Aurora Borealis from Space
They took this photo onboard the Space Shuttle Discovery with a digital camera. Follow the link to get a high resolution image.
Sun Spot from 5000 km
You can get the high res image of the sunspot here. There’s also a short video.
Link – via The Science Blog
Denita TwoDragons
I just LOVE those pics! The idea that that auroral display is the end result of mind-bendingly powerful electromagnetic forces at work, or that that sunspot could swallow several Earths…leaves me feeling humble and infinitesmally small. Simply amazing.
–TwoDragons
Denita TwoDragons
Yayo, how can you feel sad about that…? The fact that we, seemingly insignificant lumps of meat, are surrounded by–and have the fantastic priviledge to witness–such incredible forces should make you feel honored. In every moment of our existance we move through boundless expenditures of energy–radiation, magnetics, electricity, gravity–with all the casualness of a fish in a stream, and most people go from cradle to grave without even giving it a moment’s thought! Would you rather stare at your feet in shame at that thought? Or isn’t it better to, being made aware of it, raise you eyes up to the sky and gasp in wonder…?
I know what MY answer to that question would be! 
–TwoDragons
yayo
I think I’m a bit “tanatofobous” orsomethinglikethat ^^.
I can’t catch the world as beautiful and wonderful as you do. I would like to, but I can’t.
We are part of a chemical chain reaction that started eons ago when RNA was first produced in the primal earth. We are here just because some materials react with others. We follow light, food, sex… And for most of us is so hard to get some or all of those.
We are just worms with a bigger brain and our consciousness is the worst damnation. I simply can’t forget I must die, every day, every five minutes I spend iddle I remember I must disappear and never have existed. I would like to belive in god. All I do is keep my hands busy.
This sadness, this fear, this small world, this body, that will bury me and delete the whole universe from existence. This who I am, takes away from me the people I most wanted to be near. Every year is the same year, every day is the same day…
Yes we are that small. I’m that small and I can’t smell the roses without remembering it.
Denita TwoDragons
Hmm…I wish you could share my sense of wonder, Yayo. I hope that, perhaps some day soon, you will.
I’ll admit, I’m a very devout Christian. Perhaps that colors my perception of the world around me, and how even a small thing like myself exists in it. But even before I converted, I always looked at the universe around me and delighted in all its marvels–and felt like an honored guest at the most incredible function in existence. I just can’t look at all this, and believe it happened by simple chance.
But that’s a debate for another time…
–TwoDragons
Alex
It’s the little beautiful things that make life worth living. Right now, that beautiful little thing in my life is a 5 month old baby that cries and spits up. Then laughs and brightens up my day.
Denita TwoDragons
Alex–five months old? How sweet! ^___^
Enjoy those moments, hon. When they hit two, you’ll be really glad for your powers of memory recall…
Yayo–Work…oof. Did you have to use that awful four-letter-word…? *shudders*
–TwoDragons
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