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Jun 4, 2015
Located near the southern border of #Washington -- and just a short distance from Portland -- Ridgefield National #WildlifeRefuge is a must visit in the #PacificNorthwest. This 5,217-acre @usfws wildlife refuge contains a mosaic of riverine flood plain habitat, making it ideal for birdwatching. Donna Torres snapped this photo of two great horned #owl fledglings keeping a watchful eye on her while visiting #Ridgefield. Photo courtesy of Donna Torres. by usinterior
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Flyby Image of Saturns Sponge Moon Hyperion Flyby Image of Saturns Sponge Moon Hyperion
Why does this moon look like a sponge? To better investigate, NASA and ESA sent the Saturn-orbiting robotic spacecraft Cassini zooming past Saturn's moon Hyperion, once again, earlier this week. One of the images beamed back to Earth is featured above, raw and unprocessed. Visible, as expected, are many unusually shaped craters with an unusual dark material at the bottom. Although Hyperion spans about 250 kilometers, its small gravitational tug on Cassini indicates that it is mostly empty space and so has very low surface gravity. Therefore, the odd shapes of many of Hyperion's craters are thought to result from impacts that primarily compress and eject surface material -- instead of the more typical round craters that appear after a circular shock wave that explosively redistributes surface material. Cassini is on track for another flyby of Saturn's Dione in about two weeks. via NASA http://ift.tt/1FrXpjD
Jun 3, 2015
We continue our tour of our favorite public lands in the Pacific Northwest with Crater Lake #NationalPark in #Oregon. This amazing photo of a double #rainbow over #CraterLake was taken last July after an epic thunderstorm. Photo courtesy of Jasman Singh Mandar. #getoutdoors 🌈 by usinterior
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Polaris and Comet Lovejoy Polaris and Comet Lovejoy
One of these two bright sky objects is moving. On the right is the famous star Polaris. Although only the 45th brightest star in the sky, Polaris is famous for appearing stationary. Once you find it, it will always appear in the same direction -- all night and all day -- for the rest of your life. This is because the northern spin pole of the Earth -- called the North Celestial Pole -- points near Polaris. On the left, about ten million times closer, is Comet Lovejoy, which noticeably changes its sky position by the hour. The featured image was taken last week. Officially designated C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy), this disintegrating snowball is on a visit from the outer Solar System and will only appear near the North Star for a few more weeks. That should be long enough, however, for northerners with binoculars or a small telescope to see the greenish coma of this fleeting newcomer, perhaps with the help of a good star map. via NASA http://ift.tt/1dbap6t
Jun 2, 2015
Lemme in! A #bear tries to break into a trash can at #GilaBoxRiparian National Conservation Area in #Arizona. 🐻 The bear wasn't successful, but it's a great reminder that only using designed trash cans not only keeps our public lands clean, it also protects #wildlife. Photo courtesy of Dale Maas via @mypubliclands. by usinterior
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A hidden gem in America’s #PacificNorthwest is the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in #Oregon. Called an amazing treasure, #CascadeSiskiyou covers more than 62,000 acres and is best known for the unique landscapes created by the convergence of species from the high deserts of the Northern Great Basin to the temperate rain forests of the Pacific Coast. Pictured is the #fullmoon above the stunning vista from the Cascade-Siskiyou #NationalMonument. Photo by Bob Wick, mypubliclands. #getoutdoors 🌝 by usinterior
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Jun 1, 2015
Happy #GreatOutdoorsMonth! We're celebrating our nation's stunning #publiclands by spotlighting some of our favorite places to visit in the #PacificNorthwest. First up: Olympic #NationalPark in Washington. About 100 miles from Seattle, #Olympic is a place of beauty and variety. Untamed rivers flow from glacier-capped peaks through valleys of old-growth forests, waves crash against a shoreline rich with life, and only trails traverse the vast interior of this internationally recognized wilderness. Pictured here is #sunrise from the park's #SecondBeach. Of his first visit to Olympic, photographer Glenn Nelson says, "I had a Whoa Moment the second I stepped off the trail onto Second Beach. This one photo cannot begin to convey the utter awesomeness and serenity of the place." Photo from http://ift.tt/18oFfjl. #getoutdoors by usinterior
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Supernova 1994D and the Unexpected Universe Supernova 1994D and the Unexpected Universe
Long ago, far away, a star exploded. Supernova 1994D, visible as the bright spot on the lower left, occurred in the outskirts of disk galaxy NGC 4526. Supernova 1994D was not of interest for how different it was, but rather for how similar it was to other supernovae. In fact, the light emitted during the weeks after its explosion caused it to be given the familiar designation of a Type Ia supernova. If all Type 1a supernovae have the same intrinsic brightness, then the dimmer a supernova appears, the farther away it must be. By calibrating a precise brightness-distance relation, astronomers are able to estimate not only the expansion rate of the universe (parameterized by the Hubble Constant), but also the geometry of the universe we live in (parameterized by Omega and Lambda). The large number and great distances to supernovae measured over the past few years, when combined with other observations, are interpreted as indicating that we live in a previously unexpected universe. via NASA http://ift.tt/1FLWxty
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