Here’s my piece for the Light Grey Art Lab Macro & Micro show! I was in the “everything else” category and chose to illustrate how volcanic island arcs are created (with cool stuff and magma!) I’m super honored to be included with all of the amazingly talented artists in the show. You can check out the Light Grey Art Lab here. The opening is this Friday in Minneapolis. If you’re in the area be sure to check it out!
Oceanic phytoplankton blooms imaged from space by Envisat. Plankton blooms occur in regions of the ocean that have optimal temperature, sunlight, and nutrient supply for marine algae to grow exponentially. Most blooms are composed of coccolithophores, single celled organisms which grow disk-like exoskeletons of calcium carbonate. Trillions of these disks color the water white, showing the phytoplankton density and beautiful fluid dynamics of ocean currents.
Supernova remnant 1987A continues to reveal its secrets
In February of 1987 astronomers observing the Large Magellanic Cloud, a nearby dwarf galaxy, noticed the sudden appearance of what looked like a new star. In fact they weren’t watching the beginnings of a star but the end of one and the brightest supernova seen from Earth in the four centuries since the telescope was invented. By the next morning news of the discovery had spread across the globe and southern hemisphere stargazers began watching the aftermath of this enormous stellar explosion, known as a supernova.
In the two and a half decades since then, the remnant of Supernova 1987A has continued to be a focus for researchers around the world, providing a wealth of information about one of the Universe’s most extreme events.
One great use of words is to hide our thoughts. (Voltaire)
