Bioluminescent Plankton

M42 by NASA Hubble

All Along The Western Veil

Masterpieces of Mesozoic Seas

Leedsichthys is a giant member of the Pachycormidae, an extinct group of Mesozoic bony fish, that lived in the oceans of the Middle Jurassic period.  The first remains of Leedsichthys were identified in the nineteenth century.  Leedsichthys fossils have been found in England, France, Germany and Chile. Along with its close pachycormid relatives Bonnerichthys and Rhinconichthys, Leedsichthys is part of a lineage of large-sized filter-feeders who swam the Mesozoic seas for over 100 million years, from the middle Jurassic until the end of the Cretaceous period. Pachycormids might represent an early branch of Teleostei, the group most modern bony fishes belong to; in that case Leedsichthys is the largest known teleost fish.

  Leedsichthys fossils have been difficult to interpret, because the skeletons were not completely made of bone. Large parts consisted of cartilage that did not fossilise. On several occasions the enigmatic large partial remains have been mistaken for stegosaurian dinosaur bones. As the vertebrae are among the parts that have not been preserved, it is hard to determine the total body length. Estimates have varied wildly. At the beginning of the twentieth century a length of nine metres was seen as plausible, but by its end Leedsichthys was sometimes claimed to have been over thirty metres long. Recent research has lowered this to about sixteen meters for the largest individuals. Skull bones have been found indicating that Leedsichthys had a large head with bosses on the skull roof. Fossilised bony finrays show large elongated pectoral fins and a tall vertical tail fin. The gill arches were lined by gill rakers, equipped by a unique system of delicate bone plates, that filtered plankton from the sea water, the main food source.

I really wish people would jump on the marine exploration bandwagon as much as space exploration.

Nightfall

I feel my favorite Sci-Fi story of all times must be Isaac Asimov's 'Nightfall' (SPOILERS ahead btw) (the title in my language is even better, "And Darkness Shall Come").

To quickly summarize from memory, the story is set on a planet where people live in constant daylight because their homeworld is illuminated by one of six suns at all times. By the time of the narrative, they have reached an industrialized, roughly early 20th-century style civilization.

A prophecy speaks of a cycle where the planet will fall into complete darkness, and now scientists have discovered that it is not just a fairy tale - apparently, one day soon another planet is gonna block out all the suns for a period of about 12 hours.

Disturbingly, another part of the prophecy is confirmed as well - archaeologists discover that the planet's cities have been burned to the ground every time the darkness came, resetting civilization, and only returning to the old level of development after thousands of years.

The prophecy says that people will go mad in the darkness, when they look up to the sky and the stars appear.

Now, scientists and governments are alarmed, but not panicked. They look at their technolgical progress and understanding of the universe, and they are confident their civilization will not fall like the others. They know their people are literate, the current level of knowledge about the cosmos is widespread - including the theory that there might even be more than one solar system.

Electrical lights exist, but on this planet they only have niche applications in things like mining operations and bunker construction. Outfitting entire cities with them is not feasible on short notice, and also considered a waste of resources - 12 hours without sunlight should be perfectly survivable for an advanced and enlightened people.

There are experiments to simulate the effects of the darkness on the psyche. One scientists sits in a dark room with a few dozen holes in the ceiling, to simulate these fabled "stars", and declares it's manageable.

Then the big day arrives - or rather, ends.

The suns disappear, and darkness falls across the land.

And people look up, and they see this

And their civilization ends within 12 hours.

Dunkleosteus, motherfuckers.

Important science info guys.

oh my god. apparently during the making of the Voyager golden record they had to fly the recorder by commercial airlines to add some material onto the record last minute and they booked a seat for it under the name of Mr. Equipment

Picos de Europa, Spain - by Arturo Garcia

Hubble Observes Infant Stars in Nearby Galaxy by NASA Hubble