Source: beccybanshee
Saturn’s Moon Enceladus Coated in Fresh powder
Scientists estimate that Enceladus’s low gravity—about one percent that of Earth—allows some of the ice emitted by the polar geysers to jet into space rather than falling back to the moon’s surface.
Enough material escapes to form an entire ring of Saturn, called the E ring.
(via constable-connor)
Source: kateoplis
Nephelococcygia
It’s the long way of describing our love for seeing likenesses in the shapes of clouds. If you are bitten by this bug and find yourself with a solar telescope, watch out. The fantastic plumes of hydrogen plasma we call solar prominences seen at the edge of sun will tempt you to identify them in earthly forms. I once set out to classify a bunch and this was the result. A Yeti, a bonsai, Don Quixote, the angel that fell to earth… there’s even one that looks like me or did, when I wore a goatee. Click on the picture to see the big version from my website. Each image there is a hot link to a little bit of averted imagination. Enjoy!
ALMA Opens Its Eyes
The most powerful millimeter/submillimeter-wavelength telescope in the world opens for business and reveals its first image.
Humanity’s most complex ground-based astronomy observatory, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), has officially opened for astronomers. The first released image, from a telescope still under construction, reveals a view of the Universe that cannot be seen at all by visible-light and infrared telescopes. Thousands of scientists from around the world competed to be the first few researchers to explore some of the darkest, coldest, farthest, and most hidden secrets of the Cosmos with this new astronomical tool.
“We are living in a historic moment for science and particularly for astronomy, and perhaps also for the evolution of humanity, because we start to use the greatest observatory under construction at the moment,” said Thijs de Graauw, ALMA Director.
(via constable-connor)
Source: itsfullofstars
We might be inclined to believe that the weather on Earth is sometimes less than hospitable to the life that inhabits it.
But compared to other planets, stars and bodies in the cosmos, the weather on Earth is downright mild.In fact, the storms on this tiny brown drawf located approximately 47 light-years away blow any earth storm away.
Here’s a look at the weather on planets and galaxies near and far.
Plato, Allegory of the Cave from The Republic, c. 380 BCE
Source: nickkahler
Danger Planet by Justin Burks
During a routine scan on a distant planet, a young space scout finds romance with a female pilot. But when peril strikes the two star-crossed explorers, he must face what lurks in the darkness of the planet to rescue the girl.
(via nameyourgod)
Source: vimeo.com
This is a real image taken by the robotic spacecraft Cassini of Saturn eclipsing the sun (via).
Amazing. There is a little blue dot on the left side of the image just above the bright main rings. That is Earth, approximately a billion miles away.
Not psychology related, just an incredible image. Click for high resolution to see Earth.
(via constable-connor)
Source: approachingsignificance
A twisting pair of prominences erupt almost 50,000 miles above the surface of the sun.











