Tibetan Halo
The particularly colorful halo featured above was snapped at Yamdrok Tso Lake, Tibet. This is a 22-degree halo — the radius of the inner ring to the Sun.
by Alan Millar
(Source: kenobi-wan-obi, via scinerds)
Cave Of The Crystals | Naica, Chihuahua, Mexico
I remember when this was first discovered, and how blown away I was when photos were released of this magnificent wonder. There’s a documentary out there called, “Naica: Beyond The Crystal Cave” and another that hits on other sister caves as well, “Into The Lost Crystal Caves”. Definitely interesting if you want to watch them go through the cave to get samples and explore. A dangerous but extremely satisfying task! Here’s a bit of information on the Crystal Caves in Naica, Mexico.
- It contains some of the largest (in size, mass, length, etc) natural crystals ever found on Earth. A Gypsum beam was found to be 11 metres (36 feet) in length, 4 metres (13 feet) in width, and weigh around 55 tons.
- It is found in a horseshoe-shaped cavity of limestone rock, which used to be full of mineral-rich hot water, but has since been kept drained.
- The cave is extremely hot with air temperatures reaching up to 58 °C (136 °F) with 90 to 99 percent humidity.
- The cave was filled with mineral-rich hot water (a constant 50 °C+) for around 500,000 years, which let these crystals form under the right conditions.
I’ve added a few links that take you to more photos and articles as well (along with its sister caves).
take me there
(via scinerds)
Earthly Atmosphere
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station took a picture on July 31, 2011 showing the layers of the Earth’s atmosphere. The orange-red troposphere lies closest to Earth’s surface. A brown transitional layer marks the upper edge of the troposphere, the tropopause.
A milky white and gray layer rests above that, likely part of the stratosphere possibly containing some noctilucent clouds. The upper atmosphere composed of the mesosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere fades from blue to the blackness of space.— Tom Chao
Credit: ISS Crew Earth Observations Experiment and Image Science & Analysis Laboratory/Johnson Space Center
(via scinerds)
Big Five from Africa and Twilight Arch
The photo above shows a gathering of planets and the waning crescent Moon as captured from Tivoli, Namibia just before dawn on May 30, 2011. The “Big Five” in Africa refers to the top five big game animals; lion, leopard, rhinoceros, Cape buffalo, and elephant.
On this late autumn morning (Southern Hemisphere), however, I was able to a bring down a prize night-sky quarry — Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and our Moon all in the same frame. Venus shines brightly at magnitude -3.9, Jupiter at -2.2; Mercury at -1.0, and Mars glows dimly at 1.4 magnitude.
Only five percent of the slender Moon was illuminated. The shallow arching band of red, gold and yellow at the bottom of the photo is the twilight arch. Sunlight from the rising Sun (still about six degrees below the horizon) is scattered by the cloud-free atmosphere.
Photography & Summary by Eduard von Bergen
(Source: kenobi-wan-obi, via scinerds)
Backdropped by a Colorful Earth
STS-116 Mission Specialists Robert L. Curbeam, Jr. (left) and Christer Fuglesang participate in the first of the mission’s three planned sessions of extravehicular activity as construction resumes on the International Space Station.
Image credit: NASA
(Source: kenobi-wan-obi, via scinerds)
Moonrise Behind The Museum
Two days after the Harvest Moon, rising behind the National Musem in Prague.
by © 15 sunrises
(Source: kenobi-wan-obi, via scinerds)
Schmidt Telescope Dome and the Milky Way
By Emil Ivanov
(Source: kenobi-wan-obi, via scinerds)
