ASTRONOMY - Siccar Point on Mars

 2022 August 31

Siccar Point on Mars
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS; Processing & License: Kevin M. Gill

Explanation: What created this unusual hill on Mars? No one is sure. A good outlook to survey the surrounding area, Siccar Point stands out from its surroundings in Gale Crater. The unusual mound was visited by the robotic Curiosity rover exploring Mars late last year. Siccar Point not only has a distinctive shape, it has dark rocks above lighter rocks. The apparent much younger age of the dark rocks indicates a time-break in the usual geological ordering of rock layers -- by a process yet unknown. The Martian hill is named for Siccar Point on Earth, a place in Scotland itself distinctive as a junction between two different rock layers. Curiosity continues to explore Gale crater on Mars, looking for clues of ancient life. Simultaneously, 2300 kilometers away, its sister rover Perseverance explores Jezero crater, there assisted by the flight-capable scout Ingenuity.

METEO EXTREME - La foudre en Vendée (France) - 1/10

Dans la nuit du mercredi 24 au jeudi 25 août, des orages se sont abattus sur le département de la Vendée. L’occasion pour les amateurs de photographie de capturer des images incroyables de ce phénomène.

Demotivateur

ASTRONOMY - Jupiter from the Webb Space Telescope

 2022 August 30

Jupiter from the Webb Space Telescope
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Jupiter ERS Team; Processing: Ricardo Hueso (UPV/EHU) & Judy Schmidt

Explanation: This new view of Jupiter is illuminating. High-resolution infrared images of Jupiter from the new James Webb Space Telescope (Webb) reveal, for example, previously unknown differences between high-floating bright clouds -- including the Great Red Spot -- and low-lying dark clouds. Also clearly visible in the featured Webb image are Jupiter's dust ring, bright auroras at the poles, and Jupiter's moons Amalthea and Adrastea. Large volcanic moon Io's magnetic funneling of charged particles onto Jupiter is also visible in the southern aurora. Some objects are so bright that light noticeably diffracts around Webb's optics creating streaks. Webb, which orbits the Sun near the Earth, has a mirror over 6 meters across making it the largest astronomical telescope ever launched -- with 15 times more light-collecting area than Hubble.

MACROPHOTOGRAPHIE - Trois gouttelettes de rosée

D'un point de vue très prosaïque, les espèces de Gerbera sont parmi les groupes de fleurs les plus coupées -- et donc les plus vendues -- au monde. Certaines servent aussi d'organisme modèle aux biologistes. Mais dans le langage des fleurs, les gerberas symbolisent un amour profond et de tendres pensées.

Et c'est, à n'en pas douter, ce point de vue là que la photographe japonaise Miki Asai a voulu adopter ici. Trois gouttelettes de rosées naturellement posées sur un pétale. Un instant hors du temps immortalisé depuis la fenêtre de sa maison, à la faveur de la douce lumière de l'aube.

© Miki Asai

FuturaSciences

ASTRONOMY - The Horsehead Nebula Region without Stars

 2022 August 29

The Horsehead Nebula Region without Stars
Image Credit & Copyright: George Chatzifrantzis

Explanation: The famous Horsehead Nebula in Orion is not alone. A deep exposure shows that the dark familiar shaped indentation, visible just right of center, is part of a vast complex of absorbing dust and glowing gas. The featured spectacular picture details an intricate tapestry of gaseous wisps and dust-laden filaments that were created and sculpted over eons by stellar winds and ancient supernovas. The Flame Nebula is visible in orange just to the Horsehead's left. To highlight the dust and gas, most of the stars have been digitally removed, although a notable exception is Alnitak, just above the Flame Nebula, which is the rightmost star in Orion's famous belt of three aligned stars. The Horsehead Nebula lies 1,500 light years distant towards the constellation of Orion.

ASTRONOMY - Perijove 11: Passing Jupiter

2022 August 28

Perijove 11: Passing Jupiter
Video Credit: License: NASA, Juno, SwRI, MSSS, Gerald Eichstadt; Music: Moonlight Sonata (Ludwig van Beethoven)

Explanation: Here comes Jupiter! NASA's robotic spacecraft Juno is continuing on its highly-elongated orbits around our Solar System's largest planet. The featured video is from perijove 11 in early 2018, the eleventh time Juno has passed near Jupiter since it arrived in mid-2016. This time-lapse, color-enhanced movie covers about four hours and morphs between 36 JunoCam images. The video begins with Jupiter rising as Juno approaches from the north. As Juno reaches its closest view -- from about 3,500 kilometers over Jupiter's cloud tops -- the spacecraft captures the great planet in tremendous detail. Juno passes light zones and dark belt of clouds that circle the planet, as well as numerous swirling circular storms, many of which are larger than hurricanes on Earth. After the perijove, Jupiter recedes into the distance, then displaying the unusual clouds that appear over Jupiter's south. To get desired science data, Juno swoops so close to Jupiter that its instruments are exposed to very high levels of radiation. 

