EPOD - a service of USRA

The Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) highlights the diverse processes and phenomena which shape our planet and our lives. EPOD will collect and archive photos, imagery, graphics, and artwork with short explanatory
captions and links exemplifying features within the Earth system. The
community is invited to contribute digital imagery, short captions and
relevant links.


Cloud Shadow Projection over Novi Ligure, Italy

November 09, 2022

Nuvola e ombra (2)

Photographer: Valter Luna

Summary Authors: Valter Luna; Jim Foster

The photo above showing an eye-catching cloud shadow was captured
from my home in Novi Ligure, Italy on July 30, 2022. Shadow projections
such as shown here are formed when a shadow is cast upon a layer of
thin dust or haze. The scattering angle of sunlight by the
aerosols within the layer plays a role in observing the projected
shadows. Typically, you’ll have more success seeing them if you’re
looking in the vicinity of the Sun – about 10 degrees away or about the
width of your fist when extended as arm’s length. Also, it seems that
they can be seen more often in cumulus congestus clouds than in
other cloud types.

Photo details: Nikon D100 camera; Sigma 18-250 lens; 50mm; 1/200 second
exposure; f / 16; ISO 200.


Novi Ligure, Italy Coordinates: 44.7620, 8.7859


Recent EPODs

wafer_thin_moon_and_pumpkin_sky
the_primeval_rocks_of_unicorn_point
paraselene_antares_and_supermoon
two_types_of_bewildering_sunset_mirages
lamiaceae_family_of_aromatic_flowering_plants
meteors_from_fragments_of_chang_zheng_2f_rocket_launch
-
Earth Science Picture of the Day is a service of the Universities
Space Research Association.

https://epod.usra.edu

--- up 36 weeks, 2 days, 21 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (21:1/186)

EPOD - a service of USRA

The Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) highlights the diverse processes and phenomena which shape our planet and our lives. EPOD will collect and archive photos, imagery, graphics, and artwork with short explanatory
captions and links exemplifying features within the Earth system. The
community is invited to contribute digital imagery, short captions and
relevant links.


Two Views of the Wondrous Andromeda Galaxy

October 07, 2022

GregP_Combine_Sky90_Hyperstar_200mm_EPOD_2

GregP_M31_85subs_3mins_EPOD

Photographer: Greg Parker

Summary Authors: Greg Parker; Jim Foster

The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) is considered the most distant
object that we can detect with the unaided eye. If you live in the
Northern Hemisphere and have never seen a galaxy, other than our
Milky Way, you owe it to yourself to venture into the countryside
on a clear, moonless autumn evening and look to the northeast. Between
the stars is the asterism of the Square of Pegasus and the
constellation of Perseus, a very faint glow will appear in the
constellation of Andromeda. You may need to use averted vision
to see it. If you still can’t spot it, grab a pair of binoculars.

Of course, don’t expect to see anything that resembles the remarkable
images above, captured from the New Forest Observatory.
Nevertheless, just being able to discern this distant smudge (some
2.5 million light years away) is thrilling. The light we see when we
gaze at M31 began its path to our eyes about the time that North
America and South America were linked by the Isthmus of Panama and
around the time our ancestors were starting to stand upright. We can
see it with the naked eye not only because it’s relatively close by
(one of the Milky Way's nearest galactic neighbors), but because it’s
huge -– 220,000 light years across, holding perhaps a trillion stars.

Photo details:

Top "zoomed out view" - Canon 200 mm prime lens; ASI 2600MC Pro colour
CMOS camera.

Bottom: “zoomed in view” - Hyperstar 4 (on a Celestron C11 telescope)
image; ASI 2600MC Pro colour CMOS camera.

New Forest Observatory, U.K. Coordinates: 50.819444, -1.59


Recent EPODs

thunderstorm_and_rainbow_over_zagreb_croatia
etna_volcano_at_night quechee_gorge_in_east_central_vermont
emerald_lakes_new_zealand basket_stinkhorn
use_of_wild_plants_in_floriculture
-
Earth Science Picture of the Day is a service of the Universities
Space Research Association.

https://epod.usra.edu

--- up 31 weeks, 6 days, 21 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (21:1/186)

EPOD - a service of USRA

The Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) highlights the diverse processes and phenomena which shape our planet and our lives. EPOD will collect and archive photos, imagery, graphics, and artwork with short explanatory
captions and links exemplifying features within the Earth system. The
community is invited to contribute digital imagery, short captions and
relevant links.


Crystal Forms in Petrified Wood

December 09, 2022

TomMc_EPODImage2.WolverineLoopPetrifiedForest2022#2 (003)

TomMc_EPODImage1.PetrifiedWoodWolverineClose2022#1 (003)

Photographer: Thomas McGuire

Summary Author: Thomas McGuire


Grand Staircase National Monument is a spectacularly rich geologic
area in remote southern Utah. Within this monument, Wolverine
Petrified Forest, shown above at top, features silicified (petrified)
tree trunks and sections. The variety of colors is caused by iron
oxide and other oxide minerals.


In the bottom photo, the geometric forms at right are dark stained
quartz crystals that probably grew by groundwater deposition in
openings called “ vugs.” Quartz is extremely common, but visible
quartz crystals less so. When an igneous rock cools and
crystallizes, quartz is the last common mineral to harden, so it
usually fills in the irregular openings between previously formed
minerals including feldspar, mica, amphibole and pyroxene. What
surprised me was the texture on this expose surface. The radial forms
at the bottom of the photo are new to me, and I have yet to understand
how they formed. Photos taken in July 2022.



Grand Staircase National Monument, Utah Coordinates: 37.799633,
-111.214906


Related EPODs

Crystal Forms in Petrified Wood Mt. Baker at Sunrise Fossil
Find in Sicily, Italy Arizona’s China Wall Fossil Lake’s Legacy
at Wyoming’s Fossil Butte Wagon Tracks from the Old West?
More...

Geology Links

* Earthquakes
* Geologic Time
* Geomagnetism
* General Dictionary of Geology
* Mineral and Locality Database
* Mohs Scale of Mineral Hardness
* This Dynamic Earth
* USGS
* MyShake - University of California, Berkeley
* USGS Ask a Geologist
* USGS/NPS Geologic Glossary
* USGS Volcano Hazards Program

-
Earth Science Picture of the Day is a service of the Universities
Space Research Association.

https://epod.usra.edu

--- up 40 weeks, 4 days, 21 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (21:1/186)