For over one hundred years, millions of tourists have flocked to the ancient limestone Waitomo Caves on New Zealand’s North Island, where a stunning species of fungus gnat called Arachnocampa luminosa live.
Unique to New Zealand and Australia, they are found in caves, grottoes, and other sheltered places. Arachnocampa means ‘spider-worm,’ as the gnat is known for the way their larvae hang strong vertical silk threads from their underground habitats. Since the larvae are luminescent, the thousands of tiny threads light up cave ceilings like a starry sky.
Expedition 35 Flight Engineers Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn completed a spacewalk at 2:14 p.m. EDT Saturday to inspect and replace a pump controller box on the International Space Station’s far port truss (P6) leaking ammonia coolant.
An impressive arc shaped rim of HII structure located in Scorpius tail and known as the Prawn Nebula. The center portion of the nebula is very bright and it seems there is a faint reflection component embedding it. Bright stars are part of Open Cluster named Trumpler 24 which shines at magnitude 8.6 and spans over 60 arc minutes representing approximately 250 light years across.
