by APOD Robot » Sat Sep 07, 2013 4:14 am
Night in the Andes Ice Forest
Explanation: This forest of snow and ice
penitentes reflects moonlight shining across the Chajnantor plateau. The region lies in the Chilean Andes at an altitude of 5,000 meters, not far from one of planet Earth's major astronomical observatories, the
Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. Up to several meters high, the flattened, sharp-edged shapes, and orientation of the penitentes tend to minimize their shadows at local noon. In the dry, cold, thin atmosphere, sublimation driven by sunlight is important for
their formation. A direct transition from a solid to a gaseous state,
sublimation shapes other solar system terrains too, like
icy surfaces of comets and the
polar caps of Mars.
Above the dreamlike landscape stretches the southern night sky. Their own forms rooted in myth,
look for the constellations Pegasus, Andromeda, and Perseus near the panorama's left edge. Bright and colorful
stars of Orion the Hunter are near center, with the Large Magellanic Cloud and the
South Celestial Pole on the far right.
[/b]
[url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130907.html][img]http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/S_130907.jpg[/img] [size=150]Night in the Andes Ice Forest[/size][/url]
[b] Explanation: [/b] This forest of snow and ice [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penitentes]penitentes[/url] reflects moonlight shining across the Chajnantor plateau. The region lies in the Chilean Andes at an altitude of 5,000 meters, not far from one of planet Earth's major astronomical observatories, the [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap111123.html]Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array[/url]. Up to several meters high, the flattened, sharp-edged shapes, and orientation of the penitentes tend to minimize their shadows at local noon. In the dry, cold, thin atmosphere, sublimation driven by sunlight is important for [url=http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0601184]their formation[/url]. A direct transition from a solid to a gaseous state, [url=http://www.windows2universe.org/comets/sublimation.html]sublimation[/url] shapes other solar system terrains too, like [url=http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2004-154]icy surfaces[/url] of comets and the [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martian_polar_ice_caps]polar caps[/url] of Mars. [url=http://dreamview.net/dv/new/search.asp?keyword=andes&B1=Submit&galleryList=All&photographerList=Both]Above the dreamlike landscape[/url] stretches the southern night sky. Their own forms rooted in myth, [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1309/IceNightPanTafreshi-Annotated-s.jpg]look for the constellations[/url] Pegasus, Andromeda, and Perseus near the panorama's left edge. Bright and colorful [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100115.html]stars of Orion[/url] the Hunter are near center, with the Large Magellanic Cloud and the [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120802.html]South Celestial Pole[/url] on the far right.
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