ASTRONOMY - IC 5146: The Cocoon Nebula

 2022 August 27

IC 5146: The Cocoon Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: David Jenkins

Explanation: Inside the Cocoon Nebula is a newly developing cluster of stars. Cataloged as IC 5146, the beautiful nebula is nearly 15 light-years wide. Climbing high in northern summer night skies, it's located some 4,000 light years away toward the constellation Cygnus the Swan. Like other star forming regions, it stands out in red, glowing, hydrogen gas excited by young, hot stars, and dust-reflected starlight at the edge of an otherwise invisible molecular cloud. In fact, the bright star found near the center of this nebula is likely only a few hundred thousand years old, powering the nebular glow as it clears out a cavity in the molecular cloud's star forming dust and gas. A 29 hour long integration with a small telescope from Ayr, Ontario, Canada resulted in this exceptionally deep color view tracing tantalizing features within and surrounding the dusty stellar nursery.

MERVEILLEUX MONDE SOUS-MARIN - La gorgone rouge et le gorgonocéphale

 

Méditerranée - France - Archipel des Iles d'Hyères - Ile du Levant.

Gorgone rouge (Paramuricea clavata - Purple gorgonian) et gorgonocéphale (Astropartus mediterraneus - Basket star). Ces deux espèces vivent fréquemment associées l'une à l'autre.

© Alexis Rosenfeld

FuturaSciences

ASTRONOMY - Little Planet South Pole

 2022 August 26

Little Planet South Pole
Image Credit & Copyright: Aman Chokshi

Explanation: Lights play around the horizon of this snowy little planet as it drifts through a starry night sky. Of course the little planet is actually planet Earth. Recorded on August 21, the digitally warped, nadir centered panorama covers nearly 360x180 degrees outside the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, Antarctica. The southernmost research outpost is near the horizon at the top where the light of dawn is approaching after nearly six months of darkness. Along the bottom is the ceremonial pole marker surrounded by the 12 flags of the original signatories of the Antarctic treaty, with a wild display of the aurora australis above.

ASTRONOMY - Tiangong Space Station Transits the Moon

 2022 August 25

Tiangong Space Station Transits the Moon
Image Credit & Copyright: Lucy Yunxi Hu

Explanation: The rugged lunar south polar region lies at the top of this colorful portrait of a last quarter Moon made on August 20. Constructed from video frames and still images taken at Springrange, New South Wales, Australia it also captures a transit of China's Tiangong Space Station. The transit itself was fleeting, taking the space station less than a second to cross the shadowed and sunlit lunar disk. The low Earth orbiting Tiangong is at an altitude of about 400 kilometers, while the Moon is some 400,000 kilometers away. Subtle color differences along the bright lunar surface are revealed in the multiple stacked frames. Not visible to the eye, they indicate real differences in chemical makeup across the lunar surface.

ASTRONOMY - The Cartwheel Galaxy from Webb

 2022 August 24

The Cartwheel Galaxy from Webb
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team

Explanation: To some, it looks like a wheel of a cart. In fact, because of its outward appearance, the presence of a central galaxy, and its connection with what looks like the spokes of a wheel, the galaxy on the right is known as the Cartwheel Galaxy. To others, however, it looks like a complicated interaction between galaxies awaiting explanation. Along with the two galaxies on the left, the Cartwheel is part of a group of galaxies about 500 million light years away in the constellation Sculptor. The large galaxy's rim spans over 100,000 light years and is composed of star forming regions filled with extremely bright and massive stars. The Cartwheel's ring-like shape is the result of gravitational disruption caused by a smaller galaxy passing through a large one, compressing the interstellar gas and dust and causing a star formation wave to move out like a ripple across the surface of a pond. The featured recent image of the Cartwheel Galaxy by the Webb Space Telescope reveals new details not only about where stars are forming, but also about activity near the galaxy's central black hole.

