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Oh, now this is a great bunch of photographs, all a bit reminiscent of the opening shot in the Disney movie The Lion King. Great beasts in silhouette against a sunrise (or sunset, or in one case, the moon) would make great computer wallpaper. See a dozen of these at Environmental Graffiti. Link
(Image credit: Flickr user Xavi Talleda)
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Earth is a blue planet that has red sunsets. Mars is a red planet with blue sunsets!
From its vantage point on the surface of Mars, NASA’s rover Opportunity relayed a spectacular series of images of a blue-hued sunset on the red planet. Scientists then stitched the pictures, taken over a period of 17 minutes, into a 30-second movie simulation.
The bluish glow around the sun is due to the same dust particles that make Mars’ sky appear red. The pictures were taken on Nov. 4 and Nov. 5 using three different filters on the rover’s panoramic camera.
See the video and other images of and from Mars at Discovery News. Link -via Holy Kaw!
The “green flash” is not a superhero, but an optical phenomenon more talked about than seen.
The truth is the green flash does exist and its cause is well understood. Just as the setting Sun disappears completely from view, a last glimmer appears startlingly green… The effect is typically visible only from locations with a low, distant horizon, and lasts just a few seconds… the effect is caused by layers of the Earth’s atmosphere acting like a prism.
There is a gallery of photos in Wikipedia; the one embedded above comes from the archives of Astronomy Picture of the Day, a wonderful source for photos of both astronomical and atmospheric phenomena.
Link.
