mat

Photo

Wed, 15 May 2013 22:11:09 -0400

Photo

Tue, 14 May 2013 23:46:15 -0400

spaceplasma: X-ray vision tracks lightning bursts Blink and...

Tue, 14 May 2013 23:35:02 -0400

X-ray vision tracks lightning bursts

Blink and you’ve missed it. Researchers in the US have captured the world’s first X-ray images of lightning, by creating a special camera that can capture radiation at 10 million frames per second. They presented their new findings at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting in San Francisco and they say that this new view of lightning could help to solve some of the mysteries of this spectacular natural phenomenon.

The research was carried out at the International Center for Lightning Research and Testing, located in Florida. It is one of the few sites in world where lightning is initiated and studied under controlled conditions. By firing rockets with trailing wires into thunder clouds, scientists are able to generate electric fields that are large enough to trigger bolts of lightning, which then propagate back down towards the rocket launch tower.

Joseph Dwyer and colleagues at the Florida Institute of Technology became interested in the fact that lightning emits X-rays as it propagates through the air, a phenomenon that was only noted in the past decade. But given that X-ray sources in lightning travel through the Earth’s atmosphere at velocities approaching the speed of light, it is difficult to catch them on camera before they disappear. In addition, they cannot be imaged with standard mirrors and lenses because huge amounts of material are required to prevent X-rays and gamma rays from entering through the sides of a camera.

Dwyer’s team has created a customized camera that has 30 detectors made from a combination of sodium iodide and photomultiplier tubes, each measuring 3 × 3 inch. The device, which is approximately the size of a standard refrigerator, is also equipped with a 3 inch pinhole aperture, and can record X-rays at 10 million frames per second. “This is actually a very old technique for making images, like that seen in a camera obscura,” Dwyer says.

During July and August this year, Dwyer’s team studied four rocket-triggered lightning flashes at the Florida test site. Each flash lasted for approximately two seconds and the resulting sequences of images revealed that X-rays emerged primarily from the vicinity of the lightning tip as it propagated towards the Earth. As the lightning crashed into the control tower it also triggered large bursts of gamma radiation, which were also captured by the camera.

“For the first time we’re catching a glimpse of lightning in the X-ray emission,” says Dwyer. “We’re seeing lightning as Superman would see it with his X-ray vision”.

Credit: James Dacey/physicsworld.com

thecreatorsproject: 24 hours in a single frame.

Tue, 14 May 2013 17:18:26 -0400

thecreatorsproject:

24 hours in a single frame.

nevver: Houses of the Holy

Wed, 08 May 2013 20:36:21 -0400

nevver:

Houses of the Holy

Photo

Tue, 07 May 2013 23:19:56 -0400

EL SENTIDO es la patria de todas las cosas,es el tesoro de los...

Tue, 07 May 2013 23:16:26 -0400

EL SENTIDO es la patria de todas las cosas,
es el tesoro de los hombres buenos,
y el amparo de los que no son buenos.
Con bellas palabras se puede ir a al mercado.
Con una conducta respetable
uno puede lucirse ante los demás.
¿Por qué habría de desechar
a los que no son buenos?
Aquí radica la razón de ser del soberano,
y la obligación de los príncipes.
Aunque, ceremoniosamente y en tiro
de cuatro caballos,
ofrecieras cetros hechos de piedras preciosas,
tal obsequio no sería comparable
al de ofrecer el SENTIDO, de rodillas, al soberano.
¿Por qué los antiguos apreciaban tanto
el SENTIDO?
¿No será porque de él se dice:
“Quien pide recibirá,
y quien tiene pecados será perdonado”?
Por eso es el bien más preciado de la tierra.

photojojo: By day, Tel Aviv based photographer Dmitriy Yoav...

Sun, 05 May 2013 01:32:59 -0400

photojojo:

By day, Tel Aviv based photographer Dmitriy Yoav Reinshtein works as an advertising photographer and professional retoucher. But on the side, he’s continually updating a gallery of inspiring macro photography that is top notch.

Macro Photography at Its Best

via Notcot

Video

Sun, 05 May 2013 01:11:27 -0400

LEN LYE

Kapela, the rhino calf (by animalrescueblog)

Sun, 05 May 2013 01:08:47 -0400

Kapela, the rhino calf (by animalrescueblog)

supraspectra: Top: Space Shuttle Atlantis docked with Mir on 4...

Sun, 05 May 2013 01:07:43 -0400

supraspectra:

Top: Space Shuttle Atlantis docked with Mir on 4 July 1995. Cosmonauts Anatoliy Y. Solovyev and Nikolai M. Budarin, who had arrive onboard Atlantis five days earlier, took Soyuz TM-21 for a fly-around photo survey prior to Atlantis undocking for her return to Earth. This was the first time a shuttle had docked with Mir.

Bottom: Two shots of the Space Shuttle Endeavour docked with the ISS, as photographed by the departing Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft on 23 May 2011, during the STS-134 mission. (There are a lot more from this fly-around here)

Mongol bichig calligraphy. On the left is the word “Spring” in...

Sun, 05 May 2013 01:03:39 -0400

Mongol bichig calligraphy. On the left is the word “Spring” in Mongol bichig, on the right the same word is drawn as a picture of a crane. Calligraphy by Batbayar.

Photo

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 13:27:16 -0400

Photo

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 13:25:11 -0400

photojojo: How The Face Changes With Shifting A Light Source As...

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 20:33:19 -0400

photojojo:

How The Face Changes With Shifting A Light Source

As spotted in the music video for Opale’s Sparkles and Wine.

arpeggia: David Stephenson - Vaults, 2003-2009 Click on each...

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 18:34:16 -0400

Ambulatory, Santa Maria del Mar, Barcelona, Spain, 2003

Chapter House, York Minster, York, England, 2006

Choir, Cathedral of St. Barbara, Kutná Hora, Czech, 2008

Choir, Gloucester Cathedral, Gloucester, England, 2006

arpeggia:

David Stephenson - Vaults, 2003-2009

Click on each image for location details.

republicx: In 1900, George Lawrence built the world’s largest...

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 13:55:31 -0400

republicx:

In 1900, George Lawrence built the world’s largest camera to take a photograph of the Alton Limited locomotive. The camera weighed 1400 pounds (640 kg) and used a 4.5′ × 8′ glass-plate negative.

magicalnaturetour: Bengal Tiger at feeding time. Photos by...

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 12:18:54 -0400

magicalnaturetour:

Bengal Tiger at feeding time. Photos by Birte Person/Solent

arpeggia: Daniel Canogar - Sikka Magnum, 2013

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 12:18:21 -0400

arpeggia:

Daniel Canogar - Sikka Magnum, 2013

elevenacres: ‘Madonna from Nepal’- Artem Zhushman

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 13:04:59 -0400

elevenacres:

‘Madonna from Nepal’- Artem Zhushman