- Messier 31 is the closest spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way galaxy. It is over 2 million light years away, so the photons reaching your eye in a telescope tonight left that galaxy some 2+ million years ago, just before the time of homo erectus. The Andromeda galaxy is on a collision course with our own, and the two will merge in about 4 billion years.
- Mitragyna speciosa (Wikipedia)
Mitragyna speciosa (commonly known as kratom, an herbal leaf from a tree of the Rubiaceae family) is a tropical evergreen tree in the coffee family native to Southeast Asia. It is indigenous to Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Papua New Guinea, where it has been used in herbal medicine since at least the 19th century. It has also historically been used for chewing, smoking, and tea. Kratom has opioid properties and some stimulant-like effects.