ASTRONOMY - Sea and Sky Glows over the Oregon Coast

 2022 September 4

Sea and Sky Glows over the Oregon Coast
Image Credit & Copyright: Rudy Montoya

Explanation: Every step caused the sand to light up blue. That glow was bioluminescence -- a blue radiance that also lights the surf in this surreal scene captured in mid-2018 at Meyer's Creek Beach in Oregon, USA. Volcanic stacks dot the foreground sea, while a thin fog layer scatters light on the horizon. The rays of light spreading from the left horizon were created by car headlights on the Oregon Coast Highway (US 101), while the orange light on the right horizon emanates from a fishing boat. Visible far in the distance is the band of our Milky Way Galaxy, appearing to rise from a dark rocky outcrop. Sixteen images were added together to bring up the background Milky Way and to reduce noise.

METEO EXTREME - Un cyclone tropical anormal menacerait la Péninsule Ibérique et la France

Alors que la canicule a sévèrement frappé l’Europe occidentale ces dernières semaines, il n’y a pas que dans les terres que la température a fortement grimpé.

L’océan Atlantique a en effet été le théâtre d’un réchauffement significatif qui risque de ne pas être sans conséquence.

Ainsi, plusieurs experts et autres scientifiques tirent la sonnette d’alarme quant à l’éventualité d’assister à un phénomène naturel de grande ampleur provoqué par ce réchauffement.

C’est notamment le cas de Juan Gonzalez Aleman, météorologue au sein de l’Aemet (Agence espagnole de météorologie), qui affirme sur Twitter qu’un « ouragan » va se former à une « latitude inhabituelle » dans l'Atlantique nord et que celui-ci pourrait bien toucher la péninsule ibérique puis la France.

Le météorologue prévoit deux scénarios possibles. Le premier prédit que ce « cyclone tropical anormal » pourrait affecter l’Espagne. Une hypothèse confirmée par ailleurs par le centre National des Ouragans aux États-Unis. Quant au second, il mise sur un changement de trajectoire de l’ouragan qui cette fois remonterait vers le nord avec le risque de toucher la France.

Si l’expert reconnaît qu’il n’existe aucune certitude car « des processus complexes entrent en jeu », il estime néanmoins qu’il s’agit d’un « problème assez grave et suffisamment représentatif pour surveiller et être attentif ».

Démotivateur

ASTRONOMY - Sun and Moon and ISS

 2022 September 3

Sun and Moon and ISS
Image Credit & Copyright: Wang Letian (Eyes at Night), Jin Ma (Beijing Planetarium)

Explanation: On August 25 Sun and Moon could both be seen in planet Earth's daytime skies. And so could the International Space Station. The ISS crossed the disk of the waning crescent Moon as seen from Shunyi district, Beijing, China at about 11:02 am local time. Some 40 kilometers to the southwest, in Fengtai district, the ISS was seen to cross the Sun's disk too. The solar transit was observed only 29 seconds later. Both transits are compared in these panels, composed of processed and stacked video frames from the two locations. The coordinated captures were made with different equipment, but adjusted to show the Sun and Moon at the same scale. The ISS was at a calculated range of 435 kilometers for the lunar transit and 491 kilometers when passing in front of the Sun.

ASTRONOMY - M51: The Whirlpool Galaxy

2022 September 2

M51: The Whirlpool Galaxy
Image Credit & Copyright: Fabian Neyer

Explanation: Find the Big Dipper and follow the handle away from the dipper's bowl until you get to the last bright star. Then, just slide your telescope a little south and west and you'll come upon this stunning pair of interacting galaxies, the 51st entry in Charles Messier's famous catalog. Perhaps the original spiral nebula, the large galaxy with well defined spiral structure is also cataloged as NGC 5194. Its spiral arms and dust lanes clearly sweep in front of its companion galaxy (left), NGC 5195. The pair are about 31 million light-years distant and officially lie within the angular boundaries of the small constellation Canes Venatici. In direct telescopic views, M51 looks faint and fuzzy to the eye. But this remarkably deep image shows off details of the interacting galaxy's striking colors and galactic tidal debris. The image includes nearly 90 hours of narrowband data that also reveals a vast glowing cloud of reddish ionized hydrogen gas discovered in the M51 system. 

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.