ISS Transits the Moon

Maximilian Teodorescu, from Romania, recently captured this incredible shot of the International Space Station passing across the Moon.

“The ISS passes in front of the face of the moon for just “a fraction of a second” (around 0.6 seconds) as it orbits our planet at 17,000 miles per hour. Teodorescu looked up exact transit times using CalSky and then used his reflexes to nail the shot.” [PetaPixel via Spaceweather] In other words, perfect timing!

What’s really uncanny is how similar it looks to the shape of the Starship Enterprise from Star Trek.  Maybe the government is ahead of schedule on a ship that would cost approximately $468,400,000,000 to build. Hey, that’s only 1/35th of the US National Debt.

Find more Teodorescu at his blog.

-RSB

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Flight Recorders from Jeffrey Milstein

A flight recorder is an essential safety recording device of every aircraft.  The purpose of these tools is to facilitate the investigation of a plane crash.  In other words, they record everything about the plane’s actions so someone can find the wreckage and discover exactly why the airplane went down. For this reason, flight recorders are built to withstand extreme conditions . Typically, they’re water-proof and rated for temperatures over 1,000 °C to endure the heat of intense engine fire.

In this series, Jeffrey Milstein captures the hidden beauty of these indestructible black boxes of air travel.

From the artist:

“Some recorders survive in pristine condition, while others reveal the signs of the tragedy that brought them into collision with the earth or sea. These inert pieces of steel hold the key to understanding a tragedy. They are poured over by investigators to discover the cause of accidents and the hope of preventing future ones. While visually direct and clean, they are charged with emotion. For families and survivors these small boxes carry powerful last words and sometimes the only link to understand what happened.”

The photographs are beautifully crisp, but they tell a story of destruction.  Wonderful imagery.

Find more from Jeffrey Milstein at his site.

-RSB

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Four Planet Sunset

Four Planet Sunset

Chris Kotsiopoulos recently shot 60 photos of the incredible triple planet conjunction on May 25th of this year. Venus, Jupiter, and and Mercury (as well as the star Elnath (Beta Tauri) on the far right) can be seen dropping across a beautiful sunset over the Alikes salt lake near Kos Island in Greece.  It’s a pretty amazing time-lapse.

Look for the next triple conjunction in October of 2015.

Specs of the photo: Camera Model Canon EOS 550D, Shooting Date/Time 25/5/2013 20:59 – 21:30, Author  Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1 – 8 sec, Av( Aperture Value ) 5 – 7.1, ISO Speed 200 – 400, Lens Canon EF50mm f/1.8 II, Focal Length 50.0 mm

Find more photography from Chris at his site, Greek Sky.

-RSB

[via APOD]

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Supercell Panoramas from the United States

Texas

Montana

South Dakota

Oklahoma

Oklahoma

Anyone who lives in the Midwestern region of the United States knows that thunderstorms can be an awe-inspiring (and dangerous) event. A supercell is a particular kind of thunderstorm which is characterized by the presence of a mesocyclone, a deep, rotating updraft.

Thunderstorms can be broken up into 4 different categories — supercell, squall line, multi-cell, and single-cell — and supercells are the least common of the bunch.  However, they are also the most severe.

So how do Supercell Thunderstorms form?

The supercell thunderstorms rotate by tilting along the horizontal vortex, an action powered by wind shear.  In addition, strong updrafts lift the tilting air to cause an additional rotation around the vertical axis, thus forming the internal mesocyclone.

Seen above are some epic photographs capturing the mesocyclone formation period. Hopefully, you get a sense of the unpredictable power of nature.

-RSB

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Science Photography from Fritz Goro

Blood circulating through a heart, 1948.

Fritz Goro was a German-born photographer known by many to be the most influential science photographer the world has ever seen.  He was born in Bremen, Germany and studied at the Bauhaus school of sculpture and design.  In 1933, Goro and his family fled Nazi Germany for the United States and they never looked back.  For over 40 years, he captured incredibly influential science photos working for LIFE magazine and Scientific American.

Seen here is just a sample of the timeless images Mr. Goro was able to capture during his career.

 Electronics, 1961.

Burning a candle in a sealed flask of oxygen on a balance shows that matter can not be destroyed, 1949.

Fetus in an artificial womb, 1965

An anesthetized monkey has its brain activity monitored, 1971.

A leaf-cutter ant carries away rose fragments, 1947.

A scientist uses a quartz rod as a light conductor to observe a frog’s organs, 1948.

Shipboard laboratory equipment used for measuring sea water to detect any traces of radioactivity after an atomic bomb test in Bikini lagoon, 1946.

A pair of 90-day-old cow fetuses clearly visible inside an amniotic sac, 1965.

Plastic skeleton showing spots of body most likely to be affected by radioactive fall-out, 1961.

Find more science photography from Fitz Goro at Life Magazine.

-RSB

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Fireflies in the Forests of Nagoya City by Yume Cyan

Yume Cyan shot these incredible long-exposure photographs of fireflies in the forests surrounding Nagoya City in Japan.  Fireflies have specialized light-emitting organs in their lower abdomens which create a chemical reaction leading to light.  Specifically, an enzyme called luciferase acts on luciferin, in the presence of magnesium ions, ATP, and oxygen to produce light.  But WHY do these bugs create light? Well, the answer is sex.  From Wikipedia: “Fireflies are a classic example of an organism that uses bioluminescence for sexual selection. They have a variety of ways to communicate with mates in courtships: steady glows, flashing, and the use of chemical signals unrelated to photic systems.”  It sounds a bit like the Morse Code of sex.

The long-exposure photographs make the light look like big drops of green water…  It’s a wonderful technique.

Find more from Yume Cyan at his 500px site.

-RSB

[via Colossal]

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