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Madagascar's largest river looks like a many-tentacled jellyfish as it flows into Bombetoka Bay, in a satellite image from Japan's now-defunct ALOS satellite, also known as DAICHI. The Malagasy monster is today's treat from the Cosmic Log Space Advent Calendar.
The tentacles are actually the channels of the Betsiboka River estuary in northwest Madagascar. In its image advisory, the European Space Agency says the reddish coloring of the sandbars and islands between the channels comes from the sediments washed down from the hills as the Betsiboka follows its 325-mile course. A bit of the seaport city of Mahajanga is visible in the upper left corner of the picture — which was taken on Sept. 17, 2010, from an altitude of about 430 miles. For more views of the Betsiboka estuary, check out this Landsat image from 2003 and yet another perspective from NASA's Terra satellite.
Scientists consider the island of Madagascar to be a treasure trove for new species, in large part because it's been biologically isolated from the African mainland for millions of years. More than 600 new species have been identified there over the past dozen years. But many of Madagascar's unique species may be literally lost before they're found, due to deforestation and other environmental threats. For more about Madagascar's endangered biological riches, click your way through this story and slideshow.
The Japanese ALOS satellite has already been lost: The spacecraft was launched in 2006 to create digital elevation maps of Earth's surface, but abruptly lost power in April while mapping Japan's tsunami-hit coastline. In October, the Japan Coast Guard beamed a final "thank-you" message to the dead satellite for its five years of service.
Every day from now until Christmas, the Cosmic Log Space Advent Calendar will be featuring pictures of Earth as seen from space. Check back on Monday for the next picture, and check out these related links:
- Dec. 3: Santa's shrinking domain
- Dec. 2: The masses in Mecca
- Dec. 1: An ornament in outer space
- The full Cosmic Log Space Advent Calendar, going back to 2010
- Hubble Advent calendar, presented by The Atlantic's In Focus
- 2011 Zooniverse Advent calendar
Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
Leave a Comment:
Cthulu!?
That's exactly what I thought when I saw the photo!
The Dread Lord Cthulhu has awoken, and let me be the first to welcome our new overlord and master. May your pain be unending, and your suffering infinite.
Advisor: "President Madagascar!"
Advisor: "The Betsiboka River estuary looks like a jellyfish when viewed from orbit"
President Madagascar: *Pause and wide-eyed, ferocious stare*
President Madagascar: "..."
President Madagascar: "Shut.."
President Madagascar: "...Down"
President Madagascar: "...Everything!"
Chupacabra!
very cool! not sure about the monster description.
Polution is a monster. We need to take care of our planit, for it to take care of us.
i agree with you. but planit? come on now
I saw that, and not did planit itself make me laugh, so did your reply Jessica, HAHAHAHAHA!!!
Exactly! I'm glad someone knows the truth! Thanks, Kitty B.
Interesting
J.A.-interesting? that planet is spelled with an 'e'? Yeah, sometimes I type southern too! But spell check catches me~thankfully! It's okay... some are uptight about things, let it roll...!
that looks a bit more like an octapus rather than a jellyfish to me
I think squid is what I was thinking.
it does look like a "monster". I took the image and rotated it a couple of times and can clearly see an arm, a head, complete with eye, nose, mouth and ear. It is kinda creepy, lol....and tentacles. In the final image it is upside down, looking like it is working it's way into an underground water cavern. If you have a photo editing program, try rotating the picture until the "tentacles" are pointing up.. :)
Thats a very interesting formation...
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn
I believe
the earth is a live & we are parasites so its only a matter of time before the earth rebirths itself
One day, my children mother earth will fart and we will all die.
Our 3 dogs are trying, and I may say, doing quite well, at trying to beat her to it!! whew-eee!
Satellite imagery is a view you can't get no matter HOW tall you are.
I've seen uglier creatures walking around , down town...
I've got a cousin up there, maybe you saw him! Sorry Steve! :-) <3 u dude!
No doubt about it...reality is stranger than fantasy, distance makes things more discernible, however, details become invisible.
omg...its my ex!
Uh,no, that's mine! Was(is) yers' male?Oh, prolly not. Not too many of us Redneck girls want to admit such things still slither around! lmao!
Why did't someone tell me it is alive?
holy moly!
oh @!$%# the dark lord from the different dimension Cthulu is comming time to call "the coon and friends"
i guess BP drilled a hole into another universe !!
LMFAO
I've been to Madagascar on field research and this photo shows all to well the stripped land. Raw and red and naked and barren where there should be forest.
Human over population is not pretty at all. This photo is very sad. Very, very sad.
Earth on it's way to be like Mars....dry and dead.
I've seen enough Hentai to know were this is going ...
why do they take them to bed in the first place then?
We belong here as much as anything else.We are just being selfish and not taking care of it. :)
You know, after seeing this photo and reading comments, I could not help but wonder about the time when all of the world's pollution and abuse suddenly catches up to us and how it could happen even sooner than we think if our species goes to all out war...
by that time it begins to get to the point where there is little of any sort of nature left anywhere thanks to gross neglect, ignorance, etc.
Will this be a In a future generation could it happen during ours? perhaps...Maybe that's why we take it for granted so much during our lifetimes like those before us. The bad news is that we have gotten worse as the population has increased. Sadly no matter how bad any of us feels about where our planet is eventually headed, not enough of us have yet banded together to do everything possible to keep our planet from falling apart because of our ways; our species is just too busy consuming and that is just reality.
I agree, it i sad.
Godzilla's got nothing on that son of a gun,lol!
cthulu can bite it.