Contributor Posts

Frost-covered lifebuoy attached to a dolphin, captured on Lake Siskiyou in Northern California.

Radomianin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

After the Crab Nebula, this giant star cluster is the second entry in 18th century astronomer Charles Messier's famous list of things that are not comets. M2 is one of the largest globular star clusters now known to roam the halo of our Milky Way galaxy. Though Messier originally described it as a nebula without stars, this stunning Hubble image resolves stars across the cluster's central 40 light-years. Its population of stars numbers close to 150,000, concentrated within a total diameter of around 175 light-years. About 55,000 light-years distant toward the constellation Aquarius, this ancient denizen of the Milky Way, also known as NGC 7089, is 13 billion years old. An extended stellar debris stream, a signature of past gravitational tidal disruption, was recently found to be associated with Messier 2.

Nepali grandmother while preparing food in a traditional kitchen.

Original: Mithun Kunwar Derivative work: Radomianin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

"Twins have been rare in human history and for that reason can seem special. ...... .......Our recent research suggests that twins were actually the norm much further back in primate evolution, rather than an unusual occurrence worthy of note. Despite the fact that almost all primates today, including people, usually give birth to just one baby, our most recent common ancestor, which roamed North America about 60 million years ago, likely gave birth to twins as the standard." More at The Conversation ➜

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What kind of strange galaxy is this? This rare structure is known as a polar ring galaxy, and it seems to have two different rings of stars. In this galaxy, NGC 660, one ring of bright stars, gas, and dark dust appears nearly vertical, while another similar but shorter ring runs diagonally from the upper left. How polar ring galaxies obtain their striking appearance remains a topic of research, but a leading theory holds that it is usually the result of two galaxies with different central ring planes colliding. NGC 660 spans about 50,000 light years and is located about 40 million light years away toward the constellation of the Fish (Pisces). The featured image was captured recently from Observatorio El Sauce in Chile.

Photo by Mike Selby

Two young Tuberous Parasol Fungi (Chlorophyllum rhacodes) in natural habitat. Focus stack of 16 photos.

Dominicus Johannes Bergsma, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What excites the Heart Nebula? First, the large emission nebula on the upper left, catalogued as IC 1805, looks somewhat like a human heart. The nebula glows brightly in red light emitted by its most prominent element, hydrogen, but this long-exposure image was also blended with light emitted by sulfur (yellow) and oxygen (blue). In the center of the Heart Nebula are young stars from the open star cluster Melotte 15 that are eroding away several picturesque dust pillars with their atom-exciting energetic light and winds. The Heart Nebula is located about 7,500 light years away toward the constellation of Cassiopeia. This wide field image shows much more, though, including the Fishhead Nebula just below the Heart, a supernova remnant on the lower left, and three planetary nebulas on the image right. Taken over 57 nights, this image is so deep, though, that it clearly shows fainter long and complex filaments.

Photo by Jeff Horne & Drew Evans

Wild golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) and Majinghorn (Pfyn-Finges, Switzerland).

Giles Laurent, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.