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Just in time for the festive season, this new Picture of the Week from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features a glistening scene in holiday red. This image shows a small region of the well-known nebula Westerhout 5, which lies about 7000 light-years from Earth. Suffused with bright red light, this luminous image hosts a variety of interesting features, including a free-floating Evaporating Gaseous Globule (frEGG). The frEGG in this image is the small tadpole-shaped dark region in the upper centre-left. This buoyant-looking bubble is lumbered with two rather uninspiring names — [KAG2008] globule 13 and J025838.6+604259.
FrEGGs are a particular class of Evaporating Gaseous Globules (EGGs). Both frEGGs and EGGs are regions of gas that are sufficiently dense that they photoevaporate less easily than the less compact gas surrounding them. Photoevaporation occurs when gas is ionised and dispersed away by an intense source of radiation — typically young, hot stars releasing vast amounts of ultraviolet light. EGGs were only identified fairly recently, most notably at the tips of the Pillars of Creation, which were captured by Hubble in iconic images released in 1995. FrEGGs were classified even more recently, and are distinguished from EGGs by being detached and having a distinct ‘head-tail’ shape. FrEGGs and EGGs are of particular interest because their density makes it more difficult for intense UV radiation, found in regions rich in young stars, to penetrate them. Their relative opacity means that the gas within them is protected from ionisation and photoevaporation. This is thought to be important for the formation of protostars, and it is predicted that many FrEGGs and EGGs will play host to the birth of new stars.
The frEGG in this image is a dark spot in the sea of red light. The red colour is caused by a particular type of light emission known as H-alpha emission. This occurs when a very energetic electron within a hydrogen atom loses a set amount of its energy, causing the electron to become less energetic and this distinctive red light to be released.
[Image description: The background is filled with bright orange-red clouds of varying density. Towards the top-left several large, pale blue stars with prominent cross-shaped spikes are scattered. A small, tadpole-shaped dark patch floats near one of these stars. More of the same dark, dense gas fills the lower-right, resembling black smoke. A bright yellow star and a smaller blue star shine in front of this.]
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Sahai; CC BY 4.0
Mitre Peak is an iconic mountain in the South Island of New Zealand. It is one of the most photographed peaks in the country.
The distinctive shape of the peak in southern New Zealand gives the mountain its name, after the mitre headwear of Christian bishops. It was named by a survey crew from the HMS Acheron.
Part of the reason for its iconic status is its location. Close to the shore of Milford Sound, in the Fiordland National Park in the southwestern South Island, it is a stunning sight. Rising to 1,692 metres (i.e. just over a mile) from the water of the sound (more technically a fjord), it is actually a closely grouped set of five peaks, although from most easily accessible viewpoints it appears as a single point
Since the Golden gate bridge opened in 1937, somone has jumped from it every two weeks on average. Out of nearly 2,000 attempts only 28 have failed. In a year, 1.7 million men and 0.4 million women kill themselves. Did we as a society push them? Was their life a gloomy Sunday? Or is this the natural order of life?
MacroMondays theme this week is "Ready for the Day"
I have a feeling that toothbrushes will be the bulk of the submissions. They are surprisingly photogenic and seem to invite interpretation.
I hope I remember/have time in the morning to add to the group. Maybe my toothbrush will remind me.
Otherwise will add tomorow evening when I get home.
A monday morning tune:
This is a shot from my descent down from the Matterhorn. From this high up, it truly is a birds eye view of the valley below. Again, it's another shot from a week or two ago. I'm back in California now.
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope observation has captured the galaxy CGCG 396-2, an unusual multi-armed galaxy merger which lies around 520 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Orion.
This observation is a gem from the Galaxy Zoo project, a citizen science project in which hundreds of thousands of volunteers classified galaxies to help scientists solve a problem of astronomical proportions — how to sort through the vast amounts of data generated by robotic telescopes. Following a public vote, a selection of the most astronomically intriguing objects from the Galaxy Zoo were selected for follow-up observations with Hubble. CGCG 396-2 is one such object, and was captured in this image by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys.
