The House of Plantagenet

chrestomatheia:

Lenticular clouds over Washington: Moist air forced to flow upward around mountain tops can create lenticular clouds. Water droplets condense from moist air cooled below the dew point, and clouds are opaque groups of water droplets. Waves in the air that would normally be seen horizontally can then be seen vertically, by the different levels where clouds form. On some days the city of Seattle, Washington, USA, is treated to an unusual sky show when lenticular clouds form near Mt. Rainier, a large mountain that looms just under 100 kilometers southeast of the city.

sciencesoup:

Water Bears In Space

These magnificent and slightly terrifying creatures are tardigrades—stocky organisms less than 1mm long, also known as “water bears”. They’re found all over the world, from deserts to the Arctic, but they always need water to perform necessary biological processes. However, if their habitats dry up or they’re exposed to physical or chemical extremes, they can enter a state of total metabolic shutdown called anhydrobiosis, and survive in this state for years—then, when conditions are right again, they can just spring back to life. Anhydrobiosis involves processes at molecular and physiological levels, but basically, when cells become stressed through dehydration, ‘bioprotectors’ are formed to protect the cell’s important molecules and minimise cell damage. Tardigrades are nicknamed the hardiest creatures on Earth, and they appear to be just as hardy above it, too. In 2007, an experiment launched them into a 10-day orbit, and proved that they can survive exposure to the sub-zero temperatures, intense radiation, and oxygen-deprived vacuum of space. Now they’re part of Project Biokis, a program sponsored by the Italian Space Agency that aims to study creatures like tardigrades and develop techniques to protect other organisms—humans especially—from the extreme conditions of space.

(Image Credit: 1, 2)

darkenergies:

V838 Monocerotis (V838 Mon) via the Hubble Space Telescope

astronomicalwonders:

Saturn taken by the Cassini Orbiter 

image from: NASA.gov

For more wonders of the universe follow: AstronomicalWonders.tumblr.com

bouncingdodecahedrons:

“No painter trapped on Earth ever imagined a world so strange and lovely.”

pollykaylove:

night sky by dcysurfer / Dave Young on Flickr.

alnator:

Carina Nebula

canweevergrowwyounger:

January Aurora Over Norway
Image Credit & Copyright: Bjørn Jørgensen