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The kilonova explosion was spotted in the galaxy NGC 4993, which is shown here in an image from the Hubble Space Telescope. The kilonova is visible here to the upper left of the very bright galactic center, and appears as a golden-yellow spot. Astronomers have two names for the Aug. 17 event, depending on what…

Lakshminarayana Shankar (born 26 April 1950), also known as L. Shankar and Shenkar, is an Indian-born American violinist, singer, and composer. In the 1970s he formed the band Shakti with British guitarist John McLaughlin. His style combines jazz and Indian classical music, though he also worked in pop and rock, as with Peter Gabriel. Shenkar…

Theodore Marcus Edwards (April 26, 1924 – April 20, 2003) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist on the west coast of the U.S. Edwards was born in Jackson, Mississippi. He learned to play at a very early age, first on alto saxophone and then clarinet. His uncle sent for him to come to Detroit to live because…

John Ned “Johnny” Shines (April 26, 1915 – April 20, 1992) was an American blues singer and guitarist. Shines was born in the community of Frayser, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was taught to play the guitar by his mother and spent most of his childhood in Memphis, playing slide guitar at an early age in juke…

Flamenco Fridays with Rumba Rumba flamenca, also known as flamenco rumba or simply rumba (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈrumba]), is a palo (style) of flamenco music developed in Andalusia, Spain. It is known as one of the cantes de ida y vuelta (roundtrip songs), music which diverged in the new world, then returned to Spain in a new…

Ridges of glowing interstellar gas and dark dust clouds inhabit the turbulent, cosmic depths of the Lagoon Nebula. Also known as M8, the bright star forming region is about 5,000 light-years distant. But it still makes for a popular stop on telescopic tours of the constellation Sagittarius, toward the center of our Milky Way Galaxy….