BEHIND A FROZEN WATERFALL Photograph by Matt Sepeta Located in Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnehaha Falls can be found near the entrance to Minnehaha Park, a 193-acre park divided into two main portions: an upper section above the falls which is kept trimmed and maintained like many other city parks, and the lower section…
A COMPLEX PLANETARY NEBULA Photograph by NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team According to Wikipedia, a planetary nebula is an emission nebula consisting of an expanding glowing shell of ionized gas ejected during the asymptotic giant branch phase of certain types of stars late in their life. The term for this class of objects is…
LIGHTNING STRIKES A FAIRWAY Photograph via SmangAllDay on Reddit Redditor SmangAllDay shared this photo earlier this week of his local golf course after being struck by lightning. The fascinating fractal pattern you see on the fairway is known as a Lichtenberg figure which has been featured on the Sifter previously. For those…
On April 3, 2012 a series of tornadoes broke out across the Dallas-Fort Worth area, including an EF3 in Forney, Texas. Freelance designer and photographer Parrish Ruiz de Velasco, who says he never leaves home without his camera, was driving that day and witnessed one of the tornadoes first hand as it developed. Knowing…
Soreq Cave, also known as Avshalom Cave or Stalactite Cave, is a 5,000 m2 cave on the western side of Mt. Ye’ela, in the Judean hills of Israel. Discovered by accident in May 1968 while quarrying with explosives, it is 83m (272 ft) long, 60m (197 ft) wide, and 15m (49ft) high. Like other…
DigitalGlobe is a worldwide leader in satellite imagery. Founded in 1993 under the name WorldView Imaging Corporation, it became EarthWatch Incorporated in 1995, before finally becoming DigitalGlobe in 2002. In 1993, the United States Department of Commerce granted DigitalGlobe (then WorldView), the first license allowing a private enterprise to build and operate a satellite…
GREETINGS EARTHLINGS Photograph by NASA/Steve Robinson STS-114 astronaut Soichi Noguchi waves from the Shuttle payload bay, backdropped by the Earth below. During the mission’s second spacewalk, Noguchi and Discovery crewmate Steve Robinson replaced a failed gyroscope which keeps the International Space Station in the proper position in orbit. STS-114 was the first…
BOWLING BALL BEACH Photograph by Brocken Inaglory Located along the Mendocino coast of California, USA, Bowling Ball Beach is located about three miles south of Point Arena, where Schooner Gulch Road intersects State Highway 1. Until recently there were two trailheads from this location. The Southern trail still leads visitors to Schooner…
LONG EXPOSURE LIGHTNING STRIKE Photograph by Dean Mullin on 500px In this fabulous capture by Dean Mullin, we see a long exposure shot of a lightning bolt off the coast of Kuala Belait in Brunei. The photo was taken on Belait Beach which overlooks the South China Sea. To get this shot,…
In botany, a fruit is a part of a flowering plant that derives from specific tissues of the flower, one or more ovaries, and in some cases accessory tissues. Fruits are the means by which these plants disseminate seeds. Many of them that bear edible fruits, in particular, have propagated with the movements of…