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Planet Earth - Blog Posts
I drew this yesterday for the raid but i forgot to post it 👽
Scary puppy
The Close-Up Face of a Spider.
Why Isn’t Every Year the Warmest Year on Record?
This just in: 2022 effectively tied for the fifth warmest year since 1880, when our record starts. Here at NASA, we work with our partners at NOAA to track temperatures across Earth’s entire surface, to keep a global record of how our planet is changing.
Overall, Earth is getting hotter.
The warming comes directly from human activities – specifically, the release of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels. We started burning fossil fuels in earnest during the Industrial Revolution. Activities like driving cars and operating factories continue to release greenhouse gases into our atmosphere, where they trap heat in the atmosphere.
So…if we’re causing Earth to warm, why isn’t every year the hottest year on record?
As 2022 shows, the current global warming isn’t uniform. Every single year isn’t necessarily warmer than every previous year, but it is generally warmer than most of the preceding years. There’s a warming trend.
Earth is a really complex system, with various climate patterns, solar activity, and events like volcanic eruptions that can tip things slightly warmer or cooler.
Climate Patterns
While 2021 and 2022 continued a global trend of warming, they were both a little cooler than 2020, largely because of a natural phenomenon known as La Niña.
La Niña is one third of a climate phenomenon called El Niño Southern Oscillation, also known as ENSO, which can have significant effects around the globe. During La Niña years, ocean temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean cool off slightly. La Niña’s twin, El Niño brings warmer temperatures to the central and eastern Pacific. Neutral years bring ocean temperatures in the region closer to the average.
El Niño and La Niña affect more than ocean temperatures – they can bring changes to rainfall patterns, hurricane frequency, and global average temperature.
We’ve been in a La Niña mode the last three, which has slightly cooled global temperatures. That’s one big reason 2021 and 2022 were cooler than 2020 – which was an El Niño year.
Overall warming is still happening. Current El Niño years are warmer than previous El Niño years, and the same goes for La Niña years. In fact, enough overall warming has occurred that most current La Niña years are warmer than most previous El Niño years. This year was the warmest La Niña year on record.
Solar Activity
Our Sun cycles through periods of more and less activity, on a schedule of about every 11 years. Here on Earth, we might receive slightly less energy — heat — from the Sun during quieter periods and slightly more during active periods.
At NASA, we work with NOAA to track the solar cycle. We kicked off a new one – Solar Cycle 25 – after solar minimum in December 2019. Since then, solar activity has been slightly ramping up.
Because we closely track solar activity, we know that over the past several decades, solar activity hasn't been on the rise, while greenhouse gases have. More importantly, the "fingerprints" we see on the climate, including temperature changes in the upper atmosphere, don't fit the what we'd expect from solar-caused warming. Rather they look like what we expect from increased greenhouse warming, verifying a prediction made decades ago by NASA.
Volcanic Eruptions
Throughout history, volcanoes have driven major shifts in Earth’s climate. Large eruptions can release water vapor — a greenhouse gas like carbon dioxide — which traps additional warmth within our atmosphere.
On the flip side, eruptions that loft lots of ash and soot into the atmosphere can temporarily cool the climate slightly, by reflecting some sunlight back into space.
Like solar activity, we can monitor volcanic eruptions and tease out their effect on variations in our global temperature.
At the End of the Day, It’s Us
Our satellites, airborne missions, and measurements from the ground give us a comprehensive picture of what’s happening on Earth every day. We also have computer models that can skillfully recreate Earth’s climate.
By combining the two, we can see what would happen to global temperature if all the changes were caused by natural forces, like volcanic eruptions or ENSO. By looking at the fingerprints each of these climate drivers leave in our models, it’s perfectly clear: The current global warming we’re experiencing is caused by humans.
For more information about climate change, visit climate.nasa.gov.
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Tour the Ocean through the Art of Sound
The ocean is one of the largest ecosystems on our planet. From eye-catching waves to the darkness of the twilight zone, it’s a place filled with mystery and rapid change.
For a scientist studying ocean color at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, there was one more question–what does it sound like?
