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aamukherjee A Slice of Entropie -
alchymista Alchymista -
crownedrose Fading Like A Dead Star -
expose-the-light Quarks to Quasars -
kenobi-wan-obi CWL -
abluegirl A Blue Girl -
perscientiamlibertas A Matter of the Most Pleasant Fraternal Confidence
Radio Telescope and Southern Sky
A radio telescope of the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) under the starry sky of the Western Australia.
ASKAP comprises 36 radio dishes, each with a diameter of 12 meters, making the telescope sensitive to faint radiation from the Milky Way and giving it the ability to detect very distant galaxies. — Alex Cherney
kenobi-wan-obiwoops the brazil post was an error post my bad guys!
In this electrifying image, taken on Friday 7 June 2013, a furious thunderstorm is discharging its mighty rage over Cerro Paranal.
The colossal enclosures of the four VLT Unit Telescopes, each one the size of an eight-story building, are dwarfed under the hammering of the powerful storm.
Desert Aurora over Palm Trees
This display appeared to the eye rather colorless because the eye doesn’t perceive colors well under low light levels, but the camera picked up its true reddish color which originates from glowing oxygen some 120 miles (200 kilometers) above out planet; the subtle bluish rays on the left come from glowing nitrogen. — Dennis Mammana
Milky Way over the Alps by Leonardo Orazi
This awesome mechanical wooden cephalopod was created back in 2007 by phenomenal French street theatre company Royal de Luxe. Called “Le Calmar Geant a Retropropulsion” (“The Giant Squid with Reverse Thrust”), the gorgeous squid was just one of an assortment of incredible creatures created for a project entitled Les Machines de l’le de Nantes.
Words cannot express how much we’d like to ride this squid.
Click here to watch video of the tentacular creature in action.
(Photos by Claude Joannis)
Head over to Laughing Squid to learn more about Les Machines de l’le de Nantes.
(via ronbeckdesigns)
Fungal attack on Black Cicada, 10 Jun 2013, HK island east.
This invidiual died from an entomopathogenic fungus belonging to the genus Nomuraea, At least two species from this genus is known to target cicadas, the large black ones of the genus Crytotympana, which are common in HK and Taiwan. (link)
Some species of Nomuraea are also known to be anamorphs of Cordyceps. (link 1) (link 2)
Interesting fact: the dull orange colour of the eyes in these photos is a symptom induced by the infection. The normal eye colour would be black/dark brown.
(via kenobi-wan-obi)
The Malayan Jungle Nymph (Heteropteryx dilatata) is the heaviest stick insect in the world, weighing around 65 grams (but only if we’re talking about a female). The males are much smaller (4 in.) than the females (6 in.) and lack the bright green, almost leaf-like appearance taken by the females. Instead, they resemble twigs: skinny, long, and mottled brown in color. Either sex is well equipped to camouflage itself amongst the dense brush of the Malaysian forests they inhabit.
(via kenobi-wan-obi)
Young Moon
The crescent Moon adorns with the Earthshine (earth light on night side of the Moon) is one of the most splendid scenes in nature. — P-M Heden
Altering the shape of water drops. Water drops are spherical due to surface tension , that is, because of cohesive forces. Water molecules want to be adjacent to one other and far away from molecules that are different from them, like air or oil molecules. This has the effect of minimizing water’s surface area; hence, water drops are spherical. This is shown in the upper image of spherical water drops flowing inside a jet of oil. To reduce cohesive forces or surface tension, actually the interfacial tension between water and oil, surfactants, such as soap, are added to water. Since surfactant molecules have two ends, one that is attracted to water and one that isn’t, surfactant molecules disrupt the cohesive forces at the interface. Consequently, if the surfactant molecules are strong enough and the disruption of the cohesive forces is widespread, the spherical shape of water drops no longer prevails. This is shown in the bottom image. (Photo credit: L. L. A. Adams)
(via physicsphysics)
Spinning an object in motion through a fluid produces a lift force perpendicular to the spin axis. Known as the Magnus effect, this physics is behind the non-intuitive behavior of football’s corner kick, volleyball’s spike, golf’s slice, and baseball’s curveball. The simulation above shows a curveball during flight, with pressure distributions across the ball’s surface shown with colors. Red corresponds to high pressure and blue to low pressure. Because the ball is spinning forward, pressure forces are unequal between the top and bottom of the ball, with the bottom part of the baseball experiencing lower pressure. As with a wing in flight, this pressure difference between surfaces creates a force — for the curveball, downward. (Video credit: Tetra Research)
(via physicsphysics)
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