How our Earth and solar system were formed, from The Universe With Stephen Hawking - The Story of Everything. (Narrated by Stephen Hawking and Benedict Cumberbatch.)

“Alien matter” detected by a NASA spacecraft orbiting Earth shows that the chemical make-up of our solar system differs from that of the surrounding galaxy. 

Night Time Lapse of Comet Lovejoy (C/2011 W3) rising above the Andes near Santiago de Chile, 23rd December 2011, just before sunrise. Set of 4 sequences taken with different lenses “zooming in” the scene.

Comet Lovejoy was just discovered in late November 2011 by amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy “using a camera on his wide-field 8-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope from his home in Brisbane, Australia.” There’s really great additional background about both Lovejoys (the rare comet and the man — who had discovered two other comets before this one) at Astro Bob.

via Kottke.

Landscapes: Volume Two — the second of three, with notes here — features stunning images of Arizona and Utah, including time lapse skies filled with stars.

Via @brainpicker.