mysticmementos:

Comet Holmes | NGC-290 | The Flame Nebula within Orion

(via catarsiscosmica)

dear-melina-count-me-in:

kaajoo:

World’s Most Beautiful Abandoned Places

Italian product manager and web designer Francesco Mugnai recently added a collection of images to his blog touting some of the most beautiful images of abandoned spots and modern ruins that he’d ever seen. The images Mugnai has captured come from empty castles, shuttered power plants, and dilapidated churches around the world. From a sunken yacht in Antarctica to a forever-closed amusement park in Japan, these images all make up a sort of anti-phoenix; rather than rising as new from the ashes, these husks remain preserved in decomposition, forcing viewers to confront the strange beauty of ruination.

i love these more than anything

(via starsaremymuse)

ikenbot:

Three Observatories Shed Light on Newly Discovered Super Nova Remnant

Meet G306.3-0.9. Using the data from NASA’s Swift, the Galactic Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) and Chandra X-Ray observatory astrophysicists have been able to detect a never before seen Super Nova Remnant (SNR). The image above displays valuable information using data from these three observatories. Francis Reddy writes for NASA:

While performing an extensive X-ray survey of our galaxy’s central regions, NASA’s Swift satellite has uncovered the previously unknown remains of a shattered star. Designated G306.3–0.9 after the coordinates of its sky position, the new object ranks among the youngest-known supernova remnants in our Milky Way galaxy.

“Astronomers have previously cataloged more than 300 supernova remnants in the galaxy,” said lead scientist Mark Reynolds, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. “Our analysis indicates that G306.3–0.9 is likely less than 2,500 years old, making it one of the 20 youngest remnants identified.”

Astronomers estimate that a supernova explosion occurs once or twice a century in the Milky Way. The expanding blast wave and hot stellar debris slowly dissipate over hundreds of thousands of years, eventually mixing with and becoming indistinguishable from interstellar gas.

Journal Reference: G306.3-0.9: A newly discovered young galactic supernova remnant

(via starsaremymuse)

theolduvaigorge:

Frans de Waal’s Bottom-Up Morality: We’re Not Good Because Of God

• by BARBARA J. KING

“In a book coming out next week called The Bonobo and the Atheist,primatologist Frans de Waal argues that morality is built into our species. Rather than coming to us top-down from God, or any other external source, morality for de Waal springs bottom-up from our emotions and our day-to-day social interactions, which themselves evolved from foundations in animal societies.

For 30 years, de Waal has authored books about apes and monkey that open our eyes to the bottom-up origins of our human behaviors, ranging from politics to empathy. In this, his 10th volume, he extends that perspective by writing, “It wasn’t God who introduced us to morality; rather, it was the other way around. God was put into place to help us live the way we felt we ought to.”

“The way we felt we ought to” has a long evolutionary history, so that de Waal’s thesis depends crucially on numerous and convincing examples from our closest living relatives.

Azalea, a trisomic rhesus macaque (trisomic = born with three copies of a certain chromosome), had abnormal motor and social skills, in ways somewhat akin to humans with Down’s syndrome. Instead of punishing her “incomprehensible blunders,” such as threatening the alpha male, the other macaques were accepting and forgiving of her until Azalea’s death at age three. Female chimpanzees may confront and shut down an overly aggressive male, sometimes even pulling two adversaries close together for reconciliation, or prying rocks from an aroused males’ hands” (read more).

(Source: NPR)

(via sagansense)

bombing:

Lava meets water off the shores of Hawaii
Photos by Nick Selway

(via aimlessinspace)

the-science-llama:

Animal Eye Close-Ups

By Suren Manvelyan

rhamphotheca:

Terrifying Volcanic Lightning Photographed 

Photographer Martin Rietze recently traveled to Japan where he had the incredible opportunity (or near grave misfortune?) of photographing the Sakurajima Valcano in southern Kyushu as it spewed forth smoke, fire, and lava bombs.

If that wasn’t enough the hellish volcano also caused a lightning show that lasted over 20 seconds giving the photographer ample time to flee for his life take these stunning photographs. You can see many more images from the series right here. Of note, the photographer’s grit and fearlessness landed the top photo a feature on NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day earlier this week.

(via: Colossal; via: spoon & tamago)

(via instantuniverse)