Before long, a “symphonic ocean experience” was born, combining satellite imagery, ocean color data and programming expertise. Learn more about how data gets converted to music and sound here:
This World Oceans Day, enjoy a tour of the ocean set to sound. Here we go:
Bering Sea
This melody explores the phytoplankton blooms in the western Bering Sea along the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula collected by Aqua/MODIS on May 15, 2021. The melody created for this image was aimed at capturing the movement of the eddies or the circular movements of water. Data came from the image’s red, green, and blue channels.
Rio de la Plata
This melody explores a spring bloom in the South Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil, lending the water many different shades of green, blue, and brown. The Rio de la Plata estuary in the northwest corner of the above image gets most of its tan coloration from sediments suspended in the water. The melody paired with the data evokes the sediment plumes and swirls happening off the coast.
Coral Sea
Data for the sounds of the Coral Sea were collected over the course of one year from the Aqua/Modis satellite. The information was extracted from a series of 32-day rolling averages for the year 2020, displaying the movement of chlorophyll a data.
Chlorophyll a is a specific form of chlorophyll used in photosynthesis. It absorbs most energy from wavelengths of violet-blue and orange-red light. It is a poor absorber of green and near-green portions of the spectrum, and that’s why it appears green.
Western Australia
Off the coast of western Australia is the appearance of swirls in the ocean. To catch the movement of the Indian Ocean, data was collected from 31 days of imagery examining blue wavelengths of light. The information was gathered from the Suomi-NPP/VIIRS instrument aboard the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) series of spacecraft.
More moments of zen
Looking for more moments of zen? Explore them with NASA’s Soundcloud page, where many are out of this world. Curious on how we get these breathtaking ocean images? Take time to read about Goddard Oceanographer Norman Kuring and how he helped create them.
Amazing Earth: Satellite Images from 2020
In the vastness of the universe, the life-bringing beauty of our home planet shines bright. During this tumultuous year, our satellites captured some pockets of peace, while documenting data and striking visuals of unprecedented natural disasters. As 2020 comes to a close, we’re diving into some of the devastation, wonders, and anomalies this year had to offer.
NASA’s fleet of Earth-observing satellites and instruments on the International Space Station unravel the complexities of the blue marble from a cosmic vantage point. These robotic scientists orbit our globe constantly, monitoring and notating changes, providing crucial information to researchers here on the ground.
Take a glance at 2020 through the lens of NASA satellites:
A Delta Oasis in Southeastern Kazakhstan
Seen from space, the icy Ili River Delta contrasts sharply with the beige expansive deserts of southeastern Kazakhstan.
When the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 acquired this natural-color image on March 7, 2020, the delta was just starting to shake off the chill of winter. While many of the delta’s lakes and ponds were still frozen, the ice on Lake Balkhash was breaking up, revealing swirls of sediment and the shallow, sandy bed of the western part of the lake.
The expansive delta and estuary is an oasis for life year round. Hundreds of plant and animal species call it home, including dozens that are threatened or endangered.
Fires and Smoke Engulf Southeastern Australia
A record-setting and deadly fire season marred the beginning of the year in Australia. Residents of the southeastern part of the country told news media about daytime seeming to turn to night, as thick smoke filled the skies and intense fires drove people from their homes.
This natural-color image of Southeastern Australia was acquired on January 4, 2020, by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite. The smoke has a tan color, while clouds are bright white. It is likely that some of the white patches above the smoke are pyrocumulonimbus clouds—clouds created by the convection and heat rising from a fire.
Nighttime Images Capture Change in China
A team of scientists from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and Universities Space Research Association (USRA) detected signs of the shutdown of business and transportation around Hubei province in central China. As reported by the U.S. State Department, Chinese authorities suspended air, road, and rail travel in the area and placed restrictions on other activities in late January 2020 in response to the COVID-19 outbreak in the region.
A research team analyzed images of Earth at night to decipher patterns of energy use, transportation, migration, and other economic and social activities. Data for the images were acquired with the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the NOAA–NASA Suomi NPP satellite (launched in 2011) and processed by GSFC and USRA scientists. VIIRS has a low-light sensor—the day/night band—that measures light emissions and reflections. This capability has made it possible to distinguish the intensity, types, and sources of lights and to observe how they change.