ASTRONOMY - Meteor & Milky Way over the Mediterranean

 2022 August 23

Meteor & Milky Way over the Mediterranean
Image Credit & Copyright: Julien Looten

Explanation: Careful planning made this a nightscape to remember. First, the night itself was chosen to occur during the beginning of this year's Perseid Meteor Shower. Next, the time of night was chosen to be before the bright Moon would rise and dominate the night sky's brightness. The picturesque foreground was selected to be a rocky beach of the Mediterranean Sea in Le Dramont, France, with, at the time, île d’Or island situated near the ominously descending central band of our Milky Way Galaxy. Once everything was set and with the weather cooperating, all of the frames for this seemingly surreal nightscape were acquired within 15 minutes. What you can't see is that, on this night, the astrophotographer brought along his father who, although unskilled in modern sky-capture techniques, once made it a point to teach his child about the sky.

MERVEILLEUX MONDE SOUS-MARIN - Poissons-clowns de Clark dans leur anémone

Atoll de Fakarava, passe de Tetamanu. Réserve de la biosphère.

Poissons-clowns de Clark (Amphipirion clarkii) au-dessus de l'anémone magnifique (Heteractis magnifica) dans laquelle ils habitent. Immunisés contre ses toxines, ils profitent de l'abri offert par l'anémone contre les prédateurs, qui eux craignent son poison.

© Photographe Alexis Rosenfeld

FuturaSciences

ASTRONOMY - Earth's Recent Climate Spiral

 2022 August 22

Earth's Recent Climate Spiral
Video Credit: NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

Explanation: Is our Earth warming? Compared to the past 250 million years, the Earth is currently enduring a relative cold spell, possibly about four degrees Celsius below average. Over the past 120 years, though, data indicate that the average global temperature of the Earth has increased by nearly one degree Celsius. The featured visualization video depicts Earth's recent global warming in graphic terms. The depicted temperatures are taken from the Goddard Institute for Space Studies' Surface Temperature Analysis. Already noticeable by many, Earth's recent warming trend is causing sea levels to rise, precipitation patterns to change, and pole ice to melt. Few now disagree that recent global warming is occurring, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has concluded that we humans have created a warming surge that is likely to continue. A continuation could impact many local agricultures and even the global economy. Although there seems to be no simple solutions, geoengineering projects that might help include artificial cloud creation to reduce the amount of sunlight heating the Earth's surface.

ASTRONOMY - The Spinning Pulsar of the Crab Nebula

 2022 August 21

The Spinning Pulsar of the Crab Nebula
Image Credit: NASA: X-ray: Chandra (CXC), Optical: Hubble (STScI), Infrared: Spitzer (JPL-Caltech)

Explanation: At the core of the Crab Nebula lies a city-sized, magnetized neutron star spinning 30 times a second. Known as the Crab Pulsar, it is the bright spot in the center of the gaseous swirl at the nebula's core. About twelve light-years across, the spectacular picture frames the glowing gas, cavities and swirling filaments near the Crab Nebula's center. The featured picture combines visible light from the Hubble Space Telescope in purple, X-ray light from the Chandra X-ray Observatory in blue, and infrared light from the Spitzer Space Telescope in red. Like a cosmic dynamo the Crab pulsar powers the emission from the nebula, driving a shock wave through surrounding material and accelerating the spiraling electrons. With more mass than the Sun and the density of an atomic nucleus,the spinning pulsar is the collapsed core of a massive star that exploded. The outer parts of the Crab Nebula are the expanding remnants of the star's component gasses. The supernova explosion was witnessed on planet Earth in the year 1054.

MACROPHOTOGRAPHIE - Le pissenlit jamais imaginé

 

Chez le pissenlit, l'ovaire de chaque fleur donne un akène, un fruit sec qui contient une graine.

Chaque akène est surmonté d'un pappus en forme de parachute. Un coup de vent -- ou le passage d'un animal -- et les akènes mûrs se détachent pour être disséminés, parfois sur de longues distances.

Une stratégie poétique mise en œuvre par la nature et magnifiée ici par la photographe japonaise Miki Asai. Une légère brume créée avec les moyens du bord -- un spray usagé pour cheveu -- et une belle goutte d'eau bien ronde délicatement déposée au centre à l'aide d'un compte-goutte. Laissez ensuite simplement agir la magie du reflet arrondi de cette fleur dans l'eau. 

