Pickering’s Triangle

Walking the edge of Bromo Crater. Would you hike this route ? East Java, Indonesia 🇮🇩 🎥 @backpackertampan

planetearthtv

Celebrating Five Years at Jupiter!

We just released new eye-catching posters and backgrounds to celebrate the five-year anniversary of Juno’s orbit insertion at Jupiter in psychedelic style.

On July 4, 2016, our Juno spacecraft arrived at Jupiter on a mission to peer through the gas giant planet’s dense clouds and answer questions about the origins of our solar system. Since its arrival, Juno has provided scientists a treasure trove of data about the planet’s origins, interior structures, atmosphere, and magnetosphere.

Juno is the first mission to observe Jupiter’s deep atmosphere and interior, and will continue to delight with dazzling views of the planet’s colorful clouds and Galilean moons. As it circles Jupiter, Juno provides critical knowledge for understanding the formation of our own solar system, the Jovian system, and the role giant planets play in putting together planetary systems elsewhere.

Get the posters and backgrounds here!

For more on our Juno mission at Jupiter, follow NASA Solar System on Twitter and Facebook.

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How quickly do we grow accustomed to wonders. I am reminded of the Isaac Asimov story "Nightfall," about the planet where the stars were visible only once in a thousand years. So awesome was the sight that it drove men mad. We who can see the stars every night glance up casually at the cosmos and then quickly down again, searching for a Dairy Queen. (x)

A Giving Hand, vdB9 // DocRx

Great Basin National Park in Nevada is one of the darkest spots in the United States. What better time to appreciate this park’s clear night sky, then on International Day of Clean Air? Good air quality coupled with a lack of light pollution give visitors majestic starry views of Wheeler Peak. On clear, moonless nights at Great Basin, thousands of stars, numerous planets, star clusters, meteors, man-made satellites, the Andromeda Galaxy, and the Milky Way can be seen with the naked eye. The area boasts some of the darkest night skies left in the country. Low humidity, good air quality, and minimal light pollution, combined with high elevation, create a unique window to the universe. Photo by John Vermette (sharetheexperience.org). Photo description: A bright Milky Way and night sky filled with stars light up the mountains below.

So this is a new one.

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Colors of the Polar Night

Shout out to all of my awake friends!

Bioluminescent Plankton

Scientists have only recently discovered that this type of plankton glows when they are moved because of stress - ironic when you consider how relaxing the sight of the shimmering waves are in the dark night. Bioluminescence is used as a defence mechanism to draw predators towards the creature trying to eat the plankton. The tiny flashes of light also disorientate and surprise the predator.

These tiny organisms produce light using a chemical called luciferin. The process of creating a bioluminescent light, which is simply light produced within a living creature, differs between organisms. Some need a particular food or another creature for the effect to happen. But this type of plankton, called dinoflagellates, produce luciferin on their own. The light the tiny plankton emit is called ‘cold light’, meaning less than 20% of the light generates heat.

Huge areas of the ocean can become populated by glowing plankton but the effect is especially common in warm-water lagoons that have narrow openings to the sea. This causes the plankton to gather and become trapped, causing the water to turn orange.

Image credit: Will Ho, Kin Cheung, Landscapes Maldives & eyegami

Source: Kuoni

Ctenophora, Comb Jellies