I need an explanation

 <?PHP 

$date = date ("l, F jS, Y"); 
$time = date ("h:i A"); 

$msg = "Below is the result of your feedback form. It was submitted on $date at $time.

"; 

if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == "POST") {
	foreach ($_POST as $key => $value) { 
		$msg .= ucfirst ($key) ." : ". $value . "
"; 
	}
}
else {
	foreach ($_GET as $key => $value) { 
		$msg .= ucfirst ($key) ." : ". $value . "
"; 
	}
}

mail($to, $subject, $msg, $headers); 
if ($forward == 1) { 
	header ("Location:$location"); 
} 
else { 
	echo "Thank you for submitting our form. We will get back to you as soon as possible."; 
} 

?>

in this script what does **
**sometimes i also see **\r **

what does those do?