© Miki Asai

MERVEILLEUX MONDE SOUS-MARIN - Banc de poissons dans l'atoll de Fakarava

 

© Photographe Alexis Rosenfeld
FuturaSciences

ASTRONOMY - Stardust and Comet Tails

 2022 August 20

Stardust and Comet Tails
Image Credit & Copyright: Rolando Ligustri (CARA Project, CAST)

Explanation: Heading for its closest approach to the Sun, or perihelion, on December 19 comet C/2017 K2 (PanSTARRS) remains a sight for telescopic observers as it sweeps through planet Earth's skies in the constellation Scorpius. The comet currently sports a greenish coma, long whitish dust tail, and short ion tail in this deep image from August 18. The 2x3 degree wide field of view includes part of the dusty nebula IC 4592 reflecting blue starlight. Also known as the Blue Horsehead Nebula, IC 4592 is about 400 light-years distant while the comet is just under 17 light-minutes away. First spotted at a distance well beyond the orbit of Saturn C/2017 K2 is on its maiden voyage to the inner solar system, a pristine visitor from the remote Oort cloud.

ASTRONOMY - Saturn: 1993 - 2022

 2022 August 19

Saturn: 1993 - 2022
Image Credit & Copyright: Tunc Tezel (TWAN)

Explanation: Saturn is the most distant planet of the Solar System easily visible to the unaided eye. With this extraordinary, long-term astro-imaging project begun in 1993, you can follow the ringed gas giant for one Saturn year as it wanders once around the ecliptic plane, finishing a single orbit around the Sun by 2022. Constructed from individual images made over 29 Earth years, the split panorama is centered along the ecliptic and crossed by the plane of our Milky Way galaxy. Saturn's position in 1993 is at the right side, upper panel in the constellation Capricornus and progresses toward the left. It returns to the spot in Capricornus at left in the lower panel in 2022. The consistent imaging shows Saturn appears slightly brighter during the years 2000-2005 and 2015-2019, periods when its beautiful rings were tilted more face-on to planet Earth.

ASTRONOMY - Full Moon Perseids

 2022 August 18

Full Moon Perseids
Image Credit & Copyright: Juan Carlos Casado (Starry Earth, TWAN)

Explanation: The annual Perseid meteor shower was near its peak on August 13. As planet Earth crossed through streams of debris left by periodic Comet Swift-Tuttle meteors rained in northern summer night skies. But even that night's nearly Full Moon shining near the top of this composited view couldn't hide all of the popular shower's meteor streaks. The image captures some of the brightest perseid meteors in many short exposures recorded over more than two hours before the dawn. It places the shower's radiant in the heroic constellation of Perseus just behind a well-lit medieval tower in the village of Sant Llorenc de la Muga, Girona, Spain. Observed in medieval times, the Perseid meteor shower is also known in Catholic tradition as the Tears of St. Lawrence, and festivities are celebrated close to the annual peak of the meteor shower. Joining the Full Moon opposite the Sun, bright planet Saturn also shines in the frame at the upper right.

ASTRONOMY - Stargate Milky Way

 2022 August 17

Stargate Milky Way
Image Credit & Copyright: Maxime Oudoux

Explanation: There is a huge gate of stars in the sky, and you pass through it twice a day. The stargate is actually our Milky Way Galaxy, and it is the spin of the Earth that appears to propel you through it. More typically, the central band of our Milky Way appears as a faint band stretching across the sky, only visible in away from bright city lights. In a long-exposure wide-angle image from a dark location like this, though, the Milky Way's central plane is easily visible. The featured picture is a digital composite involving multiple exposures taken on the same night and with the same camera, but employing a stereographic projection that causes the Milky Way to appear as a giant circular portal. Inside the stargate-like arc of our Galaxy is a faint stripe called zodiacal light -- sunlight reflected by dust in our Solar System. In the foreground are cacti and dry rocks found in the rough terrain of the high desert of Chile, not far from the El Sauce Observatory and the developing Vera Rubin Observatory, the latter expected to begin routine operations in 2024.

ASTRONOMY - A Meteor Wind over Tunisia

 2022 August 16

A Meteor Wind over Tunisia
Image Credit & Copyright: Makrem Larnaout

Explanation: Does the Earth ever pass through a wind of meteors? Yes, and they are frequently visible as meteor showers. Almost all meteors are sand-sized debris that escaped from a Sun-orbiting comet or asteroid, debris that continues in an elongated orbit around the Sun. Circling the same Sun, our Earth can move through an orbiting debris stream, where it can appear, over time, as a meteor wind. The meteors that light up in Earth's atmosphere, however, are usually destroyed. Their streaks, though, can all be traced back to a single point on the sky called the radiant. The featured image composite was taken over two days in late July near the ancient Berber village Zriba El Alia in Tunisia, during the peak of the Southern Delta Aquariids meteor shower. The radiant is to the right of the image. A few days ago our Earth experienced the peak of a more famous meteor wind -- the Perseids.

