Chesley Hill

insectlove:

sinobug: Shield Bug Nymphs. Pu’er, Yunnan, China. Click the image to see more Chinese bugs on my Flickr site…..

ikenbot:

Gravity Waves Give Twin Stars Speed Boost, Scientists Say

Two stars circling each other are speeding up in a tell-tale way that scientists attribute to gravitational waves: ripples in the very fabric of space and time.

Image: This illustration shows the gravitational waves thought to be produced by two orbiting white dwarf stars in a binary system called J0651, according to an August 2012 study. Credit: NASA

The stars are dense objects called white dwarfs, which are so close together they take less than 13 minutes to orbit each other. The two white dwarfs, remnants of stars that used to be as big as our sun, are only spread apart by one-third of the distance between the Earth and the moon.

In observing this system, astronomers have made the first measurements in optical light of motions that must be caused by gravitational waves, they said.

“This result marks one of the cleanest and strongest detections of the effect of gravitational waves,” astronomer Warren Brown of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory said in a statement.

Full Article

(Source: kn207, via mothernaturenetwork)

mothernaturenetwork:

Star in nearby cluster holds the secret of eternal youth
The mysterious star has maintained its lithium content, allowing it to remain bright and vibrant despite its age.

ikenbot:

Disintegrating Alien Planet Has Comet-Like Tail

Astronomers have found a dusty tail streaming off a faraway alien planet, suggesting that the tiny, scorching-hot world is indeed falling apart.

Image: This artist’s concept depicts a cometlike tail of a possible disintegrating super Mercury-size planet candidate as it transits, or crosses, its parent star, named KIC 12557548. At an orbital distance of only twice the diameter of its star, the surface temperature of the potential planet is so high, the surface would melt and evaporate, according to the results of a study. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

In May, researchers announced the detection of a possibly distintegrating exoplanet, a roughly Mercury-size world being boiled away by the intense heat of its parent star. Now, a different team has found strong evidence in support of the find — a massive dust cloud shed by the planet, similar to the tail of a comet.

Both studies used observations from NASA’s Kepler space telescope, which spots alien planets by flagging the telltale brightness dips caused when they pass in front of their parent stars from the instrument’s perspective.

Full Article

(Source: kn207, via mothernaturenetwork)

mothernaturenetwork:

Mount Fuji ‘under more pressure than last eruption’
Tectonic shifts triggered by last year’s huge undersea quake have left the chamber under 16 times the minimum pressure at which an eruption can occur.

mothernaturenetwork:

Champagne drought threatens bubbly
After one of the worst spring growing seasons, producers of the world’s most celebrated bubbly are bracing for one of the smallest harvests in 20 years.

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(Source: johmydepp, via diveintosolitude-deactivated201)

diveintosolitude:

centrarte:

Magic Comes From Within by ~Cleonique - Honduras

(via diveintosolitude-deactivated201)