Do you love to look up at the Moon? Well so does NASA’s Curiosity rover! Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong (I have not confirmed this) but this appears to be an image of Phobos, the larger of Mars’ two small moons, imaged by Curiosity’s Mastcam on mission Sol 1002 (June 1, 2015)….
Author: Jason Major
Jason is a Rhode Island-based graphic designer, photographer, nature lover, and space exploration fanatic.
Watch the Exciting First Trailer for The Martian
The first trailer for The Martian is out, a new film by Ridley Scott based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Andy Weir. (If you haven’t read The Martian you really must check it out – it’s a fantastic “science-reality” adventure about one stranded astronaut’s struggle to survive on Mars and NASA’s attempt…
How Bright is Daytime on Pluto?
We all know that Pluto is very far from the Sun, on average about 40 times as far away from it as Earth is, and as such it is very cold and dark. But just how dark is it on Pluto? If you were an astronaut walking around on Pluto would the Sun really just…
Here’s to 50 Years of American Spacewalks
Today we mark the 50th anniversary of American spacewalks, or EVAs (for extra-vehicular activity), the first of which was performed by NASA astronaut Edward H. White II in Earth orbit on June 3, 1965 during the Gemini IV mission. While the United States had been beaten in the spacewalk race by the Soviet Union by almost three months…
Hyperion in Color: a Composite from Cassini’s Last Visit
Here’s a color view of Hyperion made from raw images acquired in optical wavelengths by Cassini during its flyby on May 31, 2015 – the last pass it will make by this moon during its mission. Read more about this flyby here.
Cassini To Make Its Last Pass Of Hyperion
This coming Sunday, May 31, the Cassini spacecraft will perform its last close pass of Hyperion, Saturn’s curiously spongelike moon. At approximately 9:36 a.m. EDT (13:36 UTC) it will zip past Hyperion at a distance of about 21,000 miles (34,000 km) – which may sound like a lot but but it’s even closer (by 17,500 miles/28,160 km) than it was when the image…
What Do You Think Of This Planet Earth Flag?
There was a bit of a press frenzy last week surrounding the idea of a global flag that could be used in instances of human exploration off our planet, where international collaboration could be celebrated and memorialized on alien worlds rather than the more old-timey nationalistic space races with various countries’ flags dotting remote landscapes across…
Curiosity’s View Into Marias Pass
The image above shows Curiosity’s view southwest into “Marias Pass,” a low valley in Gale Crater where the rover was on May 22, 2015 – mission Sol 992. At the left (east) edge is the western slope of a rise called Akipuni Mountain, and Mount Shields rises off to the right (west). The image is a…
Ceres’ Strange Bright Spots are Almost Certainly Reflective Material
Ever since it was first spotted by Hubble in 2003, the nature of the curious bright spot on Ceres has been an intriguing mystery for scientists. And even as NASA’s Dawn spacecraft approached the dwarf planet earlier this year the bright spot continued to mystify, gradually resolving into first two and then multiple, separate spots as Dawn…
Just Your Typical Everyday View of a Mountain on Another Planet. NBD.
Of course, one of the amazing things about this image is that it IS pretty much something we can see every day, thanks to NASA’s roving robot on Mars! This is a mosaic of seven raw images acquired by Curiosity’s Mastcam on May 11, 2015 – aka mission Sol 981. The view is looking east toward…
A Profile Portrait of Tethys
Here’s a beautiful view of Saturn’s moon Tethys (pronounced TEE-this) captured by the Cassini spacecraft’s narrow-angle camera on May 9, 2015. The moon’s 250-mile Odysseus crater can be seen along the right limb there, illuminated by sunlight, while the left side is lit by the dimmer reflected light from Saturn. Tethys itself is 662 miles (1,065…
Check out Atmospheric Breakup: a Webcomic About the ISS
The International Space Station is the result of an amazing collaboration of many countries and countless individuals from around the world, a research lab and symbol of global peace and partnership put together in space. But recent and growing political tension between the two biggest contributors to the ISS – the United States and Russia – are…
Lights in the Dark 