SANTé/MEDECINE - Une mâchoire imprimée en 3D vient d'être greffée

Des chercheurs néerlandais sont parvenus à reproduire une mâchoire en titane, imprimée en 3D et à la greffer à un patient.

Les cancers de la tête et du cou sont au 5ème rang des cancers les courants en France. Ils nécessitent parfois une chirurgie de la mâchoire, qui consiste à en retirer une partie. Jusqu'à présent, les techniques de reconstruction avaient de nombreux défauts, mais une nouvelle approche inédite, développée par l'Institut néerlandais du cancer change la donne, comme l'explique Eurekalert.

Quand on retire la mandibule (partie de la mâchoire inférieure), dans les cas de cancers ORL, le patient est reconstruit grâce à des greffes osseuses et des plaques métalliques. Mais cette option n'est pas parfaite et présente des effets secondaires lourds : notamment un risque d'échec avec des plaques qui ne tiennent pas dans la durée.

UNE PROTHÈSE SUR-MESURE EN TITANE

Depuis quatre ans, des chercheurs néerlandais réfléchissent à un moyen qui éviterait de passer par la greffe osseuse, qui nécessite de rétablir la connexion sanguine et qui est, de fait, complexe. Ils ont mis au point un système de prothèse sur-mesure, via imprimante 3D, développée par Mobius 3D Technologies, qui reproduit avec du titane la mandibule retirée à la perfection. Elle pèse le même poids que l'os retiré et a l'avantage d'être bien lus esthétique pour le patient greffé.

Pour la première fois, ils ont réussi à l'implanter chez un sujet. Ils estiment que cette technique pourrait servir pour greffer d'autres parties de la tête, et que l'option pourrait être disponible sur le marché d'ici 2023/2024.

TopSanté

ASTROPHOTOGRAPHIE - Dentelles du cygne

 

Détail des Voiles photographiés par J.-P. Metsävanio (Finlande). Distant de 1.470 années-lumière du Système solaire, cet ensemble est formé de rémanents d'une supernova qui a explosé il y a environ 5.000 ans, en direction de la constellation du Cygne. Ces nuages de débris ici remarquablement mis en relief sont également connus sous le nom de Dentelles du Cygne.

© J.-P. Metsävanio, Flickr

VOIE LACTEE SUR TERRE - Chichén Itzá, ancienne ville maya, Mexique

Chichén Itzá est une ancienne ville maya située entre Valladolid et Mérida dans la péninsule du Yucatán et l'un des plus importants sites de ruines avec une superficie de 1547 hectares au Mexique. Il a été classé au patrimoine mondial de l'Unesco en 1988 et fait partie depuis le 7 juillet 2007 d'une des sept nouvelles merveilles du monde. Cette cité tire son nom de Chi qui signifie « bouche » et Chén, « puits », Itzá veut dire en maya yucatèque « sorcier de l'eau ». C'est le nom du groupe qui, selon les sources ethno-historiques, constituait la classe dirigeante de la cité. 

© Delil Geyik

MERVEILLEUX MONDE SOUS-MARIN - Mérou dans sa tannière

Atoll de Fakarava, Polynésie française. Réserve de la biosphère. Mérou (Epinephelus sp.) dans sa tanière.

© Photographe Alexis Rosenfeld

FuturaSciences

ASTRONOMY - The Cygnus Wall of Star Formation

 2022 August 15

The Cygnus Wall of Star Formation
Image Credit & Copyright: Johan Bogaerts

Explanation: The North America nebula on the sky can do what the North America continent on Earth cannot -- form stars. Specifically, in analogy to the Earth-confined continent, the bright part that appears as Central America and Mexico is actually a hot bed of gas, dust, and newly formed stars known as the Cygnus Wall. The featured image shows the star forming wall lit and eroded by bright young stars, and partly hidden by the dark dust they have created. The part of the North America nebula (NGC 7000) shown spans about 15 light years and lies about 1,500 light years away toward the constellation of the Swan (Cygnus).

