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Time-Lapse Auroras and Flyovers
Sometimes capturing things on video is the only way to truly express their beauty and magnificence.
And sometimes, its the only way to express the extent of their AWESOME!
This time-lapse video shows how circling the planet looks from the International Space Station:
The next one is a time-lapse of an aurora (my fav, as you all know) over Finland:
Aurora Borealis in Finnish Lapland 2011 from Flatlight Films on Vimeo.
The awesome is just…too much sometimes :)
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Ryan
Awe Arousing Appearance of Aurora
I love aurorae. Possibly one of the most beautiful and spectacular natural phenomena to grace this planet.
Astronaut Ron Garan recently posted a fantastic photo of an aurora from Earth’s orbit on his Twitter feed:
Makes me feel like a 9 year old kid again, wishing he could be an astronaut when he grows up.
______________________________________________________________________
REMINDER: This blog is moving! The new location is http://www.aquantumofknowledge.com/
Remember to update your subscriptions! This site will no longer be supported after September 30, 2011.
Thanks!
Ryan
Sweeeeeet Aurora Video
I think auroras are one of the coolest things on the planet. Along with bacon and beer.
This video was featured on the Astronomy Picture of the Day website. Two words:
Awe. Some.
Star Wars Books Are Going in An Odd Direction…
I took this myself. And no, you are not allowed to ask me why I was in the Erotica section!
Umm…WTF is that?
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, W. Keel (University of Alabama) and the Galaxy Zoo Team
What is that green blob in this photo?
It is called Hanney’s Voorwerp. Does that help? (It means Hanney’s Object in Dutch)
No? Ok, well it is a long stream of gas (about 300,000 light-years long, in fact) that is being illuminated by the Quasar being emitted from galaxy IC 2947.
A quasar is a bright stream of light that gets emitted from a black hole. Do you see the bright stream of light from the center of the galaxy? No?
That is because the quasar turned off about 200,000 years ago. The light from it is only now reaching the gas stream and illuminating it.
The image was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope around April 2010, and it has been a bit of a curiosity for a while. NASA has just released an explanation for what it is.
I could seriously do a blog made of entirely cool astronomy photos and it would always be interesting. Oh wait, there already is a site like that…damn.
What Does a Black Hole Look Like?
Credit & Copyright: Alain Riazuelo - Click Image for Large Version
Not to sound like a smart ass…but it would look like a big black hole.
This is a computer generated image by Alain Riazuelo and I saw it the other day as the Astronomy Picture of the Day.
Aside from eating all the light hitting the black hole straight on, notice the “rings” around it as well. This is called gravitational lensing, and is something astronomers look for in order to identify a black hole, since the lensing is easily visible at a larger distance.
Elephant and Crocodile Photographed in a ‘Tug of War’
In a series of photos, a battle between and elephant and a crocodile showed up on the BBC website today. The photos were taken in Zambia’s Luangwa National Park.
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Don’t worry, the story has a happy ending. Both the elephant and the baby were seen near the river later in the day.
Isn’t nature cool?
Best Wildlife Photos of the Year
A Marvel of Ants
Awesome Video of the Moon Crossing the Sun
The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)
is designed to help us understand the Sun’s influence on Earth and Near-Earth space by studying the solar atmosphere on small scales of space and time and in many wavelengths simultaneously.
But also (and perhaps more importantly), it takes some pretty sweet pictures and videos.
Take this one which I saw posted on Bad Astronomy. It shows the moon moving between the SDO and the Sun, making the moon clearly visible as it crosses the disc of the Sun.
Cooooooooooooool!
The Hungary ‘Sludge’ Spill From Space
About 8 days ago, a waste-retaining pond at an alumina oxide (aluminium ‘rust’) plant in Hungary broke and released about 700 000 cubic meters of toxic sludge into the nearby towns of Kolontar and Devecser.
On October 9, the Advanced Land Imager on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 satellite captured this natural-color image of the area.
Image Credit: NASA - Click for Full Resolution Image
Pretty remarkable. The sludge itself is obviously visible as the dark brown colour. You can also easily make out the two nearby towns being contaminated.
It must have incredibly terrifying when it happened. This is what a resident of Kolontar said:
The sludge took our car, lifted it up and took it along… We found it the next day about a mile and a half away.
The worst hit areas had a pH of 13.5, roughly the same as bleach. The pH level has fallen to around 8 in the past few days, but the area remains extremely toxic.
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