics – Grade 3  – 2:00 PM

Thursday, December 22

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Advent Liturgy – 1:00 pm

Friday, December 23

Goodlife Fitness M Chartrand’s class – 2:20 PM

Last St. Anthony Superstars – 3:00 PM

The beginning of Christmas Break – Merry Christmas Everyone!!

merry-christmas

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December 15

The SAN Script Friday, December 16th

kp

Christmas is the spirit of giving without a thought of getting. It is happiness because we see joy in people. It is forgetting self and finding time for others. It is discarding the meaningless and stressing the true values.

Thomas S. Monson

St. Anthony Today

Pizza today!!

Goodlife Fitness M Chartrand’s class – 2:20

St. Anthony Superstars!! – 3:00 PM

super-stars

The Tradition of Advent

Advent is the period of four Sundays and weeks before Christmas (or sometimes from the 1st December to Christmas Day!). Advent means ‘Coming’ in Latin. This is the coming of Jesus into the world. Christians use the four Sundays and weeks of Advent to prepare and remember the real meaning of Christmas.

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#452582127 / gettyimages.com

There are three meanings of ‘coming’ that Christians describe in Advent. The first, and most thought of, happened about 2000 years ago when Jesus came into the world as a baby to live as a man and die for us. The second can happen now as Jesus wants to come into our lives now. And the third will happen in the future when Jesus comes back to the world as King and Judge, not a baby.

Advent Sunday can be from the 27th November (which it was in 2016) to the 3rd December (which it will be in 2017)! Advent only start on the 1st December when Christmas Day is on a Wednesday (which will happen in 2019)!

No one is really sure when Advent was first celebrated but it dates back to at least 567 when monks were ordered to fast during December leading up to Christmas.

Some people fast (don’t eat anything) during advent to help them concentrate on preparing to celebrate Jesus’s coming. In many Orthodox and Eastern Catholics Churches, Advent lasts for 40 days and starts on November 15th and is also called the Nativity Fast.

Orthodox Christians often don’t eat meat and dairy during Advent, and depending on the day, also olive oil, wine and fish. You can see what days mean now eating what foods on this calendar from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.

In medieval and pre-medieval times, in parts of England, there was an early form of Nativity scenes called ‘advent images’ or a ‘vessel cup’. They were a box, often with a glass lid that was covered with a white napkin, that contained two dolls representing Mary and the baby Jesus. The box was decorated with ribbons and flowers (and sometimes apples). They were carried around from door to door. It was thought to be very unlucky if you haven’t seen a box before Christmas Eve! People paid the box carriers a halfpenny to see the box.

There are some Christmas Carols that are really Advent Carols! These include ‘People Look East’, ‘Come, thou long expected Jesus’, ‘Lo! He comes, with clouds descending’ and perhaps the most popular advent song ‘O Come, O Come Emmanuel!’.

There are several ways that Advent is counted down but the most common is by a calendar or candle(s).

Advent Calendars

English: Advent wreath, First Advent Sunday

English: Advent wreath, First Advent Sunday (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

December 15

The SAN Script Thursday, December 15

True Canadian Spirit!

True Canadian Spirit!

Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragements, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak. Thomas Carlyle

What is needed in schools for true 1:1 implementation

St. Anthony Today

Advent Week 3 – 9:15 am

Papa Jack Popcorn

St. Luke’s Table Mrs. C with the grade 6 students

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December 14

The SAN Script – Wednesday, December 14

Learn to be quiet enough to hear the genuine within yourself so that you can hear it in others.

Marian Wright Edelman

A stellar nursery in the Carina Nebula. A billowing cloud of cold interstellar gas and dust rising from a tempestuous stellar nursery located 7,500 light-years away in the southern constellation Carina. This pillar of dust and gas serves as an incubator for new stars and is teeming with new star-forming activity. Hot, young stars erode and sculpt the clouds into this fantasy landscape by sending out thick stellar winds and scorching ultraviolet radiation. The low-density regions of the nebula are shredded while the denser parts resist erosion and remain as thick pillars. In the dark, cold interiors of these columns new stars continue to form.

A stellar nursery in the Carina Nebula. A billowing cloud of cold interstellar gas and dust rising from a tempestuous stellar nursery located 7,500 light-years away in the southern constellation Carina. This pillar of dust and gas serves as an incubator for new stars and is teeming with new star-forming activity. Hot, young stars erode and sculpt the clouds into this fantasy landscape by sending out thick stellar winds and scorching ultraviolet radiation. The low-density regions of the nebula are shredded while the denser parts resist erosion and remain as thick pillars. In the dark, cold interiors of these columns new stars continue to form.

Hubble Space Telescope Space Advent Calendar

Why is Christmas Day on the 25th December?

Christmas is celebrated to remember the birth of of Jesus Christ, who Christians believe is the Son of God.

The name ‘Christmas’ comes from the Mass of Christ (or Jesus). A Mass service (which is sometimes called Communion or Eucharist) is where Christians remember that Jesus died for us and then came back to life. The ‘Christ-Mass’ service was the only one that was allowed to take place after sunset (and before sunrise the next day), so people had it at Midnight! So we get the name Christ-Mass, shortened to Christmas.

