Awesome images of Ceres and the dark side of the moon from @NASA!! #science

[tweet https://twitter.com/NASA/status/629295827744194560] [tweet https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/629064761188184064]

NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft approaches dwarf planet Ceres – sends beautiful and surprising images!

Ceres rotates in this sped-up movie comprised of images taken by NASA’s Dawn mission during its approach to the dwarf planet. The images were taken on Feb. 19, 2015, from a distance of nearly 29,000 miles (46,000 kilometers). Dawn observed Ceres for a full rotation of the dwarf planet, which lasts about nine hours. The images have a resolution of 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) per pixel. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

NASA spacecraft Dawn is approaching the dwarf planet Ceres and sending back amazing images of the planet.

Recent images show numerous craters and unusual bright spots that scientists believe tell how Ceres, the first object discovered in our solar system’s asteroid belt, formed and whether its surface is changing. As the spacecraft spirals into closer and closer orbits around the dwarf planet, researchers will be looking for signs that these strange features are changing, which would suggest current geological activity.

Spectacular lava fountain as Chile’s Villarrica volcano erupts!!

Chile’s Villarrica volcano erupted this morning producing a spectacular lava fountain!! More info here and pics at Erik Klemetti’s ERUPTIONS blog on wired.com. Gif above from this POVI time-lapse at youtube.

The eruption spread ash over the neighboring region and an accompanying lava flow melted snow on the slopes of the volcano (see below) creating some small volcanic mudflows and debris flows. Currently, over 3,300 people have been evacuated from the small towns around Villarrica, including the vacation town of Pucón. The eruption started at ~3 a.m. (local time) and TV footage showed the deluge of lava bombs that rained down on the slopes during the peak of the eruption.

[tweet https://twitter.com/eruptionsblog/status/572778861525635074] [tweet https://twitter.com/thei100/status/572746566248865792]

GIF/Video of Comet circling the sun – From ESA/NASA’ SOHO

SOHO Sees Its 2,875th Comet

A comet circles around the sun in this movie from ESA/NASA’s SOHO. The comet is somewhat unusual as it’s not form any known family of comets. This is the 2,875th comet discovered by SOHO. Credit: ESA/NASA/SOHO/Hill

Think you like weather? Not as much as Jim Cantore likes it!! #Thundersnow #science

Check out this youtube video of Meteorologist Jim Cantore freaking out after witnessing THUNDERSNOW!! Love seeing someone get this excited about science and weather!! (gif credit: CauseScience)

Amazing video from @Space_Station – #sunrise touches #aurora

Another post, another awesome gif from NASA!! This gif (made by CauseScience) shows the aurora borealis in the sky as the sun rises, ending with the two light sources ‘touching’!! The video this gif was made from was taken from the International Space Station – #sunrise touches #aurora. All we need now are angels singing” #AstroButch

[tweet https://twitter.com/NASA_Astronauts/status/563075368945721345]

Update: The gif CauseScience made from the youtube video is not nearly as good as the vine posted by @Space_Station!

[tweet https://twitter.com/Space_Station/status/563069569078927362]

CauseScience Friday – Jan 30th – #Science #Selfie #Friday

crestwind24- I am spending part of my day processing images (micrographs) that I took earlier on our labs confocal microscope. As I mentioned in a previous CauseScience Friday, the confocal allows me to take amazing pictures of neurons and their axons and dendrites. Today I am taking many images taken through the depth of a worm and making 3D animations. This allows you to see the morphology of the axons – or where they are in space. Below is a partial low-res GIF I made of one of my animations – it shows two neurons and their axons in C. elegans!!

psgurel- Part of joining a new lab involves developing a new project.  Today, I’m doing some test runs as an initial step in developing a method for imaging different conformations of actin filaments for cryo Eelectron Microscopy.  First, I have to coat EM grids in a mechanism that will allow the actin to bind properly, so I’m surveying different ways of coating EM grids. Wish me luck!

Space lesson of the day: Anything is possible – Asteroid has its own moon!! #space #motivation

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory took amazing images of the asteroid that flew past earth Tuesday and discovered it has a ‘moon’! More info here!

The 20 individual images used in the movie were generated from data collected at Goldstone on Jan. 26, 2015. They show the primary body is approximately 1,100 feet (325 meters) across and has a small moon approximately 230 feet (70 meters) across. In the near-Earth population, about 16 percent of asteroids that are about 655 feet (200 meters) or larger are a binary (the primary asteroid with a smaller asteroid moon orbiting it) or even triple systems (two moons). The resolution on the radar images is 13 feet (4 meters) per pixel.

Watch this GIF of the formation of tonight’s Nor’easter #science #Juno #snow

Check out this Gif of the formation of winter storm Juno… previously known as just tonight’s Nor’easter! Check out the NASA video here to see earlier developments. More info about how the video was made and about the storm itself here at the NASA website!!

Image Credit: NASA/NOAA GOES Project – GIF – CauseScience

National Weather Service forecasters have been tracking a low pressure area that moved from the Midwest into the Atlantic Ocean today, and is expected to become a strong nor’easter that will bring blizzard conditions to the northeastern U.S. The path of the system was captured in a NASA movie of NOAA’s GOES-East satellite imagery.

New video/GIF visualizes waves in Earth’s Ionosphere, 70 miles up!! #supercomputer

Check out this awesome GIF (credit: CauseScience) of Wired.com’s Science Graphic of the Week. The GIF is of a video published in Geophysical Research Letters and shows 3 days of ‘weather’ in the E-layer of the ionosphere, 70 miles up. Check out the Wired.com post for more info here. The video is posted to youtube here, and shows ionospheric gravity waves simulated using NCAR’s Wyoming Super-Computer.

When the Earth’s surface roils with stormy weather, it causes the upper atmosphere to ripple like a breezy pond. Scientists only recently connected the two systems, and a new supercomputer-powered simulation broadens their understanding of how thunderstorms, jet streams, and cyclones affect weather at the edge of space.