The Parched Paraná River
Though a seemingly serene oasis from above, there is more to this scene than meets the eye. On July 3, 2020, the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 captured this false-color image of the river near Rosario, a key port city in Argentina. The combination of shortwave infrared and visible light makes it easier to distinguish between land and water. A prolonged period of unusually warm weather and drought in southern Brazil, Paraguay, and northern Argentina dropped the Paraná River to its lowest water levels in decades. The parched river basin has hampered shipping and contributed to an increase in fire activity in the delta and floodplain.
The drought has affected the region since early 2020, and low water levels have grounded several ships, and many vessels have had to reduce their cargo in order to navigate the river. With Rosario serving as the distribution hub for much of Argentina’s soy and other farm exports, low water levels have caused hundreds of millions of dollars in losses for the grain sector, according to news reports.
Historic Fires Devastate the U.S. Pacific Coast
Climate and fire scientists have long anticipated that fires in the U.S. West would grow larger, more intense, and more dangerous. But even the most experienced among them have been at a loss for words in describing the scope and intensity of the fires burning in West Coast states during September 2020.
Lightning initially triggered many of the fires, but it was unusual and extreme meteorological conditions that turned some of them into the worst conflagrations in the region in decades.
Throughout the outbreak, sensors like the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) and the Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) on the NOAA-NASA Suomi NPP satellite collected daily images showing expansive, thick plumes of aerosol particles blowing throughout the U.S. West on a scale that satellites and scientists rarely see.
This image shows North America on September 9th, 2020, as a frontal boundary moved into the Great Basin and produced very high downslope winds along the mountains of Washington, Oregon, and California. The winds whipped up the fires, while a pyrocumulus cloud from the Bear fire in California injected smoke high into the atmosphere. The sum of these events was an extremely thick blanket of smoke along the West Coast.
The Sandy Great Bahama Bank
Though the bright blues of island waters are appreciated by many from a sea-level view, their true beauty is revealed when photographed from space. The underwater masterpiece photographed above is composed of sand dunes off the coast of the Bahamas.
The Great Bahama Bank was dry land during past ice ages, but it slowly submerged as sea levels rose. Today, the bank is covered by water, though it can be as shallow as two meters (seven feet) deep in places. The wave-shaped ripples in the image are sand on the seafloor. The curves follow the slopes of the dunes, which were likely shaped by a fairly strong current near the sea bottom. Sand and seagrass are present in different quantities and depths, giving the image it’s striking range of blues and greens.
This image was captured on February 15th, 2020, by Landsat 8, whose predecessor, Landsat 7, was the first land-use satellite to take images over coastal waters and the open ocean. Today, many satellites and research programs map and monitor coral reef systems, and marine scientists have a consistent way to observe where the reefs are and how they are faring.
Painting Pennsylvania Hills
Along with the plentiful harvest of crops in North America, one of the gifts of Autumn is the gorgeous palette of colors created by the chemical transition and fall of leaves from deciduous trees.
The folded mountains of central Pennsylvania were past peak leaf-peeping season but still colorful when the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on the Landsat 8 satellite passed over on November 9, 2020. The natural-color image above shows the hilly region around State College, Pennsylvania overlaid on a digital elevation model to highlight the topography of the area.
The region of rolling hills and valleys is part of a geologic formation known as the Valley and Ridge Province that stretches from New York to Alabama. These prominent folds of rock were mostly raised up during several plate tectonic collisions and mountain-building episodes in the Ordovician Period and later in the creation of Pangea—when what is now North America was connected with Africa in a supercontinent. Those events created the long chain of the Appalachians, one of the oldest mountain ranges in the world.
A Dangerous Storm in the Night
Ominous and looming, a powerful storm hovered off the US coastline illuminated against the dark night hues.
The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on NOAA-20 acquired this image of Hurricane Laura at 2:20 a.m. Central Daylight Time on August 26, 2020. Clouds are shown in infrared using brightness temperature data, which is useful for distinguishing cooler cloud structures from the warmer surface below. That data is overlaid on composite imagery of city lights from NASA’s Black Marble dataset.
Hurricane Laura was among the ten strongest hurricanes to ever make landfall in the United States. Forecasters had warned of a potentially devastating storm surge up to 20 feet along the coast, and the channel might have funneled that water far inland. It did not. The outcome was also a testament to strong forecasting and communication by the National Hurricane Center and local emergency management authorities in preparing the public for the hazards.
