breathe Olympian air

the-star-stuff:

Sifting through Dust near Orion’s Belt
A new image of the region surrounding the reflection nebula Messier 78, just to the north of Orion’s Belt, shows clouds of cosmic dust threaded through the nebula like a string of pearls. The observations, made with the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope, use the heat glow of interstellar dust grains to show astronomers where new stars are being formed.

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the-star-stuff:

PLAN AIMS TO FIND MARS LIFE ON THE CHEAP
Six probes would penetrate the planet’s surface and sample soil for microbial life.
A new mission to Mars would follow up on Viking results.
The cost would be less than about $300 million.
Mini-sensors sent into Martian soil could detect a single molecule of DNA.

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the-star-stuff:

And Now, an Elephant on Mars
Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Elephant of Mars, as spotted by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
This is a good example of the phenomena “pareidolia,” where we see things (such as animals) that aren’t really there. Actually, this image covers the margin of a lava flow in Elysium Planitia, the youngest flood-lava province on Mars. Flood lavas cover extensive areas, and were once thought to be emplaced extremely rapidly, like a flood of water.
Via HiRISE

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the-star-stuff:

Jupiter and Io
This is a thermal-infrared image of Jupiter, obtained by the ISAAC multi-mode instrument at the 8.2-m VLT ANTU telescope on Paranal on November 14, 2000; the Universal Time (UT) of exposure is indicated. It is part of a series of images showing the dramatically different appearance of Jupiter”s disk and the aurorae when viewed through different thermal-IR imaging filters. Note also the motion of the moon Io (left). The contrast has been enhanced to better show the faint details in the aurorae.
Credit: ESO

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ikenbot:

Ω Omega Sunset

Image Copyright: Giuseppe Pappa

Inferior mirage of astronomical objects is the most common mirage. Inferior mirage occurs when the surface of the Earth or the oceans produces a layer of hot air of lower density, just at the surface.

There are two images, the inverted one and the erect one, in inferior mirage.They both are displaced from the geometric direction to the actual object. While the erect image is setting, the inverted image appears to be rising from the surface.

The shapes of inferior mirage sunsets and sunrises stay the same for all inferior mirage sunsets and sunrises. One well-known shape, the Etruscan vase, was named by Jules Verne.[1] As the sunset progresses the shape of Etruscan vase slowly changes; the stem of the vase gets shorter until the real and the miraged suns create a new shape – Greek letter omega Ω. The inferior mirage got its name because the inverted image appears below the erect one. —Wiki

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We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.

—

Carl Sagan

(via lasers8oclock)

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ulaulaman:

Dione Has Her Faults (False Color)
This view highlights tectonic faults and craters on Dione, an icy world that has undoubtedly experienced geologic activity since its formation. To create the enhanced-color view, ultraviolet, green and infrared images were combined into a single black and white picture that isolates and maps regional color differences. This “color map” was then superposed over a clear-filter image. The origin of the color differences is not yet understood, but may be caused by subtle differences in the surface composition or the sizes of grains making up the icy soil. This view looks toward the leading hemisphere on Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across). North is up and rotated 20 degrees to the right. See PIA07690 for a similar monochrome view. All images were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 24, 2005 at a distance of approximately 151,000 kilometers (94,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 99 degrees. Image scale is 896 meters (2,940 feet) per pixel. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
Image credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science InstituteImage addition date: 2006-01-31 News: Cassini Detects Hint of Fresh Air at Dione | Dione’s image gallery

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expose-the-light:

Larval Octopus

This beautiful larval (baby) octopus was collected by scientists from the University of Miami during a research cruise in the Straits of Florida, a narrow channel between the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico.

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the-star-stuff:

The many moods of Titan

Cassini images give scientists concrete evidence that Titan’s atmosphere changes with the seasons. By NASA/JPL — Published: February 24, 2012
This series of false-color images obtained by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft shows the dissolving cloud cover over the north pole of Saturn’s moon Titan.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona/CNRS/LPGNantes

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ikenbot:

Large Magellanic Cloud

Copyright: Rafael Defavari

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thenewenlightenmentage:

Kuiper’s Color Close-Up
The pale-orange coloration around the 39-mile (62-km) -wide Kuiper crater on Mercury is evident in this image, a color composition made from targeted images acquired by NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft on September 2, 2011.
The color may be due to compositional differences in the material that was ejected during the impact that formed the crater.
[click to continue…]

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crownedrose:

(by cobalt123)

I don’t care if Quartz is one of the most common minerals found on Earth, I love it so much!

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