The Galaxy Zoo project originated when an astronomer was set an impossibly mind-numbing task; classifying more than 900 000 galaxies by eye. By making a web interface and inviting citizen scientists to contribute to the challenge, the Galaxy Zoo team was able to crowdsource the analysis, and within six months a legion of 100 000 volunteer citizen astronomers had contributed more than 40 million galaxy classifications.
Since its initial success, the Galaxy Zoo project and its successor projects have contributed to more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific articles and led to a rich variety of intriguing astronomical discoveries above and beyond their initial goals. The success of the project also inspired more than 100 citizen science projects on the Zooniverse portal, ranging from analysing data from the ESA Rosetta spacecraft's visit to Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko to counting killer whales around remote Alaskan islands!
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, W. Keel; CC BY 4.0
Here we see JO204, a ‘jellyfish galaxy’ so named for the bright tendrils of gas that appear in this image to be drifting lazily below JO204’s bright central bulk. The galaxy lies almost 600 million light-years away in the constellation Sextans. This image was captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, and it is the third of a series of Pictures of the Week featuring jellyfish galaxies. This series of images is possible thanks to a survey in which observations were made of six of these fascinating galaxies, including JO204. This survey was performed with the intention of better understanding star formation under extreme conditions.
Given the dreamy appearance of this image, it would be understandable to wonder why jellyfish galaxies should be such a crucible for star formation. The answer is that — as is often the case with astronomy — first appearances can be deceiving. Whilst the delicate ribbons of gas beneath JO204 may look like floating jellyfish tentacles, they are in fact the outcome of an intense astronomical process known as ram pressure stripping.
Ram pressure is a particular type of pressure exerted on a body when it moves relative to a fluid. An intuitive example is the sensation of pressure you experience when you are standing in an intense gust of wind — the wind is a moving fluid, and your body feels pressure from it. An extension of this analogy is that your body will remain whole and coherent, but the more loosely bound things — like your hair and your clothes — will flap in the wind. The same is true for jellyfish galaxies. They experience ram pressure because of their movement against the intergalactic medium that fills the spaces between galaxies in a galaxy cluster. The galaxies experience intense pressure from that movement, and as a result their more loosely bound gas is stripped away. This gas is mostly the colder and denser gas in the galaxy — gas which, when stirred and compressed by the ram pressure, collapses and forms new stars in the jellyfish’s beautiful tendrils.
[Image Description: A spiral galaxy in the centre is tilted almost edge-on. The bright core and spiral arms can just be seen from the top. A slight glow surrounds it. Below, strands made of bright blue patches trail down like tentacles. On the left it is just touched by a second, faint and dim galaxy. The background is very dark, with only a few other stars and tiny galaxies visible.]
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Gullieuszik and the GASP team; CC BY 4.0
The star nicknamed Earendel (indicated here with an arrow) is positioned along a ripple in spacetime that gives it extreme magnification, allowing it to emerge into view from its host galaxy, which appears as a red smear across the sky. The whole scene is viewed through the distorted lens created by a massive galaxy cluster in the intervening space, which allows the galaxy's features to be seen, but also warps their appearance—an effect astronomers call gravitational lensing. The red dots on either side of Earendel are one star cluster that is mirrored on either side of the ripple, a result of the gravitational lensing distortion. The entire galaxy, called the Sunrise Arc, appears three times, and knots along its length are more mirrored star clusters. Earendel's unique position right along the line of most extreme magnification allows it to be detected, even though it is not a cluster.
With this observation, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has established an extraordinary new benchmark: detecting the light of a star that existed within the first billion years after the Universe’s birth in the Big Bang (at a redshift of 6.2) — the most distant individual star ever seen. This sets up a major target for the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope in its first year.
Learn more here.
