FYFD

Category: Phenomena

  • Atlantic Blooms

    Atlantic Blooms

    In April 2023, swirls of green and turquoise burst into vivid color in the Atlantic. Much of the color comes from a phytoplankton bloom. Although phytoplankton are individually microscopic, they form eddies a hundred kilometers across that are visible from space. In detailed images like the one above (available here in full resolution) these swirls have amazing turbulent details. Some of the brightest sections almost look like a field of sea ice! (Image credit: L. Dauphin; via NASA Earth Observatory)

    This wider view shows the bloom's location off of the northeastern U.S.
  • Jovian Swirls

    Jovian Swirls

    Jupiter, our solar system’s stormiest planet, shares many similarities with Earth. But where Earth’s strongest storms are cyclones centered on low-pressure regions, Jupiter’s longest and strongest storms are anti-cyclones, driven by areas of high pressure. They’re often massive — larger than the entire Earth — and persist for weeks, months, or years. This processed image comes from the JunoCam instrument and shows some of the incredible cloud structure in Jupiter’s atmosphere. Jupiter’s highest altitude clouds tend to be the lightest, while darker clouds remain lower. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/K. Gill; via APOD)

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    The Physics of Vowels

    Blow across the top of a glass bottle, and you’ll get a whistle-like sound. Put some liquid in there and the pitch of the sound changes. Our vocal tracts are basically the same thing: a tube with a hole at the end. But as Joe Hanson shows in this Be Smart video, our ability to change the shape and resonance of our vocal tract by moving our tongues and lips enables us to make a wide range of vowel sounds. Enjoy this dive into the world of linguistic physics! (Video and image credit: Be Smart)

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    Tongan Eruption

    In January 2022, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupted spectacularly, sending waves around the world through the air, water, and ground. In many ways, it was unlike any eruption scientists have observed, though they think it bears similarities to the 1883 eruption at Krakatoa. This video summarizes some of the research to come out of the eruption, looking at how waves propagated, what aerosols the volcano pushed high into the atmosphere, and what the long-term effects of the eruption may be. (Video credit: Science)

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    Studying Earth’s Interior

    The Earth’s interior is almost entirely inaccessible to humanity, so how do we know what it consists of? As explained in this video, our knowledge of the planet’s interior is based on measuring waves sent out by earthquakes and nuclear blasts. Both produce two kinds of waves — pressure waves (P-waves) and shear waves (S-waves) that travel through the earth and get picked up by seismometers. Scientists noticed that pressure waves travel through the center of the planet while shear waves — which get dissipated in liquids — do not. This led them to conclude that part of Earth’s interior is a liquid. The idea of a solid inner core came from observations of pressure waves scattering in a way that only made sense if they’d hit something solid. (Video and image credit: Science)

  • Anabranching Riverways

    Anabranching Riverways

    The Diamantina River in Australia is dry for much of the year. But seasonal rains flood its riverbeds and provoke a bloom of vegetation along its banks. This false-color satellite image shows the river in April 2023; land appears pale and reddish, the river and its sediment blue, and vegetation a bright green. The Diamantina is an anabranching river; rather than the typical meandering paths of a delta, anabranching rivers have semi-permanent paths hemmed in by vegetation-stabilized islands. Look closely, though, and you’ll still see smaller delta-like features known as floodouts dotting some of the islands. (Image credit: A. Nussbaum; via NASA Earth Observatory)

    This close-up shows details like miniature deltas (floodouts) and wind-formed dunes.
    This close-up shows details like miniature deltas (floodouts) and wind-formed dunes.
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    Colorful Drainage

    Bright colors mark this slowly draining soap film. The film sits slightly off-horizontal, so flow shifts over time from the top of the frame to the bottom. The fluid is also evaporating. All the faster shifts are caused by ambient air currents from the room. The colors of the film are directly related to the local thickness; as the film thins and evaporates, the bright colors shift to darker ones. Eventually, that black region at the top will expand and the film will break up. (Video credit: B. Sandnes/Complex Flow Lab)

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    Sniffing in Stereo

    Snakes’ forked tongues have long inspired fear, but, in reality, they are part of a highly-effective sensory system. When snakes flick out their tongues, they waggle them up and down about 15 times a second. That motion draws air inward toward the tongue (Image 2), allowing scent molecules to stick to the saliva on either side of the tongue. Once those molecules are gathered, the snake pulls its tongue back into its mouth, where it settles into two grooves (Image 3). Each one has its own path to the snake’s olfactory organs, giving the snake independent spots to evaluate the left and right forks. That means the snake knows which side has a stronger scent and is better able to track its prey. (Video and image credit: Deep Look)

  • Fast-Moving Martian Rivers

    Fast-Moving Martian Rivers

    For the first time, scientists have found evidence of deep, fast-flowing ancient rivers on Mars. After examining images taken recently by the Perseverance rover in Jezero Crater, fluvial experts have spotted familiar signs of turbulent river flow. The mosaic above shows an area nicknamed “Shrinkle Haven,” where curved bands of rock mark the landscape. Although scientists are confident that a powerful river deposited these rocks, they’re still debating whether that river was a meandering one like the Mississippi or a braided river like the Platte.

    Nicknamed "Pinestand," this hill's sedimentary layers were likely formed by a deep fast-moving river.
    Nicknamed “Pinestand,” this hill’s sedimentary layers were likely formed by a deep, fast-moving river.

    In another area, known as “Pinestand,” scientists spotted hills as high as 20 meters tall with clear sedimentary layers. Like Shrinkle Haven’s rock bands, formations like this are most often associated with a large, fast-flowing river. (Image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS; via Gizmodo; see also NASA JPL)

  • Swirls Over the Canaries

    Swirls Over the Canaries

    Rocky, isolated islands disturb the atmosphere, sending air swirling off one side of the island and then the other. The effects are not always visible to the naked eye, but, as they do here, they can show up in satellite imagery as whirling von Karman vortex streets. The eddies of this image are due to the Canary Islands, and if you follow the line of swirls backward, you’ll find their originating islands. Note that the cloudy swirls don’t appear immediately behind the islands. That’s because there wasn’t enough moisture in the air for clouds to condense yet; the same swirls that you see in the downstream clouds exist in the clear air closer to the islands. (Image credit: A. Nussbaum; via NASA Earth Observatory)