Iris Nebula

Iris Nebula LBN 487 and NGC 7023 in Cepheus

From an image by Hewholooks, which is the user page of Hunter Wilson. Images may be seen at http://hwilson.zenfolio.com/f129011888 or on

Wikimedia athttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=hewholooks

Testa osiriaca danneggiata

"Uno dei pezzi esibiti alla mostra di antichità del Museo Egizio di Torino a Shizuoka (Giappone), durante i lavori di imballo/trasporto, ha subito un grave danno. Si tratta della testa osiriaca che era a suo tempo stata riparata con l'aggiunta di una corona bianca, non sua. Viva preoccupazione degli Egittologi italiani."
http://www.archaeogate.org/egittologia/article/1277/1/danneggiata-la-testa-osiriaca-del-museo-egizio-di-torin.html

Egyptian Museum, Torino

This head has been damaged during the packaging after an exhibition in Japan

The cloak of Harry Potter

This left only one parcel. Harry picked it up and felt it. It was very light. He unwrapped it. Something fluid  and silvery grey went slithering to the floor, where it lay in gleaming folds...
"What is it?"
Harry picked the shining, silvery cloth off the floor. It was strange to the touch, like water woven into material.
"It's an Invisibility Cloak"

http://stretchingtheboundaries.blogspot.com/2011/01/invisibility-cloak.html

Invisibility cloak

Read more at http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/44641
and http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11686303

Eta Carinae's Homunculus

Homunculus Nebula is surrounding the star system Eta Carinae. The nebula is embedded within a much larger ionized hydrogen region, which is the Carina Nebula. Homunculus is believed to have been ejected in a huge outburst from Eta Carinae in 1841, so brightly to be visible from Earth. This massive explosion produced two polar lobes and an equatorial disc, moving outwards. Though Eta Carinae is quite away, approximately 7,500 light-years, it is possible to distinguish in the nebula, many structures with the size of about the diameter of our solar system. Knots, dust lanes and radial streaks appear quite clearly in many images.

At the  http://staff.polito.it/amelia.sparavigna/Astronomical-astrofractool-web.htm, I am comparing the imaging of Homunculus Nebula, obtained by Hubble Space Telescope, and that from the Gemini South Telescope. 

See also http://arxiv.org/abs/1005.4323,  A comment on Eta Carinae's Homunculus Nebula imaging.

ESO - AB Pictoris and its companion

European Southern Observatory (ESO) - Coronagraphic image of AB Pictoris showing its tiny companion (bottom left). The data was obtained on 16 March 2003 with NACO on the VLT, using a 1.4 arcsec occulting mask on top of AB Pictoris.

http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0515d/

Chandra Proxima Centauri

"The Chandra X-ray Observatory is a satellite launched on STS-93 by NASA on July 23, 1999. It was named in honor of Indian-American physicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar who is known for determining the maximum mass for white dwarfs. "Chandra" also means "moon" or "luminous" in Sanskrit. Chandra Observatory is the third of NASA's four Great Observatories. The first wasHubble Space Telescope; second the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, launched in 1991; and last is the Spitzer Space Telescope." read more at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandra_X-ray_Observatory

See at http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2004/proxima/ images of Proxima Centauri.

"Proxima Centauri: A red dwarf star 4 light years from the Sun. (Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO). X-ray observations of Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the Sun, have shown that its surface is in a state of turmoil. Flares, or explosive outbursts occur almost continually. This behavior can be traced to Proxima Centauri's low mass, about a tenth that of the Sun. In the cores of low mass stars, nuclear fusion reactions that convert hydrogen to helium proceed very slowly, and create a turbulent, convective motion throughout their interiors. This motion stores up magnetic energy which is often released explosively in the star's upper atmosphere where it produces flares in X-rays and other forms of light. X-rays from Proxima Centauri are consistent with a point-like source. The extended X-ray glow is an instrumental effect. The nature of the two dots above the image is unknown - they could be background sources."

Physics - Chance of thunder and gamma-ray flashes

Physics - Chance of thunder—and gamma-ray flashes
In a paper appearing in Physical Review Letters, scientists in Italy (Tavani et al.) present new space-based observations of gamma-ray emissions from thunderclouds, called terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs). Their analysis suggests that storms located deep within our atmosphere sometimes produce bursts of electrons with energies up to 100 MeV.

Craters on Mercury

This image has been obtained processing an image recorded by the spacecraft MESSENGER  during its planet fly-by  (credits: NASA-JPL)

Lord Arthur Savile's Crime

Il delitto di Lord Arthur Savile, titolo originale Lord Arthur Savile's Crime è un racconto di Oscar Wilde del 1887. Il sottotitolo dell'opera era A Study of Duty (letteralmente "uno studio sul dovere").

In this story,  Lord Arthur Savile, is introduced by Lady Windermere to Mr Septimus R. Podgers, a chiromantist, who reads his palm and tells him that he will be a murderer. Lord Arthur wants to marry, so he decides that he has no right to do so until he has committed the murder...
...
Suddenly she looked eagerly round the room, and said, in her clear contralto voice, 'Where is my cheiromantist?'  'Your what, Gladys?' exclaimed the Duchess, giving an involuntary start. 'My cheiromantist, Duchess; I can't live without him at present.'
 'Dear Gladys! you are always so original,' murmured the Duchess, trying to remember what a cheiromantist really was, and hoping it was not the same as a cheiropodist.
 'He comes to see my hand twice a week regularly,' continued Lady Windermere, 'and is most interesting about it.'  'Good heavens!' said the Duchess to herself, 'he is a sort of cheiropodist after all. How very dreadful. I hope he is a foreigner at any rate. It wouldn't be quite so bad then.'
 'I must certainly introduce him to you.' 'Introduce him!' cried the Duchess; 'you don't mean to say he is here?' and she began looking about for a small tortoise-shell fan and a very tattered lace shawl, so as to be ready to go at a moment's notice.