Just watch this: “Once upon a time we soared into the Solar System, for a few years… then we hurried back. Why? What happened? What was Apollo really about?” – Carl Edward Sagan, 1934–1996 Nothing more need be said.
Author: Jason Major
Jason is a Rhode Island-based graphic designer, photographer, nature lover, and space exploration fanatic.
A Tall Tale of a Prominent Figure
Taken on July 29, 2010, this hydrogen-alpha-light photo by Alan Friedman shows a delicate, wispy solar prominence stretching more than 200,000 miles from the Sun’s limb… nearly as far as the distance from Earth to the Moon! This photo was taken with Alan’s backyard telescope from his location in Buffalo, NY. Many of his solar photos…
2005 YU55 is coming…
On Tuesday, November 8, at 6:28 p.m. EST, an asteroid the size of an aircraft carrier will soar past our planet, coming even closer than the Moon. This is the nearest an object this large has come since 1976… how will it affect our world? Find out here.
A Backwards Moon
At 1,680 miles across, the frigid and wrinkled Triton is distant Neptune’s largest moon. It orbits the planet backwards – that is, in the opposite direction that Neptune rotates – and is the only moon one of only two moons in our solar system to do so. This leads many astronomers to believe that Triton is…
A Front Row Seat to a Spacewalk
This was just so cool I had to share. It’s a photo taken by astronaut Doug Wheelock while on EVA on November 3, 2007 with Scott Parazynski aboard the ISS. He describes the scene on his Twitpic post (in the eloquent way only Doug can): “A front-row seat to a spacewalk. I remember this moment like…
Saturn’s Spooky Sounds
Here’s a bit of space spookiness just in time for the Halloween season! It’s a recording of the intense radio emissions coming from Saturn, as detected by the Cassini spacecraft’s radio and plasma wave science instrument on November 22, 2003. Not exactly a direct audio recording (since Cassini is in space where there’s no “sound”…
The World Keeps Spinnin’ Round
Just… just watch it: Wow. Now that’s an interesting view! Looking north as the ISS passed southeast over North America on the night of October 18, we get a really great perspective on our planet as a globe spinning in space! Which, of course, it is. Not to mention an awesome view of the aurora…
Monday Night Lights: October Aurorae Surprise Skywatchers
Powerful geomagnetic activity created colorful aurorae that delighted skywatchers around the world on the night of Monday, October 24. The photo above was taken by LITD fan Bob Trembley from his location in Chesterfield, Michigan with his Canon EOS Rebel XS. “I can NOT believe I got these shots!” Bob writes on his Facebook page….
Fantastic Four
New image from Cassini and the CICLOPS imaging team shows Titan, Dione, Pan and Pandora in the same shot! Pan is furthest to the left, a tiny moon tucked into the gap in the rings. Dione hovers in front of the cloud-covered Titan, and Pandora is the football-shaped moon just outside the edge of the…
Into The Darkness
The rugged terrain of Mercury’s north pole is made clear in this image from MESSENGER, taken on June 17, 2011. The shallow angle of sunlight striking the surface of our solar system’s innermost planet sends shadows across its landscape and highlights every rise and ridge. This scene shows an area about 74 miles across. MESSENGER…
Pluto: The Biggest Dwarf
There’s a size war being waged at the outskirts of our solar system, and it looks like Pluto may come out as the reigning champ. Ever since its discovery in 2003, the dwarf planet Eris — located in the Kuiper Belt of frozen worlds far beyond the orbit of Pluto — has been a key…
The End of Elenin
So long, Elenin, and thanks for all the conspiracy theories! The comet that has been the subject of so much unfounded fearful speculation since its discovery in December 2010 will be making its closest pass of Earth tomorrow, October 16 – and when they say closest it means 22 million miles, or almost a third…
Lights in the Dark 