Cool images

[Liability]

Volcanoes often result in lightning. This volcanic eruption in Japan may prove dangerous to some Japanese people, but the image shown in Drudge today (linked from another site) is fascinating and actually somewhat beautiful:

 

[Madeline]

O la la!

I'd rep you, Liability, but EZ has siphoned off my rep gas again....that thieving woman!

 

[syrenn]

Very cool pic! Thanks for sharing.

 

[shintao]

Volcanoes often result in lightning. This volcanic eruption in Japan may prove dangerous to some Japanese people, but the image shown in Drudge today (linked from another site) is fascinating and actually somewhat beautiful:

I wonder what Japan's "Carbon Foot Print" is today? LOL! I understand that lightening doesn't really come from the sky, but originates from Earth upward. It just happens so fast it appears to the suggestible mind that it came from the sky. Not sure myself, just what I heard.

One of my kids years ago had lightening strike about 15-20 feet away from them, on a mountain top ranch I had in the San Andreas mt.s. They finally listened to me when I told them not to play outside in the rain.

 

[Oddball]

Took this one from the balcony of my condo in Steamboat...

 

[Liability]

Took this one from the balcony of my condo in Steamboat...

Not all pictures of lightning are beautiful, of course. But some are indeed (no pun intended) quite striking.

Here's one that isn't so much pretty as evocative:

 

[Liability]

At the risk of turning this thread into the "lightning images thread" (there are other cool images out there), I figured, "Oh hell. Here's a good one."

 

[Blagger]

A pretty image, no-doubt, Liability. But beauty is, afterall, in the eye of the beholder.

I don't want to be seen as a sycophant or gushing over an undeniably American experience, but I've actually had the privilege of witnessing a space launch. After seeing such a breathtaking display of what's achievable by combining so many branches of engineering aimed towards achieving a goal that man once thought entirely and absolutely beyond his means, I was quite literally speechless, not to mention strangley intimidated by the whole display of seeing men and women being propelled into space. And that combination of emotions often resurfaces (to an extent) whenever I come across pictures or footage like the image below.

Leaping back two millenia, we have a relic from antiquity; a part of history that has fascinated me ever since a was a child. I don't mean to make rude, or indeed, ignorant, assumptions, but it's always struck me that most American's can't, or won't, truly appreciate the artefacts of the Roman Empire, compared to someone who lives in a land that was conquered by the Romans and been surrounded by their history. I've visited several ancient Roman sites around the UK and abroad, but nothing has struck me as a more beautiful/poignant example than the mosaic, especially the ones that are near enough fully intact. They're like window back in time.

 

[Liability]

Volcanoes and lightning. "Plain" lightning. Tornadoes and lightning.

I think we either need lightning on another planet now or

a double rainbow.

 

[Liability]

Lightning on other planet?

I confess. I don't actually see it. But evidently some scientists do.

Lightning strikes Jupiter's poles › News in Science (ABC Science)

Stormy Jupiter reveals more secrets › News in Science (ABC Science)

I'm gonna REALLY stop obsessing about the beauty of images of lightning, now.

There's lots of stuff in the natural world that qualifies. And some man made stuff can also qualify as Swagger has noted.

 

[Blagger]

Without wanting to derail Liability's appreciative thread, there are some images of an adult nature that have tied my tongue.

Anyway, here's another. The RAF's legendary Red Arrows:

 

[Liability]

 

[Liability]

The Sombrero Galaxy - 28 million light years from Earth - was voted best picture taken by the Hubble telescope. The dimensions of the galaxy, officially called M104, are as spectacular as its appearance. It has 800 billion suns and is 50,000 light years across .

Hubble: The most amazing space photographs in the universe | Gallery | Mail Online

 

[Liability]

 

[Liability]

A stellar nursery.