GeekwithEnvy

Photograph

Stunning Photo of a Meteor Flying Through the Aurora

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A meteor passing through the Aurora Borealis, Photo Credit: Shannon Bileski
A meteor passing through the Aurora Borealis, [Click photo for Larger Version] Photo Credit: Shannon Bileski
This stunning photo was taken by Shannon Bilesk of Signature Exposures.

The aurora was on and off all night, but at 11:10pm just as everyone else was packing up their camera gear, the green glow in the sky intensified. Bileski began snapping some shots with her Nikon D800 and Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens, with settings at f/3.2, 8s, and ISO 800.

Suddenly, during one of the 8-second exposures, there was an intense streak of light in the sky and bright green flashes. It was a meteor that had broken up in the atmosphere, and Bileski captured the whole event as the photo above.”

Thanks to NASAWatch.

View of a Mach 1000 Shock Wave

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Mach1000Shockwave
A photograph of the Tycho supernova remnant taken by the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Low-energy X-rays (red) in the image show expanding debris from the supernova explosion and high energy X-rays (blue) show the blast wave, a shell of extremely energetic electrons.
X-ray: NASA/CXC/Rutgers/K. Eriksen et al.; Optical (starry background): DSS

 

This incredible image is of a remnant of the supernova Tycho, which blew up long ago. Supernova remnants are often able to be seen hundreds of years after the initial explosion because of a reverse shockwave that occurs.

This reverse shockwave is created when the outwardly ejected material of the supernova explosion creates sort of a backward current or backwash of material that heads inward at speeds up to mach 1000 or 1000 times the speed of sound. This material then begins to heat up to the point where it begins to emit X-rays, and that’s what you see here in the image above. This image is from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics where you can read more about this particular image.

We wouldn’t be able to study ancient supernova remnants without a reverse shock to light them up,” – Hiroya Yamaguchi

 

Painting or Photograph?

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Camel thorn trees-Namibia (Frans Lanting/National Geographic)
Tinted orange by the morning sun, a soaring dune is the backdrop for the hulks of camel thorn trees in Namib-Naukluft Park. (Frans Lanting/National Geographic)

Despite the way this image looks, it is indeed a photograph. This is a picture of Camel Thorn trees in Namibia which was taken by Frans Lanting for National Geographic. The backdrop is actually a large dune and the spots are small patches of grass.

This stunning photograph caused a lot of controversy when it was first printed as many people did indeed believe it was a painting. This photo was featured in a an article written by Alexandra Fuller for National Geographic back in June of 2011.

You may have the same trouble I initially did trying to see the picture for what it is, a real photograph, but if you look at some of the changes in color that occur on the sand dune and the shadows that the patches of grass produce, then you may finally see past the “painting”.