Behold: the Sea-Doo Switch Pontoon – a nifty, jet-propelled watercraft with handlebar steering for high manoeuvrability and a deck that can be reconfigured for fishing, watersports or whatever kind of floaty shenanigans you’re at.
Available in sizes from 4.9 to 6.4 metres, it can accommodate up to nine passengers.
Yours from $18,000- $27,000 (€15,400 – €23,000)
You’ll recall yesterday’s astropic of the Ring nebula. Well, M57 is a lot more complicated than it appears when you break out the big lens. To wit:
The easily visible central ring is about one light-year across, but this remarkably deep exposure – a collaborative effort combining data from three different large telescopes – explores the looping filaments of glowing gas extending much farther from the nebula‘s central star. This composite image includes red light emitted by hydrogen as well as visible and infrared light. The Ring Nebula is an elongated planetary nebula, a type of nebula created when a Sun-like star evolves to throw off its outer atmosphere to become a white dwarf star. The Ring Nebula is about 2,500 light-years away toward the musical constellation Lyra.
(Image: Hubble, Large Binocular Telescope, Subaru Telescope; Composition & Copyright: Robert Gendler)
Melon twisting anamorphic murals by Italian street artist Peeta (from top) Grenoble (2020), Milan (2021) and Neunkirchen (2020).
Previously: Walls Twister
Behold: the BMW R1250R ‘Hulk Edition’ – a highly modified ‘cafe fighter’ take on Motorrad’s most modable hog by Bulgarian customiser Asen Zahariev and his team.
The donor bike has a new subframe with a thin custom saddle and bespoke tail cowl mimicking the lines of the tank cover. Beyond that: a stacked pair of Shin Yo projector headlights, a pair of K&N pod filters and a blacked-out Leo Vince can, new spoked wheels taken from an R9T with black hubs, gold rims and an Aurora Diamond Green metallic paint job from BMW’s M8 Competition coupe.
There’s only one, and it’s yours for about €26,000.
Behold M57, aka, the Ring nebula – about one light-year across and 2,500 light-years away – the most famous celestial circle outside the rings of Saturn.
Its classic appearance is understood to be due to our own perspective, though. The recent mapping of the expanding nebula’s 3-D structure, based in part on this clear Hubble image, indicates that the nebula is a relatively dense, donut-like ring wrapped around the middle of a (American) football-shaped cloud of glowing gas. The view from planet Earth looks down the long axis of the football, face-on to the ring. Of course, in this well-studied example of a planetary nebula, the glowing material does not come from planets. Instead, the gaseous shroud represents outer layers expelled from the dying, once sun-like star, now a tiny pinprick of light seen at the nebula’s centre. Intense ultraviolet light from the hot central star ionises atoms in the gas.
(Image: NASA, ESA, Hubble Legacy Archive; Processing: Judy Schmidt)
Behold: the Lamborghini Countach LPI 800-4 – a semicentennial celebration of the car that graced a million teenage bedroom walls.
Complete with the characteristic scissor doors, built-in air intakes and distinctive shark gills, the LPI 800-4’s 6.5-litre V12 power plant is linked to a 48V gearbox-mounted electric motor generating 802bhp to an all wheel drive setup with a top speed of 354km/h.
A photochromatic glass roof set in the carbon fibre shell changes instantly from matte to transparent.
Limited to 112 units, yours will likely cost €3,000,000+.
Behold: a most usual sky. To wit:
It wasn’t unusual because of the central band the Milky Way Galaxy, visible along the image left. Most dark skies show part of the Milky Way. It wasn’t unusual because of the bright meteor visible on the upper right. Many images taken during last week’s Perseid Meteor Shower show meteors, although this Perseid was particularly bright. This sky wasn’t unusual because of the red sprites, visible on the lower right. Although this type of lightning has only been noted in the past few decades, images of sprites are becoming more common. This sky wasn’t unusual because of the nova, visible just above the image center. Novas bright enough to be seen with the unaided eye occur every few years, with pictured Nova RS Ophiuchus discovered about a week ago. What was most unusual, though, was to capture all these things together, in a single night, on a single sky. The unusual sky occurred above Zacatecas, Mexico.
(Image: Daniel Korona)
Behold: the Aston Martin Valkyrie Spider – an open-air version of the Valkyrie that retains the 6.0l 1,140bhp V12 hybrid drivetrain with the chassis and aero-profile modified to accommodate a removable roof panel.
Dihedral doors now open forwards with hinged polycarbonate roof windows that fold into the panel for storage, allowing the driver to fully appreciate the deafening 11,000 RPM roar.
Only 85 will be built and the price, as yet unannounced, will most likely be north of the €3.53 million price tag for the coupe.
