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Apr 8, 2015
Here’s something you don’t see every day: A #bobcat catches a shark at #SebastianInlet State Park in #Florida. John Bailey captured this amazing scene last night during a stroll on #VeroBeach. He realized the cat was transfixed on a shark feeding on smaller fish. Suddenly, the bobcat leaped into the water atop the shark and dragged it ashore. John snapped this photo just before the bobcat dropped its catch and ran into the forest. Photo courtesy of John Bailey via @myfwc. #nature #Wildlife by usinterior
In the Heart of the Virgo Cluster In the Heart of the Virgo Cluster
The Virgo Cluster of Galaxies is the closest cluster of galaxies to our Milky Way Galaxy. The Virgo Cluster is so close that it spans more than 5 degrees on the sky - about 10 times the angle made by a full Moon. With its heart lying about 70 million light years distant, the Virgo Cluster is the nearest cluster of galaxies, contains over 2,000 galaxies, and has a noticeable gravitational pull on the galaxies of the Local Group of Galaxies surrounding our Milky Way Galaxy. The cluster contains not only galaxies filled with stars but also gas so hot it glows in X-rays. Motions of galaxies in and around clusters indicate that they contain more dark matter than any visible matter we can see. Pictured above, the heart of the Virgo Cluster includes bright Messier galaxies such as Markarian's Eyes on the upper left, M86 just to the upper right of center, M84 on the far right, as well as spiral galaxy NGC 4388 at the bottom right. via NASA http://ift.tt/1C8VnUW
Apr 7, 2015
#Denali National Park (#Alaska) is six million acres of wild land, bisected by one ribbon of road. Travelers along it see the relatively low-elevation taiga forest give way to high alpine tundra and snowy mountains, culminating in North America's tallest peak, #MountMcKinley -- which is still growing at about 1 millimeter per year. #Wildlife large and small roam unfenced lands, living as they have for ages in @denalinps. Photo by Daniel A. Leifheit, #NationalPark Service. #nature #FindYourPark #bear by usinterior
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NGC 3293: A Bright Young Star Cluster NGC 3293: A Bright Young Star Cluster
Hot blue stars shine brightly in this beautiful, recently formed galactic or "open" star cluster. Open cluster NGC 3293 is located in the constellation Carina, lies at a distance of about 8000 light years, and has a particularly high abundance of these young bright stars. A study of NGC 3293 implies that the blue stars are only about 6 million years old, whereas the cluster's dimmer, redder stars appear to be about 20 million years old. If true, star formation in this open cluster took at least 15 million years. Even this amount of time is short, however, when compared with the billions of years stars like our Sun live, and the over-ten billion year lifetimes of many galaxies and our universe. Pictured, NGC 3293 appears just in front of a dense dust lane and red glowing hydrogen gas emanating from the Carina Nebula. via NASA http://ift.tt/1C9eRrw
Apr 6, 2015
Amazing pic of Saturday's #bloodmoon behind the #WashingtonMonument. This weekend, the bright #fullmoon over North America turned a red during a total #lunareclipse that lasted about five minutes -- the shortest of the century. In #Washington, #DC, the clouds parted just long enough for Mike Zorger (@mikezorger) to capture this dramatic shot on the National Mall. Photo courtesy of @mikezorger. by usinterior
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Come and experience #Glacier #NationalPark's pristine forests, alpine meadows, rugged mountains and spectacular lakes. With over 700 miles of trails, @Glaciernps in #Montana is a hiker's paradise for adventurous visitors seeking wilderness and solitude. #Sunset at St. Mary Lake by Matt Simons (http://ift.tt/18oFfjl). by usinterior
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Saturn, Tethys, Rings, and Shadows Saturn, Tethys, Rings, and Shadows
Seen from ice moon Tethys, rings and shadows would display fantastic views of the Saturnian system. Haven't dropped in on Tethys lately? Then this gorgeous ringscape from the Cassini spacecraft will have to do for now. Caught in sunlight just below and left of picture center in 2005, Tethys itself is about 1,000 kilometers in diameter and orbits not quite five saturn-radii from the center of the gas giant planet. At that distance (around 300,000 kilometers) it is well outside Saturn's main bright rings, but Tethys is still one of five major moons that find themselves within the boundaries of the faint and tenuous outer E ring. Discovered in the 1980s, two very small moons Telesto and Calypso are locked in stable locations along Tethys' orbit. Telesto precedes and Calypso follows Tethys as the trio circles Saturn. via NASA http://ift.tt/1bYjVK6
Apr 5, 2015
#Sunsets are amazing at the #GrandCanyon #NationalPark in #Arizona. Randy Langstraat captured this pic from #CapeRoyal — a point that provides a panorama up, down, and across the canyon. With seemingly unlimited vistas to the east and west, it is popular for both #sunrise and #sunset. Cape Royal is on the #NorthRim of @grandcanyonnps, which will open for summer in May. Photo from http://ift.tt/18oFfjl. by usinterior
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Voorwerpjes in Space Voorwerpjes in Space
Mysterious Hanny's Voorwerp, Dutch for "Hanny's Object", is really enormous, about the size of the Milky Way Galaxy and glowing strongly in the greenish light produced by ionized oxygen atoms. It is thought to be a tidal tail of material left by an ancient galaxy merger, illuminated and ionized by the outburst of a quasar inhabiting the center of distant spiral galaxy IC 2497. Its exciting 2007 discovery by Dutch schoolteacher Hanny van Arkel while participating online in the Galaxy Zoo project has since inspired a search and discovery of eight more eerie green cosmic features. Imaged in these panels by the Hubble Space Telescope, all eight appear near galaxies with energetic cores. Far outside their associated galaxies, these objects are also likely echoes of quasar activity, illuminated only as light from a core quasar outburst reaches them and ultimately fading tens of thousands of years after the quasar outburst itself has faded away. Of course a galaxy merger like the impending merger of our own Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy, could also trigger the birth of a quasar that would illuminate our distant future version of Hanny's Voorwerp. via NASA http://ift.tt/1xLDT4u
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