What's happened to our Sun? Nothing very unusual -- it just threw a filament. Toward the middle of 2012, a long standing solar filament suddenly erupted into space producing an energetic Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). The filament had been held up for days by the Sun's ever changing magnetic field and the timing of the eruption was unexpected. Watched closely by the Sun-orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory, the resulting explosion shot electrons and ions into the Solar System, some of which arrived at Earth three days later and impacted Earth's magnetosphere.

"Ever stared down the gaping eye of a category 4 hurricane? It's chilling, even from space," says European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst, who is currently living and working aboard the International Space Station as a member of the Expedition 56 crew.

First came the trees. In the town of Salamanca, Spain, the photographer noticed how distinctive a grove of oak trees looked after being pruned. Next came the galaxy.

Snapped/edited by by Jason Weingart.

On August 23, 2018 the identification and distribution of aerosols in the Earth's atmosphere is shown in this dramatic, planet-wide visualization. Produced in real time, the Goddard Earth Observing System Forward Processing (GEOS FP) model relies on a combination of Earth-observing satellite and ground-based data to calculate the presence of types of aerosols, tiny solid particles and liquid droplets, as they circulate above the entire planet. This August 23rd model shows black carbon particles in red from combustion processes, like smoke from the fires in the United States and Canada, spreading across large stretches of North America.

Uluru. Needs no explanation. Truly difficult to capture the massiveness of this sandstone formation. Every cleft and imperfection has cultural/"Dreamtime" significance. Unfortunately, the bush flies kept me from staying longer. You can see the smoke from controlled spinifex burnings begins the rock. You can see in the middle, a group of people walking on top. Picking up some Aboriginal hitchhikers, their first question was if I had climbed it.

Taken on August 22, 2018.

It's the end of the world as we know it, and Best Products is having a sale.

Forearm Tattoo Design made by artist Bharat Dharoliya at Inkfinite Tattoo Studio In Nashik, India.

Forearm Tattoo Design By Inkfinite Tattoo Studio In Nashik

Built in 1874 on the site reserved for an opera house, the Old Cincinnati Library was a thing of wonder.

What kind of clouds are these? Although their cause is presently unknown, such unusual atmospheric structures, as menacing as they might seem, do not appear to be harbingers of meteorological doom. Formally recognized as a distinct cloud type only last year, Asperitas clouds can be stunning in appearance, unusual in occurrence, and are relatively unstudied. Whereas most low cloud decks are flat bottomed, asperitas clouds appear to have significant vertical structure underneath.

First Dog on the Moon

Speaking of Rainbows, Sacred Contracts, and Genesis 9... While listening to a podcast while walking, one of my main activities that I enjoy, the speaker mentioned the covenant of the Rainbow... my special ability, if I have one, is associating seemingly disparate ideas, signs, symbols, text that I integrate into a checklist or patchwork quilt (that few understand or take the time to attempt to understand)... see previous posts about Sacred Contracts (Carolyn Myss book), the project Tammy and I worked on (main use case is establishing an ecologically sustainable economic heartbeat). See https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/tammymcgee/journal

What lies beneath the layered south pole of Mars? A recent measurement with ground-penetrating radar from ESA's Mars Express satellite has detected a bright reflection layer consistent with an underground lake of salty water. The reflection comes from about 1.5-km down but covers an area 200-km across. Liquid water evaporates quickly from the surface of Mars, but a briny confined lake, such as implied by the radar reflection, could last much longer and be a candidate to host life such as microbes. Pictured, an infrared, green, and blue image of the south pole of Mars taken by Mars Express in 2012 shows a complex mixture of layers of dirt...

Mars is also known as The Red Planet, often seen with a reddish tinge in dark night skies. Mars shines brightly at the upper left of this gorgeous morning twilight view from Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia, but the Moon and planet Earth look redder still. Taken on July 27, the totally eclipsed Moon is setting. It looks reddened because the Earth's umbral shadow isn't completely dark. Instead Earth's shadow is suffused with a faint red light from all the planet's sunsets and sunrises seen from the perspective of an eclipsed Moon.

Acrylics on canvas - 60 * 80 cm

A catchy tune and one of Stephen Gammell’s illustrations from Alvin Schwartz’s trilogy, ‘Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark.’   If you look at the unassuming photo used by publisher Simon and Schuster of illustrator Stephen Gammell, you will, in no way, perceive the smiling, white-bearded and spectacled man was responsible for creating images which have terrorized the minds of children since 1981. But he is, and I hope this helps reinforce the golden rule one should never judge a book (or a person) by their cover.

Photo by William Patino

See the winning photos from the 2018 National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year.

Two sunny days for painting two sunny birds. :-)

Going old school with new school paint. :-)

Toward a Concrete Utopia focuses on the period of intense construction in Yugoslavia between 1948 and 1980

See amazing astrophotography from the Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 shortlist

Taken with Canon 6D. 17-40 f/4, settings: 1/60s, f/9, ISO100

:-)

The Earth, in all its majesty and its tragedy, is the subject of images taken aboard the International Space Station. This image of the Carr and Ferguson fires was captured by European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst (@Astro_Alex), on August 3, 2018, from the station. "California burning. These fires are frightening to watch, even from space. Here's a shout-out from space to all firefighters on this planet, my former colleagues. Stay safe my friends!" Gerst, a geophysicist and volcanologist, wrote on his Twitter account.

The 1965 Pontiac GTO Chief Camino is a one-off vehicle that should almost certainly have been built and offered for sale by Pontiac in the mid-1960s. It never was, but this is probably due to the fact that there’s no indication Pontiac even considered building it. The car you see here wasn’t built by them, it was built as a prototype by a man named Ron in his garage over a period of 10 years – using an original Pontiac GTO as the starting point.

Melbourne-based photographer Matthew Henry is methodically working his way through the Pantone swatch book, creating striking photographs that match the full spectrum of 1,114 colours. His work has been popular on Instagram where he used the social media format to display his series in chequerboard effect