Saients - How Cool Is That?

Please join the Department of Awesome Natural Phenomena as they marvel at the jaw-dropping sight of a ‘dirty thunderstorm’ taking place above Sicily’s Mount Etna during its latest eruption on December 3, 2015. Mount Etna is the tallest active volcano on the European continent.

A dirty thunderstorm, also known as volcanic lightning, is the result of electrical charges generated by the collision of rock fragments, ash, and ice particles in a volcanic plume. These collision produce a static charge in the same way that colliding ice particles do during regular thunderstorms.

Freelance photographer Marco Restivo captured this incredible image by combining a sequence of five separate photos.

Head over to The Huffington Post for timelapse video and additional images.

[via The Telegraph]

Physicists: we don’t really understand how the big bang happened

Secondary media:

I would have aced biology if the teachers all taught the course like the narrator

Nope.

Giant squids might be even bigger than we realized

According to research from Charles Paxton, fisheries ecologist and statistician at Scotland’s University of St. Andrews, published in the Journal of Zoology this month, the giant squid could grow to reach as much as 65 feet. But even that is a “conservative analysis,” as size could protect against their #1 predator.

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Why the fuck would you taste it?!

A star created 1,800 years ago after the collision of two distant suns is set to appear in the night sky for the first time – as the light from the crash finally reaches the Earth. 

Scientists predict that for six months in 2022, stargazers will be able to witness the birth of the new star, by fixing their telescopes near the Pisces and Cygnus constellations. Dubbed the Boom Star, it has taken nearly two millennia for its light to reach earth — where it will be able to be seen by the naked eye. Astronomers expect the collision to increase the brightness of the pair ten thousand fold, making it one of the brightest stars in the heaven for a time. The explosion, known as a Red Nova, will then dissipate and the star will remain visible in our skies as a single bright, but duller, dot. 

Your not going to want to miss this appear in our sky as it’s a once in a lifetime event!          Source 

Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela gets struck by lightning more than 200 times every year – that’s more than anywhere else on earth. Source

Fve-miles above Lake Maracaibo, storm clouds gather up to 160 nights per year and can last for up to 10 hours. 

Cost per kg for human spaceflight

via reddit