Man O’ War Bay, Dorset.

a psa

Shocked quartz is not actually rainbow, those images are microscopic views of single shocked quartz particles! On a non-microscopic level, this is what it looks like.

A little bit mundane compared to those funky rainbow microscope shots if you’d ask me.

Fluorite Rogerley Mine, Frosterley, Weardale, County Durham, United Kingdom

You Don’t Have to be a Rocket Scientist to Conduct Research in Microgravity

Putting your life’s work on top of a rocket may seem like a daunting task, but that’s exactly what scientists have been doing for decades as they launch their research to the International Space Station.

This season on #NASAExplorers, we’re exploring why we send science to space, and what it takes to get it there! 

Watch this week’s episode to meet a team of researchers who are launching an experiment to space for the first time.

Follow NASA Explorers on Facebook to catch new episodes of season 4 every Wednesday!

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

Penitentes Rows of sparkling snow pinnacles range beside a high Andean pass between Chile and Argentina. Silent and eerie, the Agua Negra Pass high in the remote Andes links La Serena in Chile with San Juan Province in Argentina. At an altitude of 15,633ft (4765m) it is one of the world’s highest motoring passes—a tough 12-hour drive with a high risk of plunging into a ravine or of being swept away by a landslide. The sky is dark in the thin air, and the shadowy ranks of the Penitentes—pinnacles of frozen snow 6-20ft (1.8-6m) tall—lining the steep slopes like white hooded figures, add to the spine-chilling atmosphere. In 1835, the British naturalist Charles Darwin thought that the pinnacles were formed by wind action. More recent studies show that these ice pinnacles form when ice is below the freezing temperature of water, but being bombarded with sunlight and undergoing sublimation. Tiny depressions begin forming as the ice sublimates, and sunlight is focused into these depressions, causing the ice to sublimate more rapidly at those spots. The end result is a field of spiky ice, that this photographer described as “hell to cross”. ~JM Image Credit: https://flic.kr/p/5W1xUZ More Info: Penitentes: http://bit.ly/1LUcEXv Video-Penitentes: http://bit.ly/1Fleb4K Betterton, M. D. (2000). Formation of structure in snowfields: Penitentes, suncups, and dirt cones. http://bit.ly/1KEd5b1 Sublimation: http://on.doi.gov/1HUN06X Luciano Roque Catalano. Book. “Snow Penitents” http://bit.ly/1FTnRr0

Wind-induced ripple bedform  with an obstacle (grass at the center) that resulted in shadow-like impressions by flow disturbance.  Wind direction from lower left to upper right.  On the coastal dunes along the shore of Niigata city.

風による堆積物の模様と草の障害物による流れの乱れの痕跡

Mount Ruapehu - Tongariro National Park

Snoqualmie Falls, Twin Peaks, Washington 2019.

supermassive black hole