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The Hubble Space Telescope revisited the iconic “Pillars of Creation” region of the Eagle Nebula to celebrate its 25th anniversary. The so-called “pillars” are actually large clouds of gas in the nebula. The telescope originally photographed the “Pillars of Creation” in 1995, but the new image captures a wider high-definition view. It also uses near-infrared light as well as visible light to give a penetrating look into the formation.
image via NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team
Projections in the Forest, a short time lapse film by Friedrich van Schoor and Tarek Mawad, captures the incredible beauty of luminescent plants and animals whose glow make the forest a seemingly magical place.
The projection mapping “bioluminescent forest” is made by artists Friedrich van Schoor and Tarek Mawad. The artists spent six weeks in the forest fascinated by the silence and natural occurrences in nature, especially the phenomenon “bioluminescence”. They personified the forest to accentuate the natural beauty by creating luring luminescent plants and glowing magical mushrooms that speaks volumes to any visitor that enters the minds of the artists through viewing “bioluminescent forest“.
Living Alongside Wildlife has a list of 22 species of animal declared extinct in 2014, extending humanity’s long streak of causing plant and animal extinctions.
The last known Christmas Island Forest Skink (Emoia nativitatis) died alone in a zoo on May 31st, 2014. It is unknown why the species disappeared from its natural habitat of Christmas Island (an Australian territory) but invasive species may have played a key role.
The St. Helena Giant Earwig (Labidura herculeana) is extinct. This species is notable for being fairly large (over three inches) and was found on the island of St. Helena in the southern Atlantic Ocean.
Plectostoma sciaphilum was a snail that lived entirely on one Malaysian hill. A cement company wiped them all out.
The website io9 has collected a bunch of the most amazing science images of 2014. According to them:
What you’ll find here are photos that engaged our minds, and videos that set our pulses racing – a carefully curated collection of the weird, the wonderful, and the truly awesome. Here you’ll find imagery that moved us, inspired us, and shook us to our core, and a few that made us laugh in sheer amazement.
Mitchell Moffit and Gregory Brown of AsapSCIENCE thoroughly explain why sitting for extended periods of time—at a desk at work, for example—can be harmful to one’s health. Possible adverse effects include decreased bone mass, muscle weakening, increased LDL cholesterol, and even a shortened lifespan.
The good news is that they have created another video describing ways to solve the sitting problem.
From Quora, an answer to the question “If we pour water on the sun with a bucket as big as the sun, will the sun be extinguished?”
The probable answer is “no.” The Sun involves a special type of fire that is able to “burn” water, and so it will just get hotter, and six times brighter.
Water is 89% oxygen BY MASS. And the Sun’s overall density is 1.4 times that of water. So if you have a volume of water the VOLUME of the Sun, it will have 1/1.4 = 0.71 times the mass of the Sun, and this mass will be .71*.89 = 63% of a solar mass of oxygen and 8% of a solar mass of hydrogen. The Sun itself is 0.74 solar masses of hydrogen and 0.24 solar masses of helium.
So you end up with a 1.7 solar mass star with composition 48% hydrogen, 37% oxygen, and 14% helium (with 1% heavier elements).
Now, will such a star burn? Yes, but not with the type of proton-proton fusion the Sun uses. A star 1.7 times the mass of the Sun will heat up and burn almost entirely by the CNO fusion cycle, after making some carbon and nitrogen to go along with all the oxygen you’ve started with. So with CNO fusion and that mass you get a type F0 star with about 1.3 times the radius and 6 times the luminosity of the present Sun, and a temperature somewhat hotter than the Sun (7200 K vs. the Sun’s 5800 K). It will be bluish-white, with more UV. That, along with that 6 times heat input, will cause the Earth’s biosphere to be fried, and oceans to probably boil.
Well, we probably shouldn’t do that then. (via gizmodo)
Guinness World Records continues its 60th year celebration with a tribute to its long history of cataloging the World’s Shortest Man and World’s Shortest Woman.
The Guiness World Record for the shortest people are among the most visual, and therefore most iconic, of all the records we monitor.
The group also recently celebrated its equally iconic World’s Tallest Man record.
A gorgeous composite image by astrophotographer Göran Strand shows the Sun as seen through both a normal telephoto camera lens and a Hydrogen Alpha Telescope. The result is how the Sun would appear if the human eye were equipped with a Hydrogen Alpha filter. The photo was taken in May 2013 on the island of Frösön, Sweden.
More of Strand’s work can be seen on his website Astrofotografen.
image via Göran Strand
via PetaPixel
Photographer Julia Bennett uses a microscope to capture wonderfully eerie, otherworldly photographs of plankton in her series Into the Umbra. Bennett, a photography and marine science student at the University of South Carolina, was inspired to create the series after viewing plankton under a microscope in a marine biology class. The plankton in her series are reminiscent of celestial bodies, satellites, and other objects from space. The resemblance is intentional, as Bennett likens plankton to “something constructed for a science fiction movie.”
photos by Julia Bennett
via Wired
by Christopher Jobson, Colossal
Early last year, artist Sonja Hinrichsen (previously) and some 60 volunteers wearing snowshoes trekked out onto the frozen Catamount Lake in Colorado to trample miles of swirling and twisting patterns into the deep snow. Titled Snow Drawings at Catamount Lake, the work was a continuation of her community-based snow drawing projects that bring together local volunteers to transform snowy landscapes into temporary artworks based on parameters provided by Hinrichsen. From her statement about the project:
It is important to me that participants experience the elements of nature while they help me transform their own familiar snow landscape into a piece of art. I hope that the aerial photographs that I take right after completion of each piece can demonstrate also to a larger audience how the landscape is transformed into a piece of art through a system of designs. This changes our perception of the landscape and accentuates the beauty and magic of the natural environment, and thus inspires awe and appreciation for art as well as for nature. I deem this important – especially as modern society becomes increasingly disconnected from the natural world.
Hinrichsen most recently completed a snow drawing project that traced the original flow of the Yampa River in Routt County, Colorado and has upcoming projects scheduled in Illinois and the French Alps.