ASTRONOMY - 4000 Exoplanets

 2022 August 14

4000 Exoplanets
Video Credit: SYSTEM Sounds (M. Russo, A. Santaguida); Data: NASA Exoplanet Archive

Explanation: Over 4000 planets are now known to exist outside our Solar System. Known as exoplanets, this milestone was passed last month, as recorded by NASA's Exoplanet Archive. The featured video highlights these exoplanets in sound and light, starting chronologically from the first confirmed detection in 1992 and continuing into 2019. The entire night sky is first shown compressed with the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy making a giant U. Exoplanets detected by slight jiggles in their parents-star's colors (radial velocity) appear in pink, while those detected by slight dips in their parent star's brightness (transit) are shown in purple. Further, those exoplanets imaged directly appear in orange, while those detected by gravitationally magnifying the light of a background star (microlensing) are shown in green. The faster a planet orbits its parent star, the higher the accompanying tone played. The retired Kepler satellite has discovered about half of these first 4000 exoplanets in just one region of the sky, while the TESS mission is on track to find even more, all over the sky, orbiting the brightest nearby stars. Finding exoplanets not only helps humanity to better understand the potential prevalence of life elsewhere in the universe, but also how our Earth and Solar System were formed.

ASTRONOMY - Herschel Crater on Mimas

 2022 August 13

Herschel Crater on Mimas
Image Credit Cassini Imaging Team, ISS, JPL, ESA, NASA

Explanation: Mimas, small 400 kilometer-diameter moon of Saturn, is host to 130 kilometer-diameter Herschel crater, one of the larger impact craters in the entire Solar System. The robotic Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn in 2010 recorded this startling view of small moon and big crater while making a 10,000-kilometer record close pass by the diminutive icy world. Shown in contrast-enhanced false color, the image data reveal more clearly that Herschel's landscape is colored slightly differently from heavily cratered terrain nearby. The color difference could yield surface composition clues to the violent history of Mimas. Of course, an impact on Mimas any larger than the one that created the 130-kilometer Herschel might have destroyed the small moon of Saturn.

MERVEILLEUX MONDE SOUS-MARIN - Ponte de gorgone rouge

Méditerranée - France - Archipel des Iles d'Hyères - Ile du Levant.

Ponte de gorgone rouge (Paramuricea clavata - Purple gorgonian).

© Alexis Rosenfeld

ASTRONOMY - Portrait of the Eagle Nebula

 2022 August 12

Portrait of the Eagle Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Charles Bonafilia

Explanation: A star cluster around 2 million years young surrounded by natal clouds of dust and glowing gas, Messier 16 (M16) is also known as The Eagle Nebula. This beautifully detailed image of the region adopts the colorful Hubble palette and includes cosmic sculptures made famous in Hubble Space Telescope close-ups of the starforming complex. Described as elephant trunks or Pillars of Creation, dense, dusty columns rising near the center are light-years in length but are gravitationally contracting to form stars. Energetic radiation from the cluster stars erodes material near the tips, eventually exposing the embedded new stars. Extending from the ridge of bright emission left of center is another dusty starforming column known as the Fairy of Eagle Nebula. M16 lies about 7,000 light-years away, an easy target for binoculars or small telescopes in a nebula rich part of the sky toward the split constellation Serpens Cauda (the tail of the snake). As framed, this telescopic portrait of the Eagle Nebula is about 70 light-years across.

MUSIC - Franz Schubert - Marche militaire

"Marche militaire"

ASTRONOMY - Perseids and MAGIC

 2022 August 11

Perseids and MAGIC
Image Credit & Copyright: Urs Leutenegger

Explanation: On August 11, 2021 a multi-mirror, 17 meter-diameter MAGIC telescope reflected this starry night sky from the Roque de los Muchachos European Northern Observatory on the Canary Island of La Palma. MAGIC stands for Major Atmospheric Gamma Imaging Cherenkov. The telescopes can see the brief flashes of optical light produced in particle air showers as high-energy gamma rays impact the Earth's upper atmosphere. To the dark-adapted eye the mirror segments offer a tantalizing reflection of stars and nebulae along the plane of our Milky Way galaxy. But directly behind the segmented mirror telescope, low on the horizon, lies the constellation Perseus. And on that date the dramatic composite nightscape also captured meteors streaming from the radiant of the annual Perseid meteor shower. This year the Perseid shower activity will again peak around August 13 but perseid meteors will have to compete with the bright light of a Full Moon.

ASTRONOMY - Dust Clouds of the Pacman Nebula

 2022 August 10

Dust Clouds of the Pacman Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Douglas J. Struble (Future World Media)

Explanation: Stars can create huge and intricate dust sculptures from the dense and dark molecular clouds from which they are born. The tools the stars use to carve their detailed works are high energy light and fast stellar winds. The heat they generate evaporates the dark molecular dust as well as causing ambient hydrogen gas to disperse and glow red. Pictured here, a new open cluster of stars designated IC 1590 is nearing completion around the intricate interstellar dust structures in the emission nebula NGC 281, dubbed the Pac-man Nebula because of its overall shape. The dust cloud on the upper left is classified as a Bok Globule as it may gravitationally collapse and form a star -- or stars. The Pacman Nebula lies about 10,000 light years away toward the constellation of Cassiopeia.

