[neilep]

Scalloped Blue Ice



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Photographer: John Adam; John’s Web site
Summary Author: John Adam




The photo above shows a chunk of scalloped ice, about 65 ft (20 m) in width that broke off from the Sawyer Glacier near Tracy Arm Fjord in southeastern Alaska. Note the pure blue color emanating from within the “chasm.”  The mechanism responsible for producing this robin’s egg blue color, as well as the blue color in deep snow, is essentially the same as that giving deep water its blue color. The longer wavelengths (yellow and red light) present in the incident white sunlight are preferentially absorbed by ice crystals. As a result, what we see is what’s not absorbed -- reflected light that’s dominated by the green and blue portion of the spectrum. In general, the thicker the ice the greater the absorption, and thus the bluer the color. Though this color may look sky blue, Raleigh scattering causes the colors we see in the sky on a clear day, not absorption and reflection by air molecules.

The melting patterns on this medium sized iceberg look as if someone has scooped out the ice with a scallop shell. So-called "spontaneous pattern formation" is ubiquitous in nature. The particular mechanism inducing these undulations may involve local melting of parts of the surface, which grow locally as a result of a feedback mechanism. For example, perhaps there’s an initially small and shallow depression that creates a region of shadow, outside of which more melting occurs, changing the shadow boundary, and so on. Photo taken in June 2011.

[neilep]

Orange Sun Scintillating



Image Credit & Copyright: Alan Friedman (Averted Imagination)

Nice biggy piccy HERE


 Our Sun is becoming a busy place. Taken just last week, the Sun was captured sporting numerous interesting features including one of the larger sunspot groups yet recorded: AR 1339 visible on the image right. Only last year, the Sun was emerging from an unusually quiet Solar Minimum that lasted for years. The above image was recorded in a single color of light called Hydrogen Alpha, inverted, and false colored. Spicules cover much of the Sun's face. The gradual brightening towards the Sun's edges is caused by increased absorption of relatively cool solar gas and called limb darkening. Just over the Sun's edges, several scintillating prominences protrude, while prominences on the Sun's face are seen as light streaks. Possibly the most visually interesting of all are the magnetically tangled active regions containing cool sunspots. As our Sun's magnetic field winds toward Solar Maximum over the next few years, increased activity will likely create times when the Sun's face is even more complex.

[neilep]

Update of Jupiter's Europa: Massive Lake Verified Beneath Ice-Shrouded Surface



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Holding My Breath I Just Took This Above Real Bona-Fide Genuine Photo ! (see the effort I put in to serve ewe ?..and there wasn't even any motorway services on the way !!)

Data from a NASA planetary mission have provided scientists evidence of what appears to be a body of liquid water, equal in volume to the North American Great Lakes, beneath the icy surface of Jupiter's moon, Europa.

The data suggest there is significant exchange between Europa's icy shell and the ocean beneath. This information could bolster arguments that Europa's global subsurface ocean represents a potential habitat for life elsewhere in our solar system. The findings are published in the scientific journal Nature.

SOURCE: The Daily Galaxy
Other Sources: Tomato, mustard, sweet and sour and chilli

[neilep]

Europe's Orbiting Observatories Capture Stunning New Images of the "Pillars of Creation"



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Nice super biggy piccy HERE

     

 

Two of the European Space Agency's (ESA) orbiting observatories have captured new and spectacular views of the gas pillars in the Eagle Nebula (M16) that were the subject of the iconic 1995 Hubble images dubbed "Pillars of Creation."

In 1995, the Hubble Space Telescope's 'Pillars of Creation' image of the Eagle Nebula became one of the most iconic images of the 20th century. Now, two of ESA's orbiting observatories --Stunning new Herschel and XMM-Newton-- have revealed new insights this enigmatic star-forming region.

[neilep]

Sirius Twinkling


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Photographer: David Lynch
Summary Author: David Lynch

Twinkling is the rapid fluctuation in brightness and color of a star. It’s caused by slight changes in density of air pockets called “seeing cells” that move across the observer’s line of sight. Air’s refractive index is determined, in part, by its density. Such undulations cause slight, momentary defocusing of the starlight resulting in brightness changes, also called scintillation. In extreme cases, the star’s position hops around. Twinkling also produces rapid color changes because air is slightly dispersive, i.e. the index of refraction varies slightly with wavelength.

Both brightness and color twinkling are shown here in a five-second exposure of Sirius using a telephoto lens that was wiggled slightly during the exposure. As the star‘s twinkling image skated around the focal plane, it traced out graceful, colorful arcs, fading in some places, brightening in others.

Here scintillation and telescope jitter, the bane of astronomers everywhere, have been recast into a stunningly beautiful image. Image taken on January 4, 2012.

[mike321]

This is the pic of a spider trying to climb up a wall.

[neilep]

SPLIT SUNSET


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Photographer: Jim Grant
Summary Author: Dave Lynch; Jim Grant; Jim Foster

BIGGY PICCY HERE


This “split screen” sunset was snapped at Ponto Beach near Carlsbad in southern California on January 24, 2012. The scarlet-colored cirrus clouds on the right half of the photo could, under some circumstances, result from the fact that they're higher in the sky and are thus still picking up some of the Sun’s lingering rays. However, all the clouds look pretty much the same altitude here. It seems the only difference is that half the picture is conspicuously redder than the other half, but what could cause this? The reason has to do with shadowing. As illustrated in the diagram to the left, direct sunlight (reddened by increased path length) shines on some of the clouds but the shadow of the large cloud (white oval) prevents direct sunlight from reaching other clouds. Only blue skylight reaches the smaller clouds within the shadow, so they appear somewhat blue or gray. In essence, the bigger cloud casts a very large, dark crepuscular ray. Keep your eyes peeled to the sky – you never know what you might see.

