Aurorae On Jupiter By NASA, ESA, Hubble

This is one of the largest and most prolific star-forming regions near our Milky Way. Located about 160,000 light years away in the neighboring Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy, the Tarantula nebula is sculpted by searing radiation and strong winds that comes from the massive stars at its center. If fact, it is estimated that at least 40 of these huge stars have gone supernova within the last 10,000 years including the most recent one, SN 1987a. (Composite Image from Multiple Data Sources. Hubble Space Telescope, ESO, Amateur Data. Image Assembly and Processing : Robert Gendler and Roberto Colombari)

Cloud Mountain // Joni Niemelä

1995, picture by Enver Hirsch

Picture | Paul Fenrich

Lightning Appreciation Post:

There are nearly 500 lightning strikes every second around the world.

Only about 100 of these strike the earth, the others are between and within the clouds themselves.

Lightning is very visible from space (last gif from Astronaut Reid Wiseman)

Besides regular storms (thunder storms, hurricanes, etc.) lightning can be found in volcanoes (gif 3) and even intense forest fires.

In conclusion: nature is fucking awesome!

Kyoto Prefecture, Japan by Norihiro Kataoka

daniiux

As the Cassini mission to Saturn draws in to it’s final year, take a look at some of the most fantastic images from the ringed world. 

Credits:

Image 1: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Image 2: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Image 3: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI

Image 4: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Image 5: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Image 6: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Image 7: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Image 8: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona/University of Idaho

Image 9: NASA/JPL/ESA/University of Arizona

Image 10: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute