THE BEST SCIENCE PHOTOS OF THE WEEK III

Credit: © Trond Larsen

THE BEST SCIENCE PHOTOS OF THE WEEK - 28 JANUARY 2012
By Live Science Staff, 28 January 2012.

Krazy Katydids, Blue Marble 2.0, and more...

Dolphins that sleep-talk and frogs that resemble cowboys! This week in science offered up plenty of quirky and stunning images, including a spectacular new view of Earth and beautiful aurora. Take a look. 

10. STUNNING SKY LIGHTS!

Credit: Atli Arnarson, atlapix

The northern lights glow an otherworldly green above southwest Iceland on Jan. 22, boosted by an especially active sun. Auroras, visible mostly at very high and very low latitudes, occur when charged particles from the sun hit atoms in the upper atmosphere, creating curtains of light which often shift and undulate. 

"The show on the 22nd was the largest I've seen in recent years, maybe in the last 20 years," photographer Atli Arnarson told LiveScience. "The pictures don't really do it justice. They were quite active at times, and danced across the sky." [See more amazing aurora images] [See also here and here]

9. JUMPING SPIDER VISION

Credit: Science/AAAS

Jumping spiders, which hunt by pouncing on their prey, gauge distances to their unsuspecting meals in a way that appears to be unique in the animal kingdom, researchers reported this week. The superability boils down to seeing green, the researchers found. (Shown here, the spider's two lateral eyes that help it see motion, and its principal eyes, which gauge depth.) [Read full story] 

8. COWBY FROG DISCOVERED

Credit: © Paul Ouboter

A spiny armoured catfish and a cowboy frog are among 46 species that may be new to science discovered in the South American country of Suriname, researchers now reveal. The cowboy frog, shown here, sports white fringes along the legs and a spur on its heel. [Read full story]

7. KRAZY KATYDID

Credit: © Piotr Naskrecki

Also observed during scientists' Suriname expedition was this spectacular conehead katydid (Loboscelis bacatus), previously known only from Amazonian Peru. Katydids are recognized by scientists as indicators of habitat disturbance for an ecosystem. They tend to stay within small specific habitats and do not disperse widely. They are highly sensitive to changes in their habitat, particularly fragmentation. They are also important herbivores and food source for birds, bats and primates. [See more images of Suriname's stunning species]

6. BLUE MARBLE 2.0

Credit: NASA/NOAA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring

This gorgeous image is the most up-to-date "blue marble" photo of our home planet. Released this week, it's the latest in a long line of colour images of Earth that date back to the Apollo space missions. The original "blue marble" shot was taken by the crew of Apollo 17 in 1972. Today, satellites are snapping some of the most spectacular photos of Earth. This new image was taken by Suomi NPP, NASA's most recently launched Earth-observing satellite. It's a composite of many images of the planet's surface taken on Jan. 4, 2012. [See more amazing science images] [See also here]

5. DOLPHINS TALK IN THEIR SLEEP?!

Credit: ShopArtGallery, Shutterstock

A group of five captive dolphins in France have been recorded making whale-like noises late at night — despite the fact that they have only heard whale sounds as recordings during their daytime dolphin shows.

If the sounds are confirmed to be mimicking whales, it would be the first example of dolphins "saving up" a sound to practice later. And since the whale sounds are only uttered at night, it's possible the whale sounds are a dolphin version of sleep-talking. [Read full story]

4. 'OOZING' PLANET SPOTTED

Credit: NASA

A new look at an alien planet that orbits extremely close to its parent star suggests that the rocky world might not be a scorching hot wasteland, as was thought. In fact, the planet, called 55 Cancri e and shown here with Earth in the foreground, may actually be stranger and wetter than astronomers ever imagined. [Read full story]

3. SUN'S POWER UNLEASHED THIS WEEK

Credit: NASA/SDO and the AIA consortium. Edited by J. Major.

An intense solar flare unleashed the biggest radiation storm since 2005. The solar flare exploded from a busy sunspot on the surface of our nearest star, NASA scientists reported. [Read full story] [See also here and here]

2. SHY SNOW LEOPARDS PHOTOGRAPHED

Credit: Panthera/FFI.

Snow leopards are one of the most elusive cats on Earth. Not only is the species endangered, but it is notoriously shy, and much about where snow leopards live in the wild remains mysterious.

So researchers got a big surprise when a set of 11 camera traps installed in a lonely corner of Tajikistan revealed at least five snow leopards were living in the region, including a mother with two young cubs. [Read full story]

1. OLDEST DINOSAUR NESTING SITE DISCOVERED

Credit: Artwork by Julius Csotonyi

Tiny prints from baby dinosaurs dot the oldest dino nesting site found to date, a 190-million-year-old nursery in South Africa, researchers said.

Shown here, an artist's impression of the site's nests, eggs, hatchlings and adults of the prosauropod dinosaur Massospondylus in Golden Gate Highlands National Park, South Africa. While the mother dinos likely were 20 feet (6 meters) long, while their eggs were only 2.3 - 2.7 inches (6 to 7 cm) wide. [Read full story]

[Source: Live Science.]