A Windbreak Grid in Hokkaido
From above, the Konsen Plateau in eastern Hokkaido offers a remarkable sight: a massive grid that spreads across the rural landscape like a checkerboard, visible even under a blanket of snow. Photographed by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8, this man-made design is not only aesthetically pleasing, it’s also an agricultural insulator.
The strips are forested windbreaks—180-meter (590-foot) wide rows of coniferous trees that help shelter grasslands and animals from Hokkaido’s sometimes harsh weather. In addition to blocking winds and blowing snow during frigid, foggy winters, they help prevent winds from scattering soil and manure during the warmer months in this major dairy farming region of Japan.
Shadows from a Solar Eclipse
Formidable, rare, and awe-inspiring — the first and only total solar eclipse of 2020 occurred on December 14, with the path of totality stretching from the equatorial Pacific to the South Atlantic and passing through southern Argentina and Chile as shown in the lower half of the image above. The Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) on Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 16 (GOES-16) captured these images of the Moon’s shadow crossing the face of Earth.
The “path of totality” (umbral path) for the eclipse was roughly 90 kilometers (60 miles) wide and passed across South America from Saavedra, Chile, to Salina del Eje, Argentina. While a total eclipse of the Sun occurs roughly every 18 months, seeing one from any particular location on Earth is rare. On average, a solar eclipse passes over the same parcel of land roughly every 375 years. The next total solar eclipse will occur on December 4, 2021 over Antarctica, and its next appearance over North America is projected for April 8, 2024.
For additional information and a look at more images like these visit NASA’s Earth Observatory.
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Game Time: Final Voting for Tournament Earth
The moment has arrived- it's time to decide the NASA Earth Observatory's all-time best image. After four grueling rounds of voting, two contenders remain: Ocean Sand, Bahamas (#5 seed) versus Raikoke Erupts (#6 seed).
The road to the finals has been full of surprises. All top seeds have been knocked out. In one semifinal, Ocean Sand garnered 50.6 percent of the votes to squeak out a win over the overall favorite, Twin Blue Marbles. In the other matchup, Raikoke Erupts trounced Where the Dunes End, 66.5 to 33.5 percent.
Now you have to pick a champion. Will it be a gorgeous, artistic image from the very early years of Earth Observatory or stunning natural-color views of an explosive event from 2019? Which image will you crown as the best in the EO archives: Ocean Sand, Bahamas or Raikoke Erupts? Voting ends on April 28 at 9 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time.
Thank you for helping us celebrate Earth Observatory’s 20th anniversary and the 50th anniversary of Earth Day!
Vote here: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/tournament-earth
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.
How do you guys help with climate change?
LIEUTENANTS WRITING SIMULATED ACTIONS THOUGHTS AND COMMUNICATIONS FOR THOSE WITH OVERLOADED SENSES THAT ARE INCAPABLE OF THINKING OR ACTING. RE: VEERS AND TARKINS SONS AND THEIR ASSOCIATES HERE.
Earth can be studied like a machine, a very complicated one indeed. In this view, it can be subdivided in many parts, each one a subsystem that can also be interpreted as a machine interconected to many others to form the entire Earth system. One of this parts is the biosphere, and a subsystem of the biosphere refers to human activity. Since human activity can be approached by economics, it is appropriate to talk about economics as part of the entire Earth system, as a piece of the biosphere machinery. This is the view of Ecological Economics.
As it happens to any machine, Earth has to obey the second law of thermodynamics, entropy can only increase with time. And what is the power source of the Earth machine? Easy, the solar radiation. Everything that has ever occurred, occurs, or will occurs could only take place in Earth because of solar radiative energy. Even these lines that I am writing, would not be here if not because the sun shines.
That is why it is so important to be aware of the energy cycles of Earth to understand everything, including economics. Think about it: the energy that powers the device you're using now, and ultimately the brain that is thinking and taking decisions now, every single joule of this energy was once photons leaving the sun towards Earth. Think of this interconnectedness and believe, and worry, and care about Earth, the biosphere, the econosphere and humankind, because everything is One!
The moon was so bright and jupiter motu and they all look so nice together
The moon and jupiter (right above it ) in the first two images . Last image - jupiter (above) and saturn ( really dim and top right 2 o' clock.
