(N.Morgan) Our natural world is full of wonders and surprises, even in the most unexpected places. These photos represent this fact. Some of the colors and lights are just amazing! Some are a bit odd and maybe gross, yet, they are still amazing visually.

Jellyfish Takeover?

In 2000, a bloom of sea tomato jellyfish in Australia was so enormous — it stretched for more than 1,000 miles from north to south — that it was even visible from space. It was certainly a bloom that Australian jellyfish researcher Lisa-ann Gershwin won’t forget.

While most blooms are not quite that big, Gershwin’s survey of research on jellyfish from the last few decades indicate that populations are most likely on the rise, and that this boom is taking place in an ocean that is faced with overfishing, acid rain, nutrient pollution from fertilizers and climate change, among other problems. There have been many reports about jellyfish numbers increasing in the past few years; some researchers think it is part of a larger trend, while others say it may be just a numerical fluke. Most agree, however, that more data is needed before coming to a definitive conclusion.

Mesmerizing Lava Lake

The thermal image sequence below shows the typical motion of the lava lake in Halema’uma’u Crater on Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano, revealing how the top cooler layer of crust constantly forms new patterns as the lava churns.

One of the most active volcanoes in the world, Kilauea is a shield-type volcano on the southeastern side of the Big Island of Hawaii. It makes up about 14 percent of the island’s land area. The volcano rises 4,190 feet (1,227 meters) above sea level.

Oh, What A Night At Arches National Park

The best thing about Arches National Park might be the nighttime sky above the famous stone arches.

Located near Moab, Utah, Arches is a landscape of contrasting colors, landforms and textures unlike any other in the world. The park has over 2,000 natural stone arches, not to mention hundreds of pinnacles, fins and massive balanced rocks.

Not only will this red rock wonderland amaze with its formations, but linger after the sun goes down for awe-inspiring star gazing. But bundle up, temperatures can swing as much as 50 degrees Fahrenheit (28 degrees Celsius) here. Arches is located in a high desert, where the elevation ranges from 4,085 to 5,653 feet (1,245 to 1,723 meters) above sea level. From this vantage point, observers will see the Milky Way, the cloud-like band in the above image.

As brilliant as the night sky appears in Arches National Park, the view is under threat from encroaching development. Light pollution from nearby towns has become evident in the last few years. To date there is no federal legislation mandating preservation of the night sky, according to the park’s Web site.

Gooey Starfish

A mysterious disease that has turned hundreds of starfish into limp lumps of goo along both the East and West coasts in recent months could potentially induce a cascade of other ecological effects in tidal systems, researchers say.

The disease — known as sea star wasting syndrome — begins as a small lesion, and eventually results in the loss of limbs and ultimate disintegration and death of the leggy animal. The cause of the disease remains unknown to researchers, who have not been able to determine if it is related to a bacterial infection, a virus or a combination of effects worsened by environmental stressors, such as increased water temperature.

6-Tailed Asteroid

Astronomers have spotted a never-before-seen phenomenon in our solar system’s asteroid belt: a space rock with six tails, spewing dust from its nucleus like spouts of water radiating from a lawn sprinkler.

Scientists using the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope at the summit of Maui’s Haleakala volcano in Hawaii first detected the six-tailed asteroid in August. They dubbed it P/2013 P5 and noted that it looked fuzzier than typical asteroids, which usually appear as tiny points of light. More detailed observations with the powerful Hubble Space Telescope in September revealed a clearer picture of asteroid, showing it had six comet-like tails.

Fungus Of The Lung

A man who suffered from a bloody cough that persisted for more than a year was surprised to find that the cause was a giant ball of fungus growing in his lung, according to a recent report of his case.

The man, a farmworker in Italy, may have contracted a fungal infection, called aspergilloma, while working in the fields. For a year, he struggled with not only the cough but also fever and weight loss. His symptoms hadn’t improved despite several courses of antibiotics, according to the report published Oct. 24 in the journal BMJ Case Reports.

Chelyabinsk Meteor Explosion

The risk of asteroid impacts like the meteor explosion that devastated a Russian city earlier this year may be 10 times greater than previously thought, several new studies on the meteor’s origin and power reveal.

The meteor explosion over Chelyabinsk, Russia, on Feb. 15 was the first video-recorded meteor known to cause substantial damage and injuries. It was the largest airburst on the planet since the famed Tunguska event in 1908, also in Russia. Divers recovered a coffee-table-size chunk of the Chelyabinsk meteoriteweighing about 1,430 pounds (650 kilograms), the largest fragment unearthed yet, from the bottom of Russia’s Lake Chebarkul on Oct. 16. Satellites also watched it streak through the atmosphere.

Zapped Basalt

Young Earth’s molten lava ocean was layered like a pudding cake, according to a study published today (Nov. 6) in the journal Nature.

Researchers think the Earth’s first millennia were spent covered in magma, following a giant impact that formed the moon. Now, thanks to an experiment that brought basalt rock to the highest pressures ever tested, scientists think this lava sea was stratified, separated into lighter and denser layers.

Typhoon Haiyan

A monstrous storm has arisen in the Western Pacific, the likes of which haven’t been seen for several years, meteorologists say. The storm, Super Typhoon Haiyan, has become the year’s most intense and is bearing down on the central Philippines, threatening to inflict massive damage and loss of life in the area.

The tropical cyclone (the blanket term for hurricanes and typhoons) packs winds up to 200 mph (320 km/h), according to estimates from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), with gusts up to 225 mph (360 km/h), said Brian McNoldy, a tropical weather expert at the University of Miami. This is the equivalent of a very strong Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale, used to rank cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean.

Cute Cane Toad Duo

When cane toads were released in Australia in 1935, they were the latest innovation in pest control, backed by a level of consensus support that a scientist could only dream of. So what went wrong?

Research published today reveals previously unreported government documents supporting the release of cane toads in Australia.

Snowy Russian Volcano Bursts

A remote Russian volcano may be readying for a new eruption, according to NASA’s Earth Observatory. On Nov. 5, NASA’s Earth-Observing 1 satellite spotted ash above the 9,702-foot-tall (2,958 meters) Zhupanovksy volcano, which recently woke from a decades-long slumber. The snowy peaks also shows signs of phreatic explosions — the stupendous blasts that result from hot lava meeting snow, ice or water, the Earth Observatory reported.

Flickr Tells Tale Of Hurricane Sandy

When Hurricane Sandy came ashore in October 2012, it made waves in the virtual world as well as the real one.

Photographs posted to the picture-sharing website Flickr track Sandy’s landfall on Oct. 30, 2012, precisely, according to a new study published today (Nov. 5) in the journal Scientific Reports.

New Hammerhead

When new species are found near populated areas, they are often small and inconspicuous, not, for example, a hammerhead shark.

But that’s exactly what a team of researchers discovered along the coast of South Carolina. The new species looks virtually identical to the scalloped hammerhead, but is genetically distinct, and contains about 10 fewer vertebrae, or segments of backbone, new research shows.

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