The Deep Sea Is Radical. Two Miles Below The Surface And Not Yet To The Bottom, This Paraphyllina Sp.

trenchgirlcrafts

We are prepping some plant fossils so watch this space! 👀

Faramir: How tall are you?

Pippin: Height is a social construct.

An arch in tilted columnar basalt

Deep magma reservoir below Mt Rainier

Researchers from Norway and the US have mapped an 8 by 16 km magma chamber at 8 km depth below Washington State’s Mount Rainier. The detailed map was created by measuring the variations in the magnetic and electrical fields as well as seismic imaging. Researchers suggest that this map could help us predict when volcanoes will erupt.

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I love plants... I don’t know if they are appropriate for summer/august time but oh well. I still think its quite adorable

When Dwarfs Meet Giants, and Other True Cosmic Fairy Tales

It’s easy to get lost in fantasy worlds through science-fiction movies and novels, but did you know that some of your favorite fairy tale characters actually exist in cosmic form? From dwarfs and giants to shape-shifters and buried treasure, the universe is home to a multitude of mystical objects.

White Dwarf Stars

You’ve probably heard of dwarfs like Happy and Sneezy (or Gimli and Thorin), but it’s unlikely you’re familiar with the space-dwelling dwarfs with names like Sirius B and ASASSN-16oh. White dwarf stars like these are typically about the size of Earth, which is pretty small as far as stars go. They represent one of three final stages of stellar evolution, along with neutron stars and black holes. Each star’s mass determines which one it will ultimately become. Stars much more massive than the Sun typically become neutron stars or black holes, and lower-mass stars end up as white dwarfs.

Our Sun will eventually become a white dwarf after it exhausts its fuel, but don’t worry — we’ve got several billion years to go! Before it is reduced to a white dwarf it will actually expand into a red giant, swelling out to encompass Earth’s orbit. But we don’t have to wait billions of years to see stellar giants … some already peek out at us from the cosmic deep.

Giants and Supergiants

The red giant star Aldebaran, located about 65 light-years away, is about 5,000 times bigger than Earth. Our Cassini spacecraft imaged Aldebaran through Saturn’s rings in 2006, but you can see it for yourself during northern winter. Just look for the brightest star in the constellation Taurus.

Fairy tale giants may be taller than trees, but these supergiant stars can be over 100,000 times “taller” than our entire planet! Supergiant stars are likely becoming more rare as time goes on. While scientists believe they used to be more common, our whole galaxy now contains just a small smattering of supergiants.

These massive stars grace the galaxy for a relatively small amount of time. They burn through their fuel extremely quickly — in just a few million years, as opposed to hundreds of billions of years for the smallest stars! Supergiants often end their lives in dramatic explosions called supernovae.

Betelgeuse — the bright, reddish star marking the shoulder of Orion — is nearing the end of its life and has expanded to become a red supergiant star. It is destined to explode as a supernova, which might happen tonight … or within the next few hundred thousand years.

Ghostly Solar Neutrinos

Even an average star like our Sun has some seemingly magical qualities. Each second, it sends billions of phantom-like neutrino particles out into space. They travel almost as fast as light and don’t usually interact with normal matter. Billions of them are zipping harmlessly straight through your body while you read this. Even at night they go through the entire Earth before reaching you!

But that’s not all … these ghostly particles are shape-shifters, too! Neutrinos can change characteristics over time, morphing between different versions of themselves. Spooky!

Buried Treasure in the Heart of the Galaxy

Extensive clouds of dust enshroud the heart of our Milky Way galaxy, hiding it from our view — at least when it comes to visible light. The dust isn’t as big a problem for infrared light, however, which has allowed us to get a glimpse of our galaxy’s chaotic core thanks to our Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes.

Future missions may peer into the galactic core in search of buried treasure — thousands of planets orbiting distant stars!

Want to learn about more cosmic objects? Find them here!

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

In the light of the recent events, I think we should take a moment to appreciate this guy even more

Let’s start with Silmarillion.

If this book would be turned into a tv series, a lot of people would be pissed. Because many characters die, including Fëanor who is introduced as main character. The number of major characters in the Silmarillion who meet their tragic end is greater than the number of major characters in AS0IAF who meet their end. Silmarillion is an ongoing tale of blood, torture, gruesome deaths, painful deaths, unbreakable dooms, betrayal, backstabbing, more torture and gruesome deaths. When I first read Silm, I was still thinking about Tolkien as that jolly old man who wrote Bilbo. I was shocked.

