Our Planet

Amazing view of Krakatoa from space

On August 26-27, 1883, a small island in the Indian Ocean obliterated itself in one of the most notorious volcanic eruptions in history. Krakatau (often spelled Krakatoa) erupted with such violence that two-thirds of the island, about 23 square kilometers, sank into the Sunda Strait.

The explosions heard in the 1883 eruption remain the loudest noise on human record. The sound was heard across the Indian Ocean, as far away as Rodriguez Island, 4,653 kilometers (2,891 miles) to the west, and Australia, 3,450 kilometers (2,144 miles) to the east. The sound of the eruption was so loud it was reported that if anyone was within 16 km (10 mi) from the center of the explotion, they would have gone deaf.

The massive eruption also generated a series of tsunamis, which produced waves as high as 30 meters (98 feet) tall.

Will we ever visit other stars?

Is it possible for humanity to visit other stars (or other stars that have planets, actually) in the future?

Earth is our one and only home. As Carl Sagan said (Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space),

“On Earth, everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every ‘supreme leader,’ every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.”.

But will we ever leave our home and visit other stars?

Amazing supermoon photos by Oleg Artemyev (August 14, 2014)

August 10, 2014, was the closest, brightest supermoon of this year. A Russian cosmonaut, Oleg Artemyev aboard the International Space Station (ISS) took wonderful photos of this great astronomical event while the moon was setting.

Sleeping cat and dog (a beautiful scene from 2014 summer)

I took these photos last week in Bodrum, Turkey. A cat and dog (both are stray animals) sleeping together in the same place, very closely. Beautiful.

The traditional belief that cats and dogs are natural enemies is not always true. If appropriately socialized, cats and dogs may have relationships that are not antagonistic, and dogs raised with cats may prefer the presence of cats to other dogs. But unsocialized cats and dogs usually don’t like each other.

Seven Wonders of the World

The Great Pyramid of Giza (Kheops Pyramid)

The “Seven Wonders of the World”, also known as the “Seven Wonders of the Ancient World”, describes seven great constructions known in the Hellenistic period ^{Notes 1}. None of them but the Great Pyramid of Giza (Kheops Pyramid) do not exist today.

A baby monkey and a lion cub play with each other – adorable scene

A baby monkey playing with a lion cub at Guaipo Manchurian Tiger Park in Shenyang, China

Today’s “daily d’awww” is coming from China: A baby monkey playing with a lion cub at Guaipo Manchurian Tiger Park in Shenyang. There are also two cute tiger cubs playing with each other in the background.

Gigantic School of Mobula Rays – Amazing video

An amazing video of titled Gigantic School of Rays from National Geographic. A record-breaking school of Mobula rays has arrived off the coast of Baja California. Some of them are even flying over the sea surface!

The amazing Giant Weta – the heaviest insect on Earth (70+ grams)

In the small islands of New Zealand, the world’s heaviest insect lives – The Giant weta. There are 70 types of species of weta in the genus Deinacrida of the family Anostostomatidae.

Giant weta is endemic to New Zealand and is an example of island gigantism: which is a biological phenomenon leading to a larger size than their mainland relatives because of their isolation and lack of large predators. A female giant weta filled with eggs can reach up to 70 grams or more!

Pale Blue Dot

The farthest spacecraft from Earth, NASA’s Voyager 1 ^{Notes 1} probe took a photo of planet Earth in 1990, from a record distance of about 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles, 40 AU ^{Notes 2}) from Earth. The photo is known as the Pale Blue Dot. In the photograph, Earth is shown as a fraction of a pixel (0.12 pixel in size) against the vastness of space. It was a part of the solar system Family Portrait series of images.

The Voyager 1 spacecraft, which had completed its primary mission and was leaving the Solar System, was commanded by NASA to turn its camera around and to take a photograph of Earth across a great expanse of space, at the request of Carl Sagan ^{Notes 3}.

It quickly became the most iconic photo of Earth taken from space.