Credits: NASA, ESA, B. Welch (JHU), D. Coe (STScI), A. Pagan (STScI); CC BY 4.0
Especially lazy this morning, the sun's got up before me. A view from the bedroom window.
Today is day 170 of Project 365 (Saturday).
All my images are Creative Commons, so they are free to use with attribution. Here's one of my photos being used by a Youtube Music channel.
All rights reserved - Tous droits réservés
Place : Granville, Normandy, France
Christine Lebrasseur - Photographe
French Website / Site en français
Christine Lebrasseur Photo Studio on Facebook
DNA - Ipernity - YouTube - JPGMag - Facebook Page
All rights reserved - Tous droits réservés
Christine Lebrasseur - Photographe
French Website / Site en français
Christine Lebrasseur Photo Studio
DNA - Ipernity - YouTube - JPGMag - Facebook
La terre est bleue comme une orange...
La terre est bleue comme une orange
Jamais une erreur les mots ne mentent pas
Ils ne vous donnent plus à chanter
Au tour des baisers de s’entendre
Les fous et les amours
Elle sa bouche d’alliance
Tous les secrets tous les sourires
Et quels vêtements d’indulgence
À la croire toute nue.
Les guêpes fleurissent vert
L’aube se passe autour du cou
Un collier de fenêtres
Des ailes couvrent les feuilles
Tu as toutes les joies solaires
Tout le soleil sur la terre
Sur les chemins de ta beauté.
[Paul ELUARD] - L'Amour la poésie - (1929)
Kindly gifted by jef safi
Lines have been drawn in the fungal community, with some choosing to join the dark side.
105mm, f/5.6, 1/1000, iso100
An astonishing moment, I was standing still under a tree, and then had an egret walk right up beside me, stare at me for a bit and then walk on past.
Captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission on 30 July 2021, this image shows smoke billowing from several fires along the southern coast of Turkey. Turkey has been battling deadly wildfires since last week. Over the weekend, tourists and local residents had to be evacuated from Bodrum and Marmaris, with some fleeing by boat as the flames crept closer to the shoreline. Southeast Europe is currently experiencing extremely high temperatures. Greece is reported to be expecting an all-time European record today of 47°C. The heatwave, the result of a heat dome, has seen temperatures reach above 40°C in many areas, and meteorologists expect the weather will continue this week, making it the most severe heatwave since the 1980s.
Fires have also been raging in Spain, Italy and Greece, some of which have led to the Copernicus Emergency Mapping Service being triggered. The mapping service uses data from satellites to aid response to disasters such as wildfires and floods.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2021), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
A squash grows, in...
DeKalb County (Winnona Park), Georgia, USA.
27 July 2020.
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▶ Photographer's note:
Several months ago, this Panny zoom lens took a 'bath' in a local creek. Water leaked inside the housing and then, as it dried, spotted the lens. Those water-spots don't make for tack sharp images but they do impart an ethereal, gauzy quality.
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▶ Photo by Yours For Good Fermentables.com.
▶ For a larger image, type 'L' (without the quotation marks).
— Follow on Twitter: @Cizauskas.
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▶ Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M10 II.
— Lens: Lumix G Vario 45-200/F4.0-5.6.
— Edit: Photoshop Elements 15.
▶ Commercial use requires explicit permission, as per Creative Commons.
A Western Bluebird dropped by yesterday afternoon. Although they're around, I think this is the first time, I've ever had one at my house.
Zermatt, it's a pleasant town, but seriously they need to sort out all the traffic!!! This was base camp to getting up closer to the Matterhorn. I warned you all that I would be posting more gratuitous Matterhorn images!!! This is from a couple of weeks ago in Switzerland.
The whole traffic thing is a joke of course. Zermatt is actually combustion engine free, only electric and "grass-powered" vehicles up here. Which means you can't actually drive here, you need to take the spectacular cogwheel train to get to the village. Steep sections of the railway have cogs to stop the train from slipping backward or going down too quickly.
The horseman's outfit matches the Valais flag, which is the canton that Zermatt is in.