SANTé/MéDECINE - Les vertus du cannabidiol (CBD)

Difficile de passer à côté de la popularité du cannabidiol. Depuis pas mal d’années maintenant, cet extrait issu du chanvre voit sa notoriété monter en flèche, notamment car il se présente sous diverses formes et offre des vertus non négligeables. Parmi elles, la capacité à relaxer et détendre la personne qui en consomme. Mais pas seulement : problèmes d’articulations, douleurs musculaires, manque de sommeil, crises d’angoisse à répétition…consommé régulièrement et à dose raisonnable, le CBD peut avoir un impact positif sur de nombreux problèmes que l’on rencontre au quotidien, jour et nuit. Pour tester les effets procurés par le CBD, partez à sa rencontre. Dans les grandes lignes l'huile composée à 12% de CBD et quasiment dépourvue de THC, aide à se défaire de l’anxiété et du stress, et de retrouver un sommeil profond, le tout naturellement et sans addiction.

MUSIQUE CLASSIQUE - Frederic Chopin - Tristesse

"Tristesse"

ASTROPHOTOGRAPHIES - La nébuleuse de la Tête de Cheval

Portrait haut en couleur et détaillé de la célèbre nébuleuse de la Tête de Cheval située près de la ceinture de la constellation d'Orion, en 2014, par Bill Snyder (États-Unis). L'astrophotographe a cumulé quelque 13 heures d'exposition au foyer de son télescope de 432 mm installé dans les montagnes de la Sierra Nevada en Californie. C'est un dense nuage de poussière en mouvement qui dessine la silhouette de cet animal devant les grandes draperies d'une partie du nuage moléculaire d'Orion.  

Cette nébuleuse obscure est distante d'environ 1.500 années-lumière de nous.

© Bill Snyder, Flickr

FuturaSciences

ASTRONOMY - Leaving Earth

 022 August 9

Leaving Earth
Video Credit: NASA/JHU Applied Physics Lab/Carnegie Inst. Washington

Explanation: What it would look like to leave planet Earth? Such an event was recorded visually in great detail by the MESSENGER spacecraft as it swung back past the Earth in 2005 on its way in toward the planet Mercury. Earth can be seen rotating in this time-lapse video, as it recedes into the distance. The sunlit half of Earth is so bright that background stars are not visible. The robotic MESSENGER spacecraft is now in orbit around Mercury and has recently concluded the first complete map of the surface. On occasion, MESSENGER has continued to peer back at its home world. MESSENGER is one of the few things created on the Earth that will never return. At the end of its mission MESSENGER crashed into Mercury's surface.

ASTRONOMY - The Lagoon Nebula without Stars

 2022 August 8

The Lagoon Nebula without Stars
Image Credit & Copyright: Sameer Dhar

Explanation: Ridges of glowing interstellar gas and dark dust clouds inhabit the turbulent, cosmic depths of the Lagoon Nebula. Also known as M8, the bright star forming region is about 5,000 light-years distant. But it still makes for a popular stop on telescopic tours of the constellation Sagittarius, toward the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. Dominated by the telltale red emission of ionized hydrogen atoms recombining with stripped electrons, this stunning, deep view of the Lagoon is nearly 100 light-years across. Right of center, the bright, compact, hourglass shape is gas ionized and sculpted by energetic radiation and extreme stellar winds from a massive young star. In fact, although digitally removed from the featured image, the many bright stars of open cluster NGC 6530 drift within the nebula, just formed in the Lagoon several million years ago.

ASTRONOMY - Meteor before Galaxy

 2022 August 7

Meteor before Galaxy
Image Credit & Copyright: Fritz Helmut Hemmerich

Explanation: What's that green streak in front of the Andromeda galaxy? A meteor. While photographing the Andromeda galaxy in 2016, near the peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower, a small pebble from deep space crossed right in front of our Milky Way Galaxy's far-distant companion. The small meteor took only a fraction of a second to pass through this 10-degree field. The meteor flared several times while braking violently upon entering Earth's atmosphere. The green color was created, at least in part, by the meteor's gas glowing as it vaporized. Although the exposure was timed to catch a Perseid meteor, the orientation of the imaged streak seems a better match to a meteor from the Southern Delta Aquariids, a meteor shower that peaked a few weeks earlier. Not coincidentally, the Perseid Meteor Shower peaks later this week, although this year the meteors will have to outshine a sky brightened by a nearly full moon.