[CliffordK]

"Residents of Tainan learned a lesson in whale biology after the decomposing remains of a 60-ton sperm whale exploded on a busy street, showering nearby cars and shops with blood and organs and stopping traffic for hours."

Source : MSNBC

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Links : Naked Scientists Radio Show coverage of this story 1st February 2004 http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/news/news/523/

It reminds me a bit of this, that I bumped into a few days ago.

Where Oregon Highway officials got a reminder of Whale Physics.

Perhaps the officials in Tainan and Oregon should get together and compare notes.

[neilep]

A Sailing Stone in Death Valley



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Image Credit: Nathan Alexander, Wikipedia
 How did this big rock end up on this strange terrain? One of the more unusual places here on Earth occurs inside Death Valley, California, USA. There a dried lakebed named Racetrack Playa exists that is almost perfectly flat, with the odd exception of some very large stones, one of which is pictured above. Now the flatness and texture of large playa like Racetrack are fascinating but not scientifically puzzling -- they are caused by mud flowing, drying, and cracking after a heavy rain. Only recently, however, has a viable scientific hypothesis been given to explain how 300-kilogram sailing stones ended up near the middle of such a large flat surface. Unfortunately, as frequently happens in science, a seemingly surreal problem ends up having a relatively mundane solution. It turns out that high winds after a rain can push even heavy rocks across a temporarily slick lakebed.

[neilep]

Anticrepuscular Rays Over Wyoming


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Image Credit & Copyright: Nate Cassell


 What's happening over the horizon? Although the scene may appear somehow supernatural, nothing more unusual is occurring than a setting Sun and some well placed clouds. Pictured above are anticrepuscular rays. To understand them, start by picturing common crepuscular rays that are seen any time that sunlight pours though scattered clouds. Now although sunlight indeed travels along straight lines, the projections of these lines onto the spherical sky are great circles. Therefore, the crepuscular rays from a setting (or rising) sun will appear to re-converge on the other side of the sky. At the anti-solar point 180 degrees around from the Sun, they are referred to as anticrepuscular rays. Pictured above is a particularly striking set of anticrepuscular rays photographed last month near Cheyenne, Wyoming, USA.

[neilep]

Nice picture Neil - Naked Astronomy dealt with crepuscular rays and their weird opposites a few podcasts ago

Thanks chum !......I must catch up with the podcasts....

[SeanB]

Saw some lovely crepuscular rays this morning, on the way to work. Sunlight breaking through the heavy early morning cloud, before the wind came up and blew them away, only to be replaced with heavy rain now in the evening.

[neilep]

Saw some lovely crepuscular rays this morning, on the way to work. Sunlight breaking through the heavy early morning cloud, before the wind came up and blew them away, only to be replaced with heavy rain now in the evening.

Shame ya couldn't snap a piccy !...

Lightning Display on Ikaria Island, Greece





Photographer: Chris Kotsiopoulos
Summary Author: Chris Kotsiopoulos

This 70-shot photo sequence shows a lightning display that occurred during a severe thunderstorm last summer on the island of Ikaria, Greece, near the southwestern coast of Turkey. The stormy weather actually developed during a photo session of the total lunar eclipse on June 15, 2011  To make this shot, the camera was set on a tripod taking 20-second exposures continuously. More than 100 lightning bolts were captured in this sequence, the majority of which were potent cloud-to-ground strikes.

[CliffordK]

Lightning Display on Ikaria Island, Greece

Is that Zeus taking revenge on the Greek Bankers and Politicians for mortgaging the Parthenon?

[neilep]

Sheepy, I was in moving traffic, and the camera was at work, with flat batteries.

This is why I keep an emergency easel , canvas and paints in the boot ! I'm sure the traffic behind ewe would have been happy to allow ewe the couple of hours to set up and paint away !  []

[neilep]

Lightning Display on Ikaria Island, Greece

Is that Zeus taking revenge on the Greek Bankers and Politicians for mortgaging the Parthenon?

Is this what happens when ewe don't keep up your repayments !...This must be happening quite frequently at the moment !

[neilep]

NGC 1579: Trifid of the North




Image Credit & Copyright: Adam Block, Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter, University of Arizona


 Colorful NGC 1579 resembles the better known Trifid Nebula, but lies much farther north in planet Earth's sky, in the heroic constellation Perseus. About 2,100 light-years away and 3 light-years across, NGC 1579 is, like the Trifid, a study in contrasting blue and red colors, with dark dust lanes prominent in the nebula's central regions. In both, dust reflects starlight to produce beautiful blue reflection nebulae. But unlike the Trifid, in NGC 1579 the reddish glow is not emission from clouds of glowing hydrogen gas excited by ultraviolet light from a nearby hot star. Instead, the dust in NGC 1579 drastically diminishes, reddens, and scatters the light from an embedded, extremely young, massive star, itself a strong emitter of the characteristic red hydrogen alpha light.

[RD]

oooh-rora


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Aurora Australis

This is one of a series of night time images photographed by one of the Expedition 29 crew members from the International Space Station. It features Aurora Australis, seen from a point over the southeast Tasman Sea near southern New Zealand.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/multimedia/gallery/iss029e008433.html

[chris]

This (now bloated) possum broke into a bakery in Australia and ate too many pies, precluding escape from the pastry box...


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[RD]

mission im-possom-ible   [groan]