Basket Star
Gorgonocephalus caputmedusae
The Basket Star is a strange yet elegant creature that lives in the deep ocean. It resembles a flesh white ball with gnarled and swirling branches. It thrives in locations with strong currents. Its numerous arms move slowly and wrap around prey. They are one of my favorite animals from the Echinodermata phylum.
Photo credit
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00227-005-0032-3
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorgonocephalus
Helmet Jelly
Periphylla periphylla
The Helmet Jelly can be found at all depths of the ocean. This vibrant and strange jellyfish tends to proliferate in Norwegian fjords. They are one of the dominant predators in these isolated ecosystems.
Photos
http://www.seawater.no/fauna/cnidaria/periphylla.html
https://www.bigfishexpeditions.com/2019/01/24/norway-deepwater-shark-diving-2018/helmet-jelly/
Brittle Stars
Asteroschema Ajax
Brittle stars are in the phylum Enchinodermata and are closely related to sea stars. They have long stringy arms and small podia on the bottoms of their body. They also have a hydrostatic skeleton and have a complex water vascular system. When attacked, they will abandon their arm to confuse predators and make a hasty escape. The photo above is a deep sea brittle star that lives in coral reefs.
Photo credit: https://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/Asteroschema_ajax
Scaly Dragonfish
Stomias Boa
The Scaly Dragonfish is about 32cm long and found at depths between 200 to 1500m. The long purple barbel on its chin is used to lure in prey. When the pery gets close enough, it swings its jaws forward swallowing the prey whole.
Photo credit: https://alchetron.com/Stomias
Video on the fish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=69&v=9oB_61aI2iQ&feature=emb_title
Squarenose Helmetfish
Scopelogadus beanii
The Squarenose Helmetfish is found between 800m to 4000m in the ocean. It received this unique name due to its scales reminding scientists of an armored helmet worn by medieval knights. It also has unusual holes around its face, and the white strands covering its face are sensory canals.
Photo credit: https://www.vistaalmar.es/especies-marinas/peces-extranos/449-que-peces-mas-extranos.html
Glasshead Grenadier
Hymenocephalus italicus
The Glasshead Grenadier is a small deep sea fish named due to a transparent memberane that covers its head. It has fragile head bones, and it feeds on surface copepods and crustaceans. This fish is located between 100 m to 2000 m in the ocean.
Photo credit: https://www.fishbase.se/summary/1720
https://www.futura-sciences.com/planete/photos/oceanographie-abysses-ces-merveilles-profondeurs-40-photos-686/ocean-grenadier-vitrier-hymenocephalus-italicus-poisson-abysses-4541/
Football Fish
Himantolophus paucifilosus
The Football fish is a deep sea angular fish located between 1000 to 4000 meters in the ocean. The glowing dots on its body are sensory organs called neuromast that help the fish detect changes in the water.
Photo credit: https://alchetron.com/Footballfish
https://www.amazon.com/Creatures-Deep-Search-Monsters-World/dp/1770852816
Threadfin Snailfish
Careproctus longifilis
The Threadfin Snailfish resembles a prehistoric tadpole that is ghostly white. The holes in its face are large sensory pores that help them detect changes in the ocean. It is often found at depths between 1900 to 2997 meters.
Photo credit: https://www.timeout.com/singapore/museums/creatures-of-the-deep
Pram Bug
Phronima sedentaria
The Pram Bug is a deep sea amphipod that is located between 200 to 1000m in the ocean. It has a translucent exoskeleton and can see primarily blue light. It is also is contained in a hollowed out barrel that is used for protection and to house babies. The image above is a female pram bug carrying its young.
Photo Credit:https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/invertebrates/phronima-female-and-young
Pyrodinium bahamense
Pyrodinium bahamense is a tropical species of dinoflagellates that is found primarily in Atlantic Ocean waters. It prefers salinity around 20 psu and blooms when there are large amounts of nitrogen in the water. The dinoflagellate glows bright blue when agitated by motion. Furthermore, even though this plankton species is beautiful to look at, it causes seafood toxicity.
Photo credit: https://alchetron.com/Pyrodinium-bahamense
https://wonderchews.com/bodies-of-light/
Deep Sea Arrow Worm
Eukrohnia hamata
Arrow worms are small, predatory marine worms that consume copepods, ostracods, and larvae. They resembles a clear, ink pen whizzing through the dark sea. Furthermore, they are found primarily in the Artic Ocean between 700m to 1200m. The picture on the bottom is its head. They have 8 hooks, which are used to grab prey and 25 posterior teeth. Even though the arrow worms are terrifying up close, they are only 4.5 cm in size.
Photo credit: http://www.arcodiv.org/watercolumn/chaetognaths/Eukrohnia_hamata.html
Crystal Jellyfish
Aequorea victoria
The Crystal Jellyfish is a graceful, transparent jellyfish with long, thin tentacles. It has bioluminescent organs around it bell that produce a bright, green light. It tends to consume small copepods, but it has the ability to swallow other jellyfish half its size. Furthermore, this jelly is used in biological experiments to detect calcium.
Photo credit: https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animals/animals-a-to-z/crystal-jelly
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/5-aequorea-crystal-jellyfish-with-amphipods-alexander-semenovscience-photo-library.html
Physonect Siphonophore
Nanomia cara
The Physonect siphonophore has tiny, bubble shaped sacs that are filled with gas. The sacs are called pneumatophores and help this creature move through the deep ocean. It also has venomous tentacles that stun prey and over eighty stomachs. There are numerous amounts of these strange creatures along the east coast, and they have cause some fisheries to collapse. Furthermore, they can be found at depth between 400m to 1000m.
Photo credit: http://www.seawater.no/fauna/cnidaria/cara.html
https://www.mindenpictures.com/stock-photo-siphonophore-hydrozoan-cnidarian-nanomia-cara-atlantic-nectophores-naturephotography-image90194961.html
Sea Gooseberry
Pleurobrachia pileus
The Sea Gooseberry is a comb jelly or ctenophore that has two enormous tentacles covered with adhesive cells. When tiny crustaceans, eggs, and larvae brush against the tentacles, the prey are stuck to them. The Sea Gooseberry draws the tentacles to its mouth, and it consumes the prey. These unique organisms can be found as deep as 750 m.
Wolftrap Angler
Thaumatichthys binghami
The Wolftrap Angler is slightly different from many other species of anglers. It has its bioluminescent lure located inside of its mouth instead of connected to its body. Even though it is intimidating up close, it is only nine centimeters in size. It is found in the deep ocean at 2432m.
Photo credit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaumatichthys_binghami
https://igniteyourcuriosity.wordpress.com/2016/10/22/anglerfish/
Silky Medusa
Colobonema sericeum
The Silky Medusa is a gentle and reserved jellyfish; it has white-tipped tentacles that have the ability to detach from its body and bioluminescence when attacked by predators. It can be found drifting between 500 m to 1500 m. Furthermore, it consumes small crustaceans.
Photo credit: https://twitter.com/mbari_news/status/949736123760340994
https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animals/animals-a-to-z/midwater-jelly
Cigar Comb Jelly
beroe forskalii
The Cigar Comb Jelly is a gelatinous ctenophore that is marveled by many due to its sparkling bioluminescence. It tends to elegantly float around 120 m in the ocean. It uses unique, hair-like structures called ctens to move horizontally in the ocean. It also swims in a spiral pattern before consuming zooplankton in the ocean.
Photo credit: https://www.wrobelphoto.com/gelatinouszooplankton/h25347306
https://www.flickr.com/photos/a_migotto/27227530815
Fanfin Seadevil
Caulophyyne jordani
The Fanfin Seadevil is an ugly, deep fish that is covered in gnarled skin and long sensory filaments. The sensory filaments allow this species of anglerfish to detect movement in the water; this helps the Fanfin find and lure its prey. Furthermore, this deformed monstrosity can be found floating between 700m to 3000m in the ocean.
Photo credit: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/29/science/anglerfish-bioluminescence-deep-sea.html
http://www.robotspacebrain.com/alien-creatures-of-the-mariana-trench/
Lav Polyp
leuckartiara octona
The Lav Polypo is a jelly that comes in a variety of colors and shapes; it dwells about 200m in the deep ocean. The red mass inside its translucent bell is the jelly’s reproductive organs. Furthermore, it uses its dull, yellow tentacles can catch unsuspecting prey.
Photo credit: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/65935582019848580/
https://www.petjellyfish.co.uk/shop/live-jellyfish/leuckartiara-octona