Yet. Tolkien still knew how to touch and highlight themes such as hope and love and how these two help the character overcome their fears and struggles and get through the dark times they’re living in. Silmarillion is a story about hope.

The Hobbit

Yes, that funny little adventure with that funny little man who meets trolls and goblins and Elves and dwarves and finds a magic ring. Should I remind you that that Dwarf whose goal was to reclaim his homeland and his crown died? Yes, he died. But as tragic as it was, his death made sense. He let his greed for gold overwhelm him. He almost killed Bilbo because of it. This is how Tolkien punished his moment of weakness. But it made sense. I cried when Thorin bade farewell to Bilbo, I cry again when I see it in the movie, but this….makes sense. Compelling arc? Tolkien knows how to write it. Two certain assholes don’t.

And now, The Lord of The Rings

Should….we….remind…you….that jolly old Tolkien….named its magnum opus…after the….you know?…the villain?

Tolkien wrote about very bad people and wrote about very dark times and throughout the trilogy you have this constant feeling of hopelessless in front of Sauron’s almost allmight. Yet:

“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”

Tolkien deserve all the praise for

Touching the importance of love, and not the romantic love (because the romance is more hinted and not even a secondary love), But the love between friends, the support which rekindles your hope, and ignites your courage, the courage to fight for your friends and for a better love, the love for your world and your wish to make it better.

Writing female characters properly!!!!! The product of his age as he was, he goddamn knew how to write women who are both feminine and strong, who also fight in battle or rule the household, women who have power and they are acknowledged as such. The most prayed-to godess is a godess, Varda, a woman. Galadriel and Melian are women who are held in more reverance than their male partners. Eowyn is strong both at home, when she is the beacon of hope for her people, and on the battlefield, when she kills the FUCKING Witch King of Angmar (and this was FORSHADOWED btw). Also, no focus on male gaze and no objectifying. The romance is written as it should be written - a union of the soul, more than anything. Also, If you are looking for ace/demi rep, here is the place. This is how I love Tolkien so much and I didn’t know why I identified so much with how he wrote romance back when I first read it (since I only was aware of my sexuality later). Also also, he wrote friendship between men, friendship that became love, love between comrades, forced to fight and suffer together. But they can also be read as romance. Look me in the eyes and tell me that Gimli and Legolas cannot be read as romance. They can! You can interpret them as such and not be wrong! And this sort of love is valued above everything!!!!

Aragorn struggles for Almost. 70. Years to reclaim his ancestor’s throne and he proves his worth fighting and almost sacrificing himself in the War. But after Sauron is defeated, the people accept them as king. You know? Because he saved them from destruction? Because he almost sacrificed him for them?

And last, but not the least, for writing a real bittersweet ending. Frodo, the main character, is so broken after fulfilling his quest, that he leaves Middle-Earth for Valinor, the earthly paradise, which is a symbolism of death

“….I have been too deeply hurt, Sam. I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me. It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: some one has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them. But you are my heir: all that I had and might have had I leave to you. And also you have Rose, and Elanor; and Frodo-lad will come, and Rosie-lass, and Merry, and Goldilocks, and Pippin; and perhaps more that I cannot see. Your hands and your wits will be needed everywhere. You will be the Mayor, of course, as long as you want to be, and the most famous gardener in history; and you will read things out of the Red Book, and keep alive the memory of the age that is gone, so that people will remember the Great Danger, and so love their beloved land all the more. And that will keep you as busy and as happy as anyone can be, as long as your part in the Story goes on.”

“How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on, when in your heart you begin to understand… there is no going back? There are some things that time cannot mend. Some hurts that go too deep, that have taken hold.”

So, dear shitty writers who compare your work with Tolkien’s (and with the movies; Because with all their faults, the movies, in the end, did highlight Tolkien’s message: hope):

If you still think of your work as being on par with Tolkien’s, you haven’t been paying attention.

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien aka Jirt (rhymes with “dirt”) is the only fantasy king I acknowledge.

every morning when i go in the kitchen she yells at me nonstop so i have to put the spoon on her head