Perseid meteor and Snows of Paranal
Recorded last week, this dawn portrait of snowy mountain and starry sky captures a very rare scenario. The view does feature a pristine sky above the 2,600 meter high mountain Cerro Paranal, but clear skies over Paranal are not at all unusual.
Honda Gyro bike
Honda Gyro² tried to answer a challenge on how to get bikes to appeal to a mass audience by directly targeting those who don’t find them practical.
Storm cloud over Taber
A storm cloud threatens to develop into a full blown tornado behind a cluster of family homes in Taber, Canada. The photographer said: “Our area of the country seldom sees tornadoes so this was a rare sight indeed and with the rainbow underneath it, made it even more special to see.” This picture was created by stitching together multiple photographs in a vertical panorama. Photographer Pat Kavanagh
Darkest known Alien World
Astronomers have discovered the darkest known exoplanet – a distant, Jupiter-sized gas giant known as TrES-2b. Their measurements show that TrES-2b reflects less than one percent of the sunlight falling on it, making it blacker than coal or any planet or moon in our solar system.
High Altitude Airship (HAA)
The Lockheed Martin High Altitude Airship (HAA™) – and its sub-scale demonstrator, the High Altitude Long Endurance-Demonstrator (HALE-D) – is an un-tethered, unmanned lighter-than-air vehicle that will operate above the jet stream in a geostationary position to deliver persistent station keeping as a surveillance platform, telecommunications relay, or a weather observer.
Enjoy Perseid Meteor shower 2011
Friday through early Saturday, this year’s cosmic fireworks will be somewhat dampened by the glare of a full moon. But the Perseids can still offer a crowd-pleasing sight for many people worldwide. Photographer Marco Verstraaten
Diamond-fitted contact lenses
A company in India is now offering contact lenses fitted with real diamonds and gold. Weighing five grams the lenses are available in four designs: white gold, 18 diamonds on white gold, yellow gold, and 18 diamonds on yellow gold.
Clipper 11-12 Round the World Yacht Race
A fleet of hundreds of spectator boats and the Royal Navy’s helicopter carrier, HMS Illustrious, give a spectacular send-off to the crews on board the ten yachts competing in the Clipper 11-12 Round the World Yacht Race, starting in Southampton.
Falcon HTV 2- New York to Los Angeles in 12 minutes
DARPA’s Falcon HTV-2 unmanned aircraft has been launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, as part of a critical test flight at hypersonic speeds. The experimental aircraft is fast enough to travel from New York to Los Angeles in just 12 minutes.
update: The U.S. military said it launched the Falcon HTV-2, which reached speeds of 13,000 mph, but lost control after about nine minutes of flight and, they believe, crashed in the Pacific Ocean. Last year, the first Falcon vanished over the Pacific Ocean, leaving absolutely no trace.
Container Architecture exhibition
The NRW-Forum Düsseldorf, invited renowned architects, designers, and artists from around the world to submit designs for container architecture.
