The Magnetic Field Of The Whirlpool Galaxy : Do Magnetic Fields Always Flow Along Spiral Arms? Our Face-on

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Colors of the Moon : What color is the Moon? It depends on the night. Outside of the Earth’s atmosphere, the dark Moon, which shines by reflected sunlight, appears a magnificently brown-tinged gray. Viewed from inside the Earth’s atmosphere, though, the moon can appear quite different. The featured image highlights a collection of apparent colors of the full moon documented by one astrophotographer over 10 years from different locations across Italy. A red or yellow colored moon usually indicates a moon seen near the horizon. There, some of the blue light has been scattered away by a long path through the Earth’s atmosphere, sometimes laden with fine dust. A blue-colored moon is more rare and can indicate a moon seen through an atmosphere carrying larger dust particles. What created the purple moon is unclear – it may be a combination of several effects. The last image captures the total lunar eclipse of 2018 July – where the moon, in Earth’s shadow, appeared a faint red – due to light refracted through air around the Earth. The next full moon will occur at the end of this month (moon-th) and is known in some cultures as the Beaver Moon. via NASA

A neighbour. 

Everybody give it up for columnar jointing

unflattering paparazzi shot 6/18

Kentish plover (Charadrius alexandrinus), Fabio Montes

exploring mountain colors

rb to give the person you reblogged this from a little scoop of iced cream

A Plutonian Landscape : This shadowy landscape of majestic mountains and icy plains stretches toward the horizon on a small, distant world. It was captured from a range of about 18,000 kilometers when New Horizons looked back toward Pluto, 15 minutes after the spacecraft’s closest approach on July 14. The dramatic, low-angle, near-twilight scene follows rugged mountains formally known as Norgay Montes from foreground left, and Hillary Montes along the horizon, giving way to smooth Sputnik Planum at right. Layers of Pluto’s tenuous atmosphere are also revealed in the backlit view. With a strangely familiar appearance, the frigid terrain likely includes ices of nitrogen and carbon monoxide with water-ice mountains rising up to 3,500 meters (11,000 feet). That’s comparable in height to the majestic mountains of planet Earth. The Plutonian landscape is 380 kilometers (230 miles) across. via NASA