A beautiful and mesmerizing series of time-lapse videos taken by astronaut Ron Garan during his last weeks aboard the International Space Station, this must-see montage is made all the sweeter by a score from Peter Gabriel and an intro from Ron himself. Ron wrote in his blog entry on FragileOasis.org: Although the International Space Station…
Author: Jason Major
Jason is a Rhode Island-based graphic designer, photographer, nature lover, and space exploration fanatic.
Evidence of Lakes Beneath Europa’s Ice
New research on Jupiter’s ice-covered moon Europa indicates the presence of a subsurface lake buried beneath frozen mounds of huge jumbled chunks of ice. While it has long been believed that Europa’s ice lies atop a deep underground ocean, these new findings support the possibility of large pockets of liquid water being much closer to…
Death of a Rover
A wonderful award-winning 45-minute program about the life – and death – of the amazing Mars Exploration Rover, Spirit. From National Geographic TV…check it out.
ISS Docking Success!
Tonight at 11:24pm CST a TMA-22 Soyuz vehicle containing the three members of Expedition 29/30 crew successfully docked with the ISS, 248 miles above the south Pacific. It was the first docking of a manned vehicle to the ISS since the end of the shuttle program.
Earth From Orbit – in HD!
Watch this! Videographer Michael König assembled several time-lapse videos taken from the crew aboard the ISS into one long continuous video, and cleaned up the footage and added music as well. Really beautiful work on an already stunning series of videos! Needless to say this has gone the rounds on the ‘net today.
A Rover Sees Its Shadow
As luck would have it, it does foretell an oncoming winter. Opportunity is preparing to find a spot to safely weather the frigid winter months on Mars, a long six months of reduced sunlight (which means less power from her solar panels) and temperatures dropping well into the -100ºs C (almost -200ºs F).
Solar Nirvana
Hot off the presses, here’s a stunning full-disc solar photo by the inimitable Alan Friedman, taken on November 6, 2011 from his location in Buffalo, NY. Absolutely gorgeous! The enormous sunspot region AR 1339 can be seen just right of the center of the Sun. It’s nearly 17 times wider than Earth! Hydrogen alpha (Ha)…
Onward to the Edge: a Space Musical
Can’t see the video below? Click here. A perfect accompaniment to Carl Sagan’s birthday (he would have been 77 today) here’s a wonderful music video created by John D. Boswell as part of his Symphony of Science project. Featuring Neil deGrasse Tyson, Brian Cox and Carolyn Porco, this takes you on an inspirational journey around…
YU55’s Close-Up!
Want to see 2005 YU55? There it is… it’s dim, but it’s visible – especially to the 25-inch telescope at the Clay Center Observatory in Massachusetts! The image above is from a live feed the observatory was airing on Ustream, taken as the asteroid came to its closest distance to Earth at 6:28 pm EST….
Incoming! First New Image of 2005 YU55
This radar image of 1300-foot-wide (400 meter) asteroid 2005 YU55 was obtained on Nov. 7, 2011, at 11:45 a.m. PST (2:45 p.m. EST/1945 UTC), when the space rock was at 3.6 lunar distances, which is about 860,000 miles, or 1.38 million kilometers, from Earth. This asteroid will pass by Earth tomorrow at 6:28 pm EST,…
One “Big Blemish” – AR 1339
Another fantastic image by Alan Friedman, this shows the massive sunspot region AR 1339 as it appeared on November 5, 2011 while in the process of rotating into view – and aim! – of Earth. Estimated at about 17 times the width of Earth, AR 1339 contains some gigantic sunspots capable of producing high-powered solar…
A New Mystery on Mars!
After eight years on Mars, Opportunity is still going strong – and still discovering new things! “Completely new” things, in fact, to paraphrase principal investigator Steve Squyres… While roaming about on Cape York, a large rise on the southwestern edge of Endeavour crater, Opportunity spied a bright vein of rock sticking up through the scrabbly…
Lights in the Dark 