MERVEILLEUX MONDE SOUS-MARIN - Souffleur à selle noire

 

Atoll de Fakarava. Réserve de la biosphère.

Souffleur à selle noire (Canthigaster valentini).

© Photographe Alexis Rosenfeld

FuturaSciences

ASTROPHOTOGRAPHIE - Terre et Espace

« Terre et espace », très belle composition de James Woodend (Royaume-Uni). Paysage embrasé par une aurore, le feu et la glace se mirent dans les eaux paisibles qui bordent le glacier Vatnajökull, au sud de l'Islande.

© James Woodend, Flickr

ASTRONOMY - Stereo Phobos

 2022 August 6

Stereo Phobos
Image Credit: G. Neukum (FU Berlin) et al., Mars Express, DLR, ESA

Explanation: Get out your red/blue glasses and float next to Phobos, grooved moon of Mars! Captured in 2004 by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft, the image data was recorded at a distance of about 200 kilometers from the martian moon. This tantalizing stereo anaglyph view shows the Mars-facing side of Phobos. It highlights the asteroid-like moon's cratered and grooved surface. Up to hundreds of meters wide, the mysterious grooves may be related to the impact that created Stickney crater, the large crater at the left. Stickney crater is about 10 kilometers across, while Phobos itself is only around 27 kilometers across at its widest point.

ASTRONOMY - A Beautiful Trifid

 2022 August 5

A Beautiful Trifid
Image Credit & Copyright: Vikas Chander

Explanation: The beautiful Trifid Nebula is a cosmic study in contrasts. Also known as M20, it lies about 5,000 light-years away toward the nebula rich constellation Sagittarius. A star forming region in the plane of our galaxy, the Trifid does illustrate three different types of astronomical nebulae; red emission nebulae dominated by light from hydrogen atoms, blue reflection nebulae produced by dust reflecting starlight, and dark nebulae where dense dust clouds appear in silhouette. But the red emission region, roughly separated into three parts by obscuring dust lanes, is what lends the Trifid its popular name. Pillars and jets sculpted by newborn stars, above and right of the emission nebula's center, appear in famous Hubble Space Telescope close-up images of the region. The Trifid Nebula is about 40 light-years across. Too faint to be seen by the unaided eye, it almost covers the area of a full moon in planet Earth's sky. Open star cluster M21 just peeks into this telescopic field of view along the bottom right edge of the frame.

AERONAUTIQUE - L’inventeur Franky Zapata présente son aéronef à décollage vertical

"JetRacer"

Dans sa vidéo diffusée jeudi, Franky Zapata vole au-dessus de l’étang de Berre (Bouches-du-Rhône), harnaché dans un châssis léger entouré de dix petits réacteurs, et réalise quelques acrobaties

Trois ans après sa traversée de la Manche, l’inventeur Franky Zapata a diffusé jeudi des images de son nouvel engin volant, une variante de son « Flyboard » qui permettrait d’emporter dans les airs un pilote assis. Cet aéronef à décollage et atterrissage vertical (VTOL) pourrait atteindre une vitesse de 250 km/h, avec une autonomie d’une quarantaine de kilomètres, a indiqué la société.

Cet appareil appelé « JetRacer », alimenté en kérosène, met l’accent sur « l’agilité » et il est « facile à prendre à main », a souligné Zapata. Pouvant être « piloté à distance », il est destiné aux forces de secours, à l’armée ou pour des loisirs extrêmes, mais pas pour les déplacements du quotidien.

Sud-Ouest

ASTRONOMY - M13: The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules

 2022 August 4

M13: The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules
Image Credit & Copyright: Joan Josep Isach Cogollos

Explanation: In 1716, English astronomer Edmond Halley noted, "This is but a little Patch, but it shows itself to the naked Eye, when the Sky is serene and the Moon absent." Of course, M13 is now less modestly recognized as the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules, one of the brightest globular star clusters in the northern sky. Sharp telescopic views like this one reveal the spectacular cluster's hundreds of thousands of stars. At a distance of 25,000 light-years, the cluster stars crowd into a region 150 light-years in diameter. Approaching the cluster core upwards of 100 stars could be contained in a cube just 3 light-years on a side. For comparison, the closest star to the Sun is over 4 light-years away. The remarkable range of brightness recorded in this image follows stars into the dense cluster core. Distant background galaxies in the medium-wide field of view include NGC 6207 at the upper left.