NASA’s Asteroid Retrieval Mission is getting me excited about space again. Here’s why: http://www.charleneandersononline.com/?p=1141
Be mesmerized by this amazing video celebrating the grace of kelp under the sea.
Isla San Benito,
Your daily octopus. More to wonder at.
The dementors from Harry Potter are real — and living under the sea!
Stygiomedusa
MBARI’s research expeditions sometimes yield encounters with extraordinary animals. During MBARI’s 2003 expedition to the Gulf of California, scientists spotted this massive jelly known as Stygiomedusa gigantea 1,300 meters below the surface of the Gulf. Its enormous reddish brown bell stretched about a meter (three feet) across and its oral arms were at least three meters (10 feet) long.
The researchers also collected a small fish in the genus Thalassobathia that was swimming over the jelly’s bell and among its billowing oral arms. In over 20 years of deep-sea dives, MBARI researchers have only seen Stygiomedusa jellies three times, so finding this drifting behemoth provided a truly memorable experience.
(via: Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute)
* look at that frisky little Lumpfish (Psychlorutes sp.) clinging to the side of the bell :3
(via deepseanews)
Spectacular: @InsideClimate News Pulitzer Prize for coverage of pipeline problems. Shows how dogged reporting can persist outside mainstream journalism. Here’s the citation and links to the work:
Check out this bizarre jellyfish! Marine biologist Enric Sala spotted it off the coast of Chile, where he’s exploring the remote islands of Desventuradas.
“Something is approaching,” [submarine pilot Ari] says. Little by little, the figure starts to become visible in our lights but we do not know what it is. As soon as I hear him say, “This is incredible!” I know that this sighting is an exceptional one. A type of jellyfish, but with hard parts, like feet, that can turn and swim in all directions hypnotizes us. None of us have ever seen anything like it. We record it swimming for a half an hour thanks to the submarine’s true dance that Avi pilots to see this beautiful animal from every angle.
The most detailed account of what lives in this area is from 1875, and Enric hopes that cataloguing what lives in the area—including rare or unknown species like this jellyfish—will help Chilean scientists and conservation workers.
Read more of his account and see other posts from the expedition at National Geographic.
(via deepseanews)
NPR traces views of Earth from the Middle Ages to the Space Age, including the Pale Blue Dot, which celebrates its birthday his week.
Complement with a visual history of humanity’s depictions of the cosmos.
How prescient was Carl Sagan? To have conceived of turning Voyager 1’s camera back toward Earth and taking one of the most iconic images ever of the Home World? Lordy, how I miss him….
Baby octopus on a leaf - Okinawa, Japan by Okinawa Nature Photography
Not even puppies are cuter than baby octopuses.
(via deepseanews)
"What a magnificent creature! One can only imagine what it might be like to encounter a full-sized giant squid in its native habitat. We’ll have to wait until the Discovery Channel documentary airs to see more than this little teaser."