Christmas is now celebrated by people around the world, whether they are Christians or not. It’s a time when family and friends come together and remember the good things they have. People, and especially children, also like Christmas as it’s a time when you give and receive presents!

The Date of Christmas

No one knows the real birthday of Jesus! No date is given in the Bible, so why do we celebrate it on the 25th December? The early Christians certainly had many arguments as to when it should be celebrated! Also, the birth of Jesus probably didn’t happen in the year 1 but slightly earlier, somewhere between 2 BCE/BC and 7 BCE/BC (there isn’t a 0 – the years go from 1 BC/BCE to 1!).

Calendar showing 25th December

The first recorded date of Christmas being celebrated on December 25th was in 336, during the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine (he was the first Christian Roman Emperor). A few years later, Pope Julius I officially declared that the birth of Jesus would be celebrated on the 25th December.

There are many different traditions and theories as to why Christmas is celebrated on December 25th. A very early Christian tradition said that the day when Mary was told that she would have a very special baby, Jesus (called the Annunciation) was on March 25th – and it’s still celebrated today on the 25th March. Nine months after the 25th March is the 25th December! March 25th was also the day some early Christians thought the world had been made, and also the day that Jesus died on when he was an adult.

December 25th might have also been chosen because the Winter Solstice and the ancient pagan Roman midwinter festivals called ‘Saturnalia’ and ‘Dies Natalis Solis Invicti’ took place in December around this date – so it was a time when people already celebrated things.

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More here
St. Anthony Today
Paul in late – 10:00 AM
Grade 5/6 to St Luke’s Table
Theresa Patenaude, Speech-Language Pathologist, in Mrs. Rupnik’s Class all day.
Paul out Family of Schools Meeting – 12:00
Goodlife Gymnastics – Grade 3 2:00 PM
wastefree-wednesday
December 13

The SAN Script Tuesday, December 13

Picture of the Day: Outdoor Lights After a

Snowstorm in Chicago
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Photograph by alikeannoyance on reddit

After a recent snowstorm in Chicago, a set of outdoor Christmas lights becomes encased in snow, creating an unexpectedly beautiful glowing effect.

Great works are often quiet works.

– Fr. James Martin, SJ

St. Anthony Today

Guest Reader Session in Mrs. Rupnik’s class AM- 9:30 Tyson’s mom and 1:15 Aiden’s dad

Peter visiting classes – 9:30 – 11:30

Lunch Lady Today

Goodlife – Ms Troccoli 12:50

link: http://www.rednosedayinschool.org/

link: http://www.rednosedayinschool.org/ – virtual field trip experience

 

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Good news of great joy

The truth is that the Christmas season is unabashed about the purpose of the Christian life. “I am bringing you good news of great joy,” the angel says to the shepherds on the hillside outside of Bethlehem about the birth of a baby in a stable there (Luke 2:10). Good news of great joy, we learn at the beginning of the liturgical year, is what searching for the baby is all about. It’s how and where we’re searching that matters.

“Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times,” the Greek playwright Aeschylus wrote. But that’s wrong. Happiness does not require choice some of the time. Happiness requires choice all the time. It requires learning to choose between what is real and what is fleeting, what is worthless and what is worthwhile. But that does not make the effort either impossible or unacceptable. It simply requires discrimination.

It is discrimination, the ability to choose between one good in life over another, that the liturgical year parades before our eyes over and over again, year after year, until we finally develop enough maturity of soul to tell what lasts from what pales, to discern what’s worth having from what isn’t, to know what happiness is rather than what satiety is.

The Liturgical Year by Joan Chittister
Meaning, we discover, has nothing to do with what is outside of us. It has to do with what we have come to see within our souls. It has to do with the vision that is within us rather than with the things we are heaping up around us as indicators of our success, our power, our status. Joy is not about what happens to us, the manger indicates. It is the meaning we give to what we do that determines the nature, the quality of the lives we live.

—from The Liturgical Year by Joan Chittister (Thomas Nelson)

December 11

The SAN Script – the week of December 12 – 16

Photo and caption by Tianyuan Xiao / 2016 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year   Quiet morning after raining for whole night in Xingping, Yangshuo.

Photo and caption by Tianyuan Xiao / 2016 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year
Quiet morning after raining for whole night in Xingping, Yangshuo.

“The place to improve the world is first in one’s own heart and head and hands.”

-Robert M. Persig

go-girls

God, we keep inventing ourselves and our underneath selves turn out to be less than adequate and we wish we were other than we are. We juggle your good purposes and our hidden yearnings and try to serve two masters, try to live two narratives, try to live two dreams, and we are weary. Gives us patience and steadfastness as we process the ragged edges of our lives. Amen.

-Adapted from Prayers for a Privileged People by Walter Brueggemann 

St. Anthony This Week

Monday, December 12

 

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Office Hours Rec Link Mondays 9:00 – 3:00PM

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9:00 to 10:00 – Group 1 (50 Kids)
Kindergarten (46 students)
46 Students
10:30 to 11:30 – Group 2 (50 Kids)
Grade ⅘ Troccoli (23)
Grade ⅚ Colaiacovo (26)
49 Students

Paul at Meeting at Somerset West 2:00PM

Tuesday, December 13

lunch-lady

Peter Atkinson visit to classrooms – 9:30 – 11:30

Guest Reader Session in Mrs. Rupnik’s class AM- 9:30 Tyson’s mom and 1:15 Aiden’s dad

Goodlife – Ms Troccoli -12:50

Staff meeting cancelled  – no items listed by staff for discussion

Wednesday, December 14

waste-free

Theresa Patenaude, Speech-Language Pathologist, in Mrs. Rupnik’s Class all day.

Grade 5/6 to St Luke’s Table

Goodlife Gymnastics – Grade 3 2:00 pm

Family of Schools Meeting 12:30 – Paul out

SWCHC Open House – 4:00 PM

Thursday, December 15

Papa Jack popcorn 

Advent Week 3 – 9:15 am

Friday, December 16

Pizza Day

meeting with Little Horn – Andrea and Cindy – 8:00 PM

Mr. McGuire and Mrs. Rupnik IPRC JGU from St. Elizabeth + IPRC for new stude… 10:45

Goodlife Fitness M Chartrand’s class

St. Anthony Super Stars

Staff social at Denis’ place

Discovery Education’s Young Scientist Challenge starts next week!

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December 8

The SAN Script – Thursday, December 8

Good questions here – how would we do??

Published on Sep 26, 2016

THE PEOPLE VS THE SCHOOL SYSTEM

How do YOU think we can create a better future of learning. Go here and share your thoughts on the topic!http://www.bit.ly/2ciqj4z

Check out the audio only version here: https://soundcloud.com/prince-ea/we-j…

Music by:
http://djsneverendingstory.com/

Filmed and Edited by
http://shareability.com/

Directed By
Joel Bergvall and Joe Lombardi (https://vimeo.com/aztechfilm)

Awesome Animation and Graphics By
Hodja Berlev (https://www.facebook.com/Neonbyte-382…)

Casting and Assistant Production By:
Spencer Sharp (https://www.facebook.com/dispencery/?…)

BOOK REFERENCES. If you are interested in learning more on the subject I would suggest a few books to get started

1) Weapons of Mass Instruction by John Taylor Gatto
2) Creative Schools by Ken Robinson
3) I Love Learning; I Hate School by Susan D Blum
4) The One World SchoolHouse by Salman Khan

St. Anthony Today

Paul in 9:00 am this morning

Advent Week 2 – 1:00 PM

Paul away – 1:00PM ESRI webinar

School council meeting – 6:30PM – discussion of Christmas party – school council is considering an after-school party on December 22.  I would like to know what you think of this before I attend the meeting tonight.

2016 Hubble Space Telescope Advent Calendar

The Whirlpool Galaxy. The graceful, winding arms of the majestic spiral galaxy M51 appear like a grand spiral staircase sweeping through space. They are actually long lanes of stars and gas laced with dust. This image, taken in January 2005 with the Advanced Camera for Surveys aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, illustrates a spiral galaxy's grand design, from its curving spiral arms, where young stars reside, to its yellowish central core, a home of older stars. The galaxy is nicknamed the Whirlpool because of its swirling structure. The Whirlpool's most striking feature is its two curving arms, a hallmark of so-called grand-design spiral galaxies. Many spiral galaxies possess numerous, loosely shaped arms that make their spiral structure less pronounced. These arms serve an important purpose in spiral galaxies. They are star-formation factories, compressing hydrogen gas and creating clusters of new stars. In the Whirlpool, the assembly line begins with the dark clouds of gas on the inner edge, then moves to bright pink star-forming regions, and ends with the brilliant blue star clusters along the outer edge. The Whirlpool is one of astronomy's galactic darlings. Located approximately 25 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici (the Hunting Dogs). #

The Whirlpool Galaxy. The graceful, winding arms of the majestic spiral galaxy M51 appear like a grand spiral staircase sweeping through space. They are actually long lanes of stars and gas laced with dust. This image, taken in January 2005 with the Advanced Camera for Surveys aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, illustrates a spiral galaxy’s grand design, from its curving spiral arms, where young stars reside, to its yellowish central core, a home of older stars. The galaxy is nicknamed the Whirlpool because of its swirling structure. The Whirlpool’s most striking feature is its two curving arms, a hallmark of so-called grand-design spiral galaxies. Many spiral galaxies possess numerous, loosely shaped arms that make their spiral structure less pronounced. These arms serve an important purpose in spiral galaxies. They are star-formation factories, compressing hydrogen gas and creating clusters of new stars. In the Whirlpool, the assembly line begins with the dark clouds of gas on the inner edge, then moves to bright pink star-forming regions, and ends with the brilliant blue star clusters along the outer edge. The Whirlpool is one of astronomy’s galactic darlings. Located approximately 25 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici (the Hunting Dogs). #