Outgoing International Space Station Commander Chris Hadfield covers David Bowie’s “Space Oddity,” in perhaps the most epic music video of all time. (by Chris Hadfield)
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These awesome images of the Earth’s Sun were recently captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. They reveal the occurrence of a beautiful solar prominence - an incredibly large and bright loop of red hot plasma created as a solar flare erupted.
A burst of solar material leaps off the left side of the sun in what’s known as a prominence eruption. This image combines three images from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured on May 3, 2013, at 1:45 pm EDT, just as an M5.7 class solar flare from the same region was subsiding. The images include light from the 131-, 171- and 304-angstrom wavelengths. Credit: NASA/SDO/AIA
According to experts, this is “another sign the sun is ‘waking up’ as it approaches its 11 year solar maximum, which is due later this year.”
[via Geeks Are Sexy, Dailymail.co.uk, and NASA]
It’s Natural Wonders Day on Geyser of Awesome!
WORTH THE WAIT Time magazine, NASA and the US Geological Survey have collaborated on something truly awesome, sifting through trillions of LANDSAT satellite images, culled from the past 30 years, to create “the world’s first multi-decade animated timelapse of the Earth.” Click on the image for the complete series; you will be blown away.
(via spramped)
A heraldic Spring dragon of ice roars rampant off the coast of Newfoundland.
This is Astronaut Chris Hadfield’s newest shot from the space station. Melting ice caught in currents on the ocean off the coast of Newfoundland.
(via cynthiahasatumblr)
NASA wants to identify an interesting asteroid in deep space, figure out a way to capture the spinning and hard-to-grab orb, nudge it into our planetary region, and set it into orbit around the moon
“The capture would be performed robotically, and the relocated asteroid would become a destination for astronauts to explore—and, possibly, for space entrepreneurs to mine.
The idea may sound more like science fiction than national policy, but it actually fits in with key goals of the Obama administration and the space community.
Those goals include learning how to identify asteroids heading toward us and to change their course, finding destinations for astronauts to go as they try to learn how to make the longer trip to Mars, and looking for opportunities for space investors.”
The Obama administration, or the President Morgan Freeman administration?
STREAK PERFORMANCE A composite of long-exposure photos of planet Earth, as seen from the International Space Station, showing lights from cities and thunderstorms, and also star trails. (Photo: Don Pettit NASA via The Telegraph)
Satellites are powerful tools. They beam our TV signals, phone calls and data around the planet. They help us spy, they track storms, they power the GPS signals in our cars and on our phones. But they also send back striking, totally disarming images of planet Earth.
This set of images is all about showing off the “beauty of the Earth,” says Lawrence Friedl, the director of NASA’s Applied Sciences Program and the editor of a project called Earth As Art.“We want people to look at these images and say, ‘How did nature do that?’ “
The project, which NASA has released in iPad and book form, spans the world, from cold peaks to desolate deserts to ocean islands. But these aren’t your typical snapshots.
Earth As Art: ‘How Did Nature Do That?’
Photo Credit: NASA
(via nprfreshair)
A New Perspective of the Day: This is What a Volcanic Eruption Looks Like from Space
Here’s a striking view of Sarychev Volcano in Kuril Islands of Japan going through its early stage of eruption, taken from the orbit of the International Space Station in June 2009. For more info on this picture, head over to NASA’s Earth Observatory!
(via shorterexcerpts)
This is what it looks like when you open a can of mixed nuts in space.
See, the mixed nuts aren’t floating, they’re just falling around the Earth at exactly the same speed as the space station and Commander Hadfield (the finest Canadian ever put in space).
Freakiest mixed nuts ever? Or scrumptious space snack?
(via itsfullofstars)
A New Perspective of the Day: Aerial View of a City vs. Microscopic View of a Neuron
Tumblr blog Infinity Imagined points out some interesting visual similarities between aerial views of city lights taken from the International Space Station and images of neurons taken with a fluorescence microscope.
(via take1xtie1xday)
The Cassini spacecraft, in Saturn’s orbit for eight-plus years now, sent this back-lit view of the planet on Oct. 17. Read more.
Photo via NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
THE WRETCHED WIND Typhoon Bopha, with 160 mile-per-hour winds, is seen swirling over the southeastern Phillippines from the International Space Station. At least 40 people were reported dead or missing. (Photo: Kevin Ford / NASA via The Telegraph)
(via itsfullofstars)
![thedailywhat:
Space Shuttle Photo of the Day: In case you missed it this weekend, space shuttle Endeavour took a stroll through the streets of Los Angeles.
[nerdcore]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbwjnmhx7L1qzpwi0o1_500.jpg)
Space Shuttle Photo of the Day: In case you missed it this weekend, space shuttle Endeavour took a stroll through the streets of Los Angeles.
[nerdcore]
(via itsfullofstars)
LA-LA LAND-ING The space shuttle Endeavour, perched atop a specially-modified NASA 747 jet, approaches Los Angeles International Airport last week. The retired spacecraft will be towed to its new home at the California Science Center. (Photo: Stephen Confer via NASA APOD)
This may be the final space shuttle, taking its final flight. It would be fun if someone put together a flight map showing the paths that each of the shuttles took in heading to their final resting places. I know it was pretty fun when Discovery circled the National Mall in DC, though I fear thinking about how much the 4-Shuttle Farewell Tour cost altogether.
On second thought, it was probably only the smallest fraction of the cost of